We left Utah Valley yesterday morning and drove across most of Wyoming. The I-80 corridor through the southern stretch of the state is endless miles of empty high desert. It’s not my favorite piece of road. We turned north at Rawlins and crossed the great western migration trails; the Mormon Trail, the Oregon Trail, California Trail, etc. We visited the LDS Church visitor center at Martin’s Cove and learned about the Willie/Martin Handcart tragedy. We also visited Independence Rock. The further north we drove the better the scenery became. Our destination for the evening was Devil’s Tower in the furthest north eastern corner of Wyoming. We tried Airbnb for the first time and slept in a teepee on property adjoining the national monument. It was a lot of fun, especially during the rip-roaring thunderstorm that passed overhead between midnight and 1:30am. The rain poured down on our little teepee on the prairie.
I had a great time photographing Devil’s Tower. With all the new filters I’ve purchased in the last six months, I’ve realized a weakness that has developed in my photography. Many years ago, before I began my transition from film to digital, I purchased a handheld light meter. This meter, a Sekonic L-508, measures both reflective and incident light. The more I drifted into digital photography, the less I used my handheld meter. In a word, I became lazy. I learned to respond to the LCD screen on the back of my camera, chimp the photo and reshoot if necessary. Digital files don’t cost a cent and I found it “easier” to refer to my histogram and monitor any clipping channels. While there is nothing inherently wrong with this process, I realize it isn’t the most accurate method to manage light. This problem became very pronounced once I began using graduated neutral density filters. The main problem being, I couldn’t determine which ND grad to use. It was cumbersome using the reflective meter in my camera to take multiple measurements in the scene. The matrix metering mode averaged in parts of the scene I didn’t want included, and the spot viewing angle through the lens that gathers information for the measurement is too wide. Without gathering accurate information off the meter, my eye was unable to distinguish how many stops to hold back the sky. The LCD on my camera didn’t tell me with enough accuracy if I had blended the exposure properly. The LCD screen is only a 3-inch jpg version of my full frame file. It was frustrating to upload files only to find the exposure blend didn’t look natural. I’ve spent the last several weeks re-reading my manuals on handheld metering. The advantage to my Sekonic meter is a very accurate reading either incident or reflective, much more accurate than my onboard camera meter. The Sekonic will give me a 1° angle spot measurement if needed. And nothing is more accurate than an incident meter measurement when the subject is in the same light as the camera. With scenes that require graduated neutral density filters, I can easily spot meter the foreground and the sky, determine the difference in exposure between the two, and choose the proper ND grad filter. I practiced this last evening at Devil’s Tower with a great amount of accuracy. As I use it more, the process will come quicker and more accurate. I felt I was taking more control over my photograph, managing my light in a responsible manner, and achieving a better product. There is a lot to say for the ease of the digital workflow. But there is probably more to say for learning and practicing the craft of creating a photograph and not rely on the computer programming of the machine. On average, the machine, computer, or camera will probably give good and accurate results. On the other hand, art is rarely average. Happy shooting everyone.
