Nature photography is such a different type of photography, Much more methodical, careful, and, of course, a lot slower and more deliberate. Still, exposure is exposure. When I got started 30+ years ago the fellow who was mentoring me offered a tip about making exposure readings. He essentially said to meter the palm of your hand and open up a stop, and then you're good to go. There are, of course, a number of variations on that - meter the sidewalk and open up a stop or so (depends on the tone of grey that the sidewalk is), meter your jeans (Levis that have been washed between 7 and 26 times in warm water using a typical detergent will yield a Zone V reading). Actually, kidding aside, what I'm saying is that you can find a "constant" from which to meter and use it always. Jeans are good, a camera bag, your favorite cap - doesn't matter. The palm of your hand is always available.
Anyway, have phun with your photography in philly ;-)) Shel > [Original Message] > From: Tom Reese : > > Y'might miss a lot of shots that way - I guess it depends on what you > > photograph, but when working the streets y'gotta be fast. Even taking a > > meter reading will slow you down too much sometimes. > > > > A good "street shooter" will assess the light before going to work, and > > will know what the proper exposure is in various areas. No need for > > metering - the sunny side of the street is one exposure, shade side > > another, doorways may be a third. It's then just a simple flick of the > > finger on the shutter dial, or a quick twist of the aperture ring, and > > that's it. > > > > If you're anal, put a filter over your lens, stick on a good hood, and you > > don't need a lens cap when you're walking about. > > thanks for the tips. The Philly PDML meeting this weekend will be my > first experiment with street shooting and I don't know how much I'll > actually do. I'll probably take either a wide angle or a 50mm and shoot > what looks interesting. It might be 4 rolls and it might be just 6 shots. > > 99% of my shooting is nature photography off of a tripod. I don't know > what the other 1% is because I haven't done any yet. > > Tom Reese
