the moment I wake up …

Anniemay says; “do you want to go into the garden?”  I look out of the window.  I’m not sure; “Looks like f5.6.”  As if that explains everything.  We venture out - and I’m wrong.

I was 17 when I bought my first real camera, a secondhand Pentax S1.  I couldn’t afford a light-meter so had to rely on the ‘sunny 16’ rule.  Printed on the inside of the box of film was a simple chart for estimating the correct exposure.  Set the speed of the film (ISO) to the same number as the shutter speed and then all you ever had to think about was the aperture setting.  Easy.  

If it was a bright sunny day with blue sky the correct aperture would always be f16.  If it was dull and overcast it would be f5.6.  The chart listed all the apertures in between - depending on overall weather conditions - and seemed to work regardless of the speed of the film.  So if the film speed was 125 ISO then set the shutter to 1/125.  A 400 ISO film meant using 1/400 for the shutter speed.

The exposure meter in my little Olympus sticks pretty close to the ‘sunny 16’ rule.  It’s me that gets it wrong.  I set the ISO to 200, the shutter speed to 1/200, point the camera down the garden and take an exposure reading.  I’m confidently expecting f5.6, but the reading is actually f2.0.  The  light in the garden is much duller.  

Well - it is early.



“….. before I put on my makeup
I say a little prayer for you.”  
Aretha Franklin.