Foggy Mornings 3

Nature provides us with incredible challenges in more ways than one.  On one of several trips to Lassen National Park, my husband and I went on an overnight backpacking trip to see part of the interior of this great National Park that wasn’t accessible by car.  Snag Lake was our overnight destination.  The next morning, we grabbed our cameras and walked down to the lake to take in the view and let the crisp mountain air wake us up.  Mist was rising off the lake as the sun warmed its surface, creating a mystical morning scene. 

As my husband walked down to the lake, I took a few steps back and surveyed the image in front of me.  He had stopped by one of the trees to get a wide angle view of the lake.  I told him to stay put, and took my reading off the mist rising against the mountains, hoping to get enough detail of the lake to show the mist as well as silhouette the darker parts of the scene.  My strategy was to blend the exposure readings of the mountains in the background with the light from the rising mist.  I had learned how to do this in an introductory class I took from the shop that sold me the camera, and this was one of my first practice shots. I wanted my husband in the shot.  I felt his presence would add interest and character and deminsion the lake itself.

The strategies worked, but I didn’t find out how well until I got home and had the film developed.  This trip was in 1983, long before digital cameras were even in the development process.  I still have the enlargement of this print on my wall. 

Remember, no matter how simple or complex the camera, it is just a light box.  The lens lets the light from the scene into the box and records it on the light sensitive mechanism in the camera.  In 1983, the light sensitive mechanism was film.  Today, for most people who grab a camera, it is an electronic chip or disk.    It doesn’t really matter which you use.  The basic principles of light management are the same.