After thumbing through "The Negative" by Ansel Adams (for the hundredth time)  I was inspired to try to do things right again. I dusted off my Pentax spot meter and tried to pay attention. 

 The photograph at left is a closeup of a cast metal bench that once lived at my mother
and father inlaws house.  We moved it to our house recently.

 I photographed it on a rare bright day recently. The low December sun was off to the right.
I metered off the center rose and placed the exposure on Zone IV. I hoped the spectral
highlights would sort of elevate the exposure towards Zone V. I reduced the
development time (N-1?)

APX 400 at ASA 200 in HC110(H)




  This photo was taken slightly later in the day. I metered off the center of the wooden
flower. The bright snow fell about three zones above that reading. The deep shadows
fell on zone II. The snow was less than an inch deep. I think a slower film would have
revealed more texture in the snow.

 The spots on the flower are the result of a .177 caliber pellet gun.














































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  These photos were taken on APX 100 on an overcast day. I used the same developer but processed the
film "normally." I reduced the exposure of the rose in an effort to retain texture in the snow. As such
I lost some detail in the rose itself. We had a foot of snow after the above photos were done.