It's rare to be able to photograph a white tiger in a natural environment, so when I had this opportunity at one of my winter wildlife workshops I didn't want to take any chances with exposure. I took this just before I went digital, and with film you could never see the images until you returned home and got them developed. That meant there was no room for error, especially with slide film. To determine the exposure in this white-on-white situation, I used a handheld Sekonic L-358 meter on incident mode. The diffused light was ideal. Had the sun been out, the contrast and glare on the snow would have been too much for film to handle. I took the data from the meter and manually set the shutter speed and lens aperture based on that and, as you can see, the accuracy was right-on. The Sekonic meters read light in tenths of an f/stop.
My settings here weren't recorded, but knowing how I used to shoot for 25 years using the Mamiya RZ 67, they were 1/250, f/8, and Fujichrome Provia 100. I always used a tripod with this camera even when shooting wildlife. It wasn't easy, but I had to have sharp pictures . . . or else, what was the point?
3 Comments
Nov 5, 2023, 5:11:15 PM
Jim - Thanks, Alex. I took it many years ago at the place in Montana where I conduct my Winter Wildlife workshop.
Nov 5, 2023, 8:50:11 AM
Alex - Where in the wild was this taken? It’s so beautiful!!!
Jan 2, 2019, 9:29:36 AM
Ray Chilton - I wouldn’t want to run into him!