Overexposed?

The scene was candid — two figures, winter jackets zipped to the chin, one holding a small camera at arm’s length, the other patiently posing. The patchwork of snow and rocky ground under a hard midday sun gave me a chance to play with tonal contrast, though it came with its own technical hazards. Snow in bright light loves to trick meters, and the risk here was losing detail in both the highlights and the shadowed areas of the coats.

I exposed with the snow in mind, letting the darker parts fall slightly under, trusting that I could lift them later without ruining texture. The clouds, stretched across the frame like a gauze band, broke up the rich blue sky, giving the scene breathing space. In compositional terms, the figures sit just off-centre, their positioning leading the eye from foreground to midground before sending it on to the distant peak.

The image works as much for the implied exchange — the unspoken trust in that small camera’s automatic brain — as for the light and landscape. The technical precision of my own shot is a quiet foil to the uncertainty of his. It’s a subtle reminder that while automation can save a photograph, it’s never quite the same as knowing exactly what your exposure is doing.