Just When I Thought I Was Smart...

I'm not sure if anyone recalls the time when I sent my brand new zoom lens back to the manufacturer because I was sure it was broken, and it ended up that I had left a wide angle adapter on it. Yep. That was a moment of brilliance that I want to remember for eternity. Alas, that moment has passed and a false sense of security convinced me I was smart again. Until yesterday that is.
You see the negatives for all of my projects have been horribly underexposed.(keep in mind I've never used a manual film camera) I was nearly brought to tears after developing the roll that I shot of Rachel and found that not only was it underexposed, but more often than not there wasn't even an image to be seen. I put away my camera for a few days and mulled over what the problem could be.
Was it me? Was I a terrible photographer that should run screaming away from anything to do with photography?Maybe.
Was it the camera? Was it broken?No.
Had I bought a bad batch of film?Unlikely.
Was the light meter broken? Yes. That had to be it!
So, yesterday I sat down with my very patient and kind instructor to discuss the problems I was having. Within 30 seconds it dawned on me what I had been doing wrong.
The first thing I asked was for her to check my light meter and make sure it was working since I had decided that had to be the problem. It just couldn't be that I was a blundering idiot. Turns out that I was wrong. My light meter works fine. Here's what I was doing wrong:
My SLR camera is aperature priority(the aperature works like the iris of your eye). Which means that it is my responsibility to decide which aperature setting I'm going to use and then the light meter suggest the shutter speed. Makes sense and I knew that but for some reason I wasn't using that knowledge.
I, being smart and stuff, was not changing the aperature. I had it in my head that the light meter suggested the shutter speed and then the aperature was to be set accordingly. Which means that I was taking all of my pictures as f/22 and anywhere from 1/1 to 1/4 and even at the bulb setting. Which means that the aperature was the smallest it could possibly be letting in very little light. I was confused as to why the camera was metering every situation similarly, but took the pictures anyway.
Live and learn, right?

Anyhow, the pictures I have posted I took with my digital camers. Hence, why they are visible. Xander is constantly climbing on Delilah. She has saintly patience with him. He loves every minute of it!