A midnight bicycle ride

In my early 20's, I went on an extended bicycle ride along the eastern edge of the United States. The bicycle was overburdened with tent, cookstove, other camping gear and a Wista 4x5 field camera plus tripod, changing bag, and a few film holders.

For several months I rode wherever the whim of the moment dictated. Occasionally I found part time jobs that paid just barely enough to keep the ride going.

All of this was before I understood the Zone System. I had heard of it, read a confusing little book about it and knew it was regarded as an important thing. However, the Zone System seemed like *way* too much work for me at that time. Why the 4x5 didn't seem like too much work too, I can not say. The large format camera and I have always gotten along without much effort.

One night I was tooling along the Skyline Drive of Virginia around midnight. The air was cool and slightly moist. There was pretty much no traffic at all; I was out in the middle of a gorgeous range of mountains on a beautiful night. At the top of one mountain, the whole thing really overtook me. The amazing beauty and power of the moment formed one of the enduring memories of my life to date. I remember being stopped on the side of the road, staring in near disbelief that anything could be so beautiful as the valley and mountain range visible on the left hand side of the road.

The second most deeply ingrained memory of that moment was that no one else would be able to share it. Alone, I was privileged to see a sight which to this day I believe would overtake anyone with the power of its beauty.

Had I known the Zone System at that time, there would have been a chance that you could now share some of the feeling of being on that mountain, alone in the middle of the night, watching an unworldly landscape twinkle and glow. As it turned out, it would took several years and thousands of hours of work for me to develop the necessary skills to translate my *personal* impression of a subject, like that mountainside, through the medium of photography. That is arguably the reason to learn the Zone System. It allows you to express your personal impression of a subject.

This is important. The subject does not have to be a thing of beauty. The Zone System gives you tools and craft to communicate. Your choice of subject and message to communicate is not limited to mountainsides. Nor is it limited to beauty. Nor is it very limited at all except by the bounds of your own dogged determination to reveal to others a thing which you feel.