Andrew Kearns is a photographer interested in documenting how others experience nature—a subject he explores in his forethcoming photo book, "How Does It Feel". He is currently traveling along the west coast living out of his truck and pop up camper.
I started off on the Nikonos IV—It was simple. Built between 1980 and 1983, the classic underwater camera has a small dot in the viewfinder that would either blink or remain constant. When the dot was constant, it meant exposure was even. I tend to overexpose my film, so I would go brighter until it started blinking. I would wait for my shot and shoot it. It was simple.
Then my Nikonos IV broke, so I “upgraded” to the V, which meters differently. I’m unsure if it’s because I suck at math (I do) or what, but something just doesn’t compute in my head when I’m looking at the blinking numbers, indicating what shutter speed to be at for even exposure. As you’re reading this you’re probably saying “If you wanna overexpose, drop the shutter, open your aperture, dumbass.”
