I want more dynamic range so that I can...?

Hey BAK buddy, I've read enough of your posts to know that you're a pretty bright guy, which leads me to believe that your posts in this thread are just meant to tweak the crowd.  But just in case you are serious, may I suggest that you consider some practice pointers from the patron saint of photography, Ansel Adams.

First, Adams' best-known technical contribution to the art and science of photography is almost certainly his Zone System.  And what was that all about?  It was all about expanding or compressing the dynamic range of an image to ensure that the highlights were not blown, and the details were preserved in the shadows, while expanding tonal range if necessary to ensure that the full displayable range was used to present his subject.  Sound familiar?  Yeah, I'm thinking he'd be shooting HDR if he was around today (and I am equally confident the he would not be producing over-cooked, over-saturated, over-contrasted caricature images -- just doing what he had to do to capture the whole image with proper exposure of the entire scene, not just the subject.)

Second, Adams was famously patient, often waiting hours for the wind to die, or for the light to develop properly to create his planned image.  Not a lazy guy, that Adams.  But it is worth considering that one of his most famous photos (and one of his personal favorites, I am told) was Moonrise Over Hernandez, New Mexico.  As Adams tells the story, he was driving past the town at sunset, when he saw the scene, in which the town, the clouds, and especially the crosses in the town's cemetery were illuminated by the fading light of the sunset to his back, while the full moon was rising over the mountains in the distance, behind the town.  Adams describes a frantic effort to assemble his view camera so that he could take the shot in the moments before the sunset ended behind him.  The always meticulous Mr. Adams didn't even have time to locate his light meter.  So he estimated the exposure (my recollection is that he estimated the brightness of the moon, and placed it in zone 6 or 7, something like that), and then took the shot.  Apparently, he was so taken with the scene, that he wanted to make a second exposure, but the shot was gone before he could pull the slide and take another shot.

So, no matter who you are, sometimes you have to take the shot that is in front of you, and you have to take it while it is still in front of you.  just sayin'.

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WLW