I do not own a light meter, nor would I bother to use one anymore. I'm in the middle of Ansel's autobiography after taking two tours from the Ansel Adams gallery in Yosemite in May. On one tour they showed us his lab and the house behind the studio. Very cool.
Do any of the books include Ansel's 11 point zone system? The idea of that system, as I understand it, was to become more aware of the levels of white to black and their placement in the composition. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zone_System
So, your photo has level 10 (white, no detail) for the sky, and level 0 (total black, no detail) near the lower right corner, and various others across the rock. For his early famous "Monolith" half dome photo he took one with a yellow filter that did NOT make the final, and the one with the red filter (making the blue in the sky darker) did. You'll find a lot more 0 (black) in his photos than 10 (white). So for your example photo you would want a lower exposure. The folks in Yosemite suggested shooting darker to capture that detail and then adjust in post. I tend to underexpose, so that suits me fine.
If you want to "make a picture" as Ansel did you'll probably want to shoot RAW and learn DPP4. Nearly everything that Ansel did can be done there. I personally have chosen to become as proficient in DPP4 as possible and do 98% of my work there as a personal challenge. I also like sharpening my tools by hand on stones or with files, rather than electric water wheels. If I were in the sharpening business or photography business I probably couldn't afford to be a Luddite.
Ansel co-founded the 1/64 club, so you know that your f-stop should be - as high as you can get. Stacking for depth of field via in-camera HDR or bracketing or DPP4 stacking can help get everything into focus. They called themselves "Purists" and "Realists" as opposed to what he dubbed the "Pastoralist".
And you'll might want to stack layers to get the dramatic range of contrast that Ansel got by manipulating plates and/or negatives in the dark room. Nothing was off the table as regards manipulation there as long as the image was true to a real scene. He would dodge and burn, double expose, etc. to any degree necessary to get to the huge contrasts and zone coverage that he wanted in the final print.
Also he was big on the photo having movement so that the eye would be directed.
I can say that taking a good color photo and converting to B&W is not just a click of the button to monochrome. In the days of B&W TV they used green makeup as it looked best on the camera. You'll might want to try some pretty zany things as the sky is the limit with "color" adjustments in B&W.
Thanks for posting this. I realized that a photo that I took that I couldn't quite get "right" in color is a great candidate for B&W. I will post it later.
So, my recommendations. Shoot in RAW and underexpose a bit, limit white or grays to places there is lots of dark to offset it or around it, focus on shots that have big changes in contrast/zones. Or, if you prefer, shoot in black and white and still apply the principles of the covering Ansel's zones and be aware of their placement. That might be a better self-training exercise, but it also might be frustrating. Depends upon whether you like using a machine to shapen tools or files and stones I suppose?
>> Owns/Owned both Canon EOS mirrorless full-frame and APS-C cameras and associated RF, RF-S and EF adapted lenses - inventory tends to change on short notice. Same for flashes, tripods, bags, straps, etc.
Plus>> Canon imagePROGRAF PRO-1100 Printer. My photos are edited using no Adobe products.
>>The opinions and assistance are my own. Please don't blame Canon for any mistakes on my part.
