I dont know if your brand of camera has the particular feature Im going to tell you about,but it might be worth checking into if you havnt already. Some cameras will allow you to focus on a darker area to compose your shot or precompose if you will, then push the shutter halfway ,hold it until the appropriate moment then click you've tricked your exposure meter! You may have already tried this,this is just a suggestion on a technique Ive heard about, I use this same thing to trick my automatic focus. Ps.It doesnt always work,so precomposition is important.