Tag: followyourdreams

Continuing with the idea of working the scene, but going backwards in time, here is another image from the same location as the previous two. Up until this point, I haven’t disclosed that on this day I was extremely tired and somewhat unmotivated to shoot. I had been photographing very intensely for the previous four days at higher elevations and in the cold, so I wanted a location that was easy and close to where I planned to camp. This area is near Bishop, CA and a great spot that I’ve photographed at before, but my expectations weren’t very high. Notwithstanding my low energy, the light was spectacular with bountiful subjects, and I found my stride. I particularly like this photograph, because I feel like the dramatic sky gives the trees a sense of strength and eminence.
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This image was made near Bishop, CA. It was created using T-MAX 400 on a Toyo 4×5 large format camera. #thisismycommunity #followyourdreams #believeinfilm #mikebodenphoto

Working the scene is a concept photographers talk about as a way to not only increase your productivity but also improve your image quality. And this makes sense, because if the light is good, why would you leave to go somewhere else? In addition, by walking around and looking at things from different angles and points of view, you’ll most likely see things that you didn’t envision or anticipate. Yesterday’s image with the fence was a result of this practice, because I actually took this image just prior to it. Although there’s a similar theme to both, I find them different enough to keep the two.
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This image was made near Bishop, CA. It was created using T-MAX 400 on a Hasselblad 501cm medium format camera. #thisismycommunity #followyourdreams #believeinfilm #mikebodenphoto

Territory. Protecting. Limitations. Barriers. Rules. These can all be attributed to the meaning of a fence in dreams, stories, or even everyday life. With regards to photography, it seems that one must learn the “rules” of a good image when starting out. At least that’s what we’re told. There’s the rule of thirds, negative space, symmetry, patterns, leading lines, tangential lines, and so forth. How many of you actually follow these rules or perhaps break them intentionally? For me, I don’t think about rules so much anymore. Instead, I follow my instinct and intuition so that the image feels “right” to me, and this practice holds true from inception to final output. My hope is that that feeling is ultimately conveyed to the viewer, for only then is my image truly successful.
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This image was made near Bishop, CA. It was created using T-MAX 400 on a Hasselblad 501cm medium format camera. #thisismycommunity #followyourdreams #believeinfilm #mikebodenphoto