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Meet Bodhi Smith

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Today we’d like to introduce you to Bodhi Smith.

Bodhi, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
Up until 2011, like almost everyone, I had taken photos to help preserve memories of moments in time I have experienced. For the most part, these pictures were not art, just snapshots of my life. However, on June 14th, 2011, everything changed. I was cut off and stranded by a summer storm in a remote part of Death Valley for three days. Something magical happened to me during that time that cannot be explained for when the storm cleared, and the roads were fixed, and I had again reconnected with civilization, I had a newfound talent for sharing dramatic scenes which I have witnessed in nature. Since that date, I have been blessed and fortunate to take dozens of images that people find to be dazzling and beautiful and wish to make part of their lives.

I have the strong desire to constantly experience the scenery around myself with all my senses to their fullest potential—thus, my photographic impressions are very emotional and have strong clarity and meaning for me. They have become expressions of my fond memories and highlights of my experiences. Plus, through photography, I really want to get my message out to all people: that there is immense beauty that surrounds us, right next to us, with even more fascinations all just a few hours away… photography is an emotional thing, a way of expression but at the same time, a means of preserving memories of the paths we walk on this earth… it is a great hobby that anyone can pick up without the need to become a professional like I have become – ordinary people need to just go out and capture anything that catches their eyes… I am always a teacher, and I want to show others of a great way to cut loose, relax, and enjoy the lovely world right before their eyes that they never really ever noticed.

Photography is magical and unique because it is like no other art form… just think about it: when you take a picture, you see something in a way only you can see it, it’s very personal, a part of what is inside of you, and it is your vision and yours alone… the camera is just a mechanism that is reflecting back that vision, creating something tangible, a permanent memory of one of your experiences, something seen through your own eyes in your own unique way, something you can reflect back upon yourself and if you chose, let others see as well for themselves, so they too can experience your vision, but in their own personal way…

I have always been a student of nature. I love to be out and about in nature as an explorer and adventurist. I want to experience as much of my surroundings as I can during my brief stay on this planet. I also study weather patterns and love clouds and storms… I am truly a weather geek and this gives me a better understanding of the best times to visit certain places so as to maximize the most possible beauty a place has to offer me while I am there.

I am a self-taught photographer. I have no formal training other than being a teacher of the visual and performing arts. In my earlier days, some famous photographers had placed the label on me as being a “natural” because of my talent for understanding the science of the camera and mixing it with the artistry of composition but I believe it’s really just me loving all the “natural” beauty surrounding me combined with my desire to express my feelings and emotions through my lens.

I consider myself an impressionist landscape photographer. And although I am exclusively a photographer, I frequently hear the comments that my photos often look like paintings – comments I take pride in hearing. I use specific focal points, long exposures and follow the paths of light to capture an image with my camera… I embrace motion, blur, and reflections to create a composition that has the emotions of an impressionist painting.

I truly love to follow the light in composing a landscape image. The light tells me where and how to look at a scene and honestly, I do not find and choose the photos I am going to take—the photos find and chose me. I never go out looking for a specific image. I just go hiking, camping, skiing, or 4×4-ing with my pup… it is the light, timing, and nature which grabs at me and tells me what I should capture with my camera’s eye.

Obviously, my work keeps progressively getting better as I learn more and more about my art. Each time I go out into the field to shoot, I keep gaining knowledge that I can apply to the next time I am shooting. I make mistakes that set me back temporarily at the time, but these really help me to get immensely better at my craft over the long term. I also continually update my camera gear, and this helps to make my photography stay better than most of my peers by giving myself access to the best possible equipment.

My inspiration does not come from other famous or even contemporary photographers. Instead, I have always admired the famous artists of the 19th and 20th centuries: impressionist painters like Vincent Van Gogh, Claude Monet, Albert Bierstadt and Paul Gauguin mixed in with surrealist painters like Salvador Dali. I am fascinated with how they captured light onto their canvases and have studies all of their works in depth, knowing so many of their masterpieces so intimately that they become visions in my mind of future impressions I wish to create with my camera… my camera is metaphorically my the paintbrush and my metal prints have become the canvas.

I seldom ever look at any other photographer’s images, for I do not want them to corrupt or influence in any way my visons of compositions that I might take of the same scene one day. I just walk my own path through nature and try to express what I see through my own eyes, not through a distorted filter of a path someone else has walked and seen through their eyes.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Until this year, my photography has been going along great, as I constantly improve through the years with my skills and experiences and as I get to travel to exciting new places and re-explore by revisiting favorite places all over the world. Of course, there are always setbacks and periods of creative drought… mostly problems brought on by issues in my personal life that cross into my artistic world with thoughts and obsessions that bounce around in my head, creating useless noise that interferes with my creative flow and inner peace.

This year has been extremely difficult with COVID19… my photography as a business has been hit very hard with all the closures of galleries and places where I display my work, plus the cancellation of all art/craft shows everywhere. All my international clients have had to cancel their reservations and I’ve had to refund deposits because they cannot travel internationally here to the United States or elsewhere to hire my services to guide them to any locations. Photographic Income wise, unfortunately, it has been a huge total loss for the year. But I am luckier than many other photographers because I still have my income from teaching digital photography at a high school in northern San Diego County.

But there is a flipside positive to every negative… for some reason, this year has been the most creative year photographically for me. It has been just amazing, all that I have been able to see and capture with my camera lens this year. I have created some of my best photographic impressions of my life (by far, I believe). I am not entirely sure the reason for this, but I am thoroughly enjoying it none-the-less. And the year is still far from over for me!

We’d love to hear more about your work.
My photography business offers both photographic prints and services. I specialize in prints sublimated (fused) directly into the metal, a process that makes my compositions snap out with color and jump into life. Metal prints are always my suggestion and first choice as a medium for my work. It best represents me as an artist and my style of photography. However, I also dabble in other mediums, such as placing extra acrylic on large photographic images printed on archival paper to create an impression of paint-brush strokes on a photo that already has impressionistic characteristics. I also use “thematic” framing with many of my metal images to make the frame become part of the artwork and to further create more of a holistic effect of the entire piece and thus more of the impression of “being there.”

What sets my work apart from others is my use of colors and attention to the light in my impressions, and the way the metal prints really bring this out beautifully, plus my choice of uniquely designed thematic frames… combined with the fact I stay true to myself and never veer away from my own artistic style, which created photographic works that are often perceived as being very similar to impressionist paintings. Also, I always offer my personal services to deliver my artwork to the home of my clients, sign my artwork in front of them personally (on the front and/or the back of the piece), and professionally hang them for them wherever they wish. All free of charge. Sort of an old schoolhouse call that adds a very nice personal touch from me as the artist. As far as the services I offer:

1. Guided tours to photographic locations in California and beautiful locations in the southwestern United States, as well as internationally to locations where I have become more of an expert, such as Rapa Nui (Easter Island).

2. Personal On-location Workshops catered to the needs of my clients. Instruction in planning photo locations and trips, creative processes and previsualization, compositional techniques, using equipment (such as filters), styles of photography, such as long exposures and nightscapes, and editing skills with photos created during the workshop.

3. Webinars and Video-based tutorials covering a large scope of popular various photographic topics such as: how to create better artistic works through a better understanding of artistic composition in photography, night photography and capturing the milky way, long exposures, and some of my unique and personal editing techniques such as color management, blending of multiple images, and luminosity layers.

4. Editing services.

Any shoutouts? Who else deserves credit in this story – who has played a meaningful role?
I am self-taught in photography with really no mentors in my life. I have learned through making mistakes and by correcting those errors, remembering every detail along the line. My experiences have been my biggest instructor, sometimes learning strictly by trial and error. Other times, by figuring out on my own how to do something no one else has done before. I have always loved crossword puzzles, jumbles, and problem-solving. For me in photography, I love approaching obstacles as problems in need of a solution and through my photographic experiences, I’m always constantly solving problems, and I’m lucky that I always find my own best solutions.

And my inspiration does not come from other famous or even contemporary photographers. Instead, I have always admired the famous artists of the 19th and 20th centuries: impressionist painters like Vincent Van Gogh, Claude Monet, Albert Bierstadt and Paul Gauguin mixed in with surrealist painters like Salvador Dali. I am fascinated with how they captured light onto their canvases and have studies all of their works in depth, knowing so many of their masterpieces so intimately that they become visions in my mind of future impressions I wish to create with my camera… my camera is metaphorically my the paintbrush and my metal prints have become the canvas.

I seldom ever look at any other photographers’ images, for I do not want them to corrupt or influence in any way my visons of compositions that I might take of the same scene one day. I just walk my own path through nature and try to express what I see through my own eyes, not through a distorted filter of a path someone else has walked and seen through their eyes.

A lot of the credit for my success in photography goes not to another person but to an ailment. I was diagnosed with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) in my late twenties, and honestly, that can be seen as something that has immensely helped me with my photography (while at the same time damaging my relationships with others). Things that are seen as disabling due to my OCD in regular life become a huge positive in the artistic and creative life… allowing me to pay attention to details such as planning and previsualization. Allowing me to remain true to myself at any cost. Allowing me to do technical things in routines. Allowing me to keep focused on things until I get them as perfect as I possibly can in the field and in the digital darkroom. OCD never lets me do anything just “good enough.” I am compelled by my obsessions to do everything to my fullest potential and as close to perfection as I can reach, or I simply will not even attempt something if I cannot do that. This lends itself to me, creating beautiful artwork and never showing anything I feel is not my best work.

Honestly, I am pretty much a loner. I spend most of my days and nights alone with my doggie. I have friends, but their schedules and my schedule makes things quite difficult at times. Not much of family life, and do not have many lasting relationships in my life… mostly to do complications surrounding my OCD coupled with my unavailability because of my desire and ability to travel all over the world at a moment’s notice. And this might sound sad, but it is my life of choice.

Pricing:

  • My Art prints sell anywhere from $33 to $5555. Price is based on size and I can print anything on metal to 1/8 an inch of your desired needs.
  • An individual 8hr Custom Workshop is $333, and can be broken down into two separate 4hr sessions
  • Webinars are usually around $22 to join. Masterclass tutorials start at $33.
  • Post Processing Lessons are $55/hr (with discounts for multiple hours). Offered in person or via Zoom video conferencing.
  • Guided tours start at around $2222 for seven days, inclusive of lodging and transportation at the location.

Contact Info:

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