Today’s Post by Joe Farace
You can journey to the ends of the earth in search of success, but if you’re lucky, you will discover happiness in your own backyard.—Russell Conwell
How I made this shot: This image was shot with a FujiFilm FinePix S3Pro with Fujinon 35-70mm f/2.8-5.6 (at 53mm) lens with an exposure of 1/180 sec at f/8.7 and ISO 100. Another reason that I tried capturing these images during the time it was made was that the local landscape was rapidly changing and that building, tree and entire area are now gone, replaced with a housing development.
A few years ago, I conducted a workshop at the FOTOfusion conference in Florida called “Right in Your Own Backyard.” The presentation and the images I showed to the audiences attending the workshop were based on a premise that you needn’t travel halfway around the world to make photographs when great photo ops are seemingly closer to home.
The workshop’s presentation was illustrated with images made during a three-mile walk that I used to take each day when I lived in my former home in a semi-rural community near Brighton, Colorado. After I showed the audience the above image, that was made almost literally in my backyard, one of the attendees asked, “What was going though your mind when you made that picture?” Interesting (maybe) this was a question my friend and incredibly talented photographer, Matt Staver once posed to me about a similar image. (I walked by this farm every day and made many photographs of it.)
What Was Going Through my Mind?
At the time, answering that question was was difficult for me because it addressed thought processes that were going on in what-passes-for-my-mind while an image is being created when I’m out making photographs with nothing previsualized—just looking at the world. I stumbled through an answer to the person who asked it but I never got his question out of my head. The truth is that when making any image I don’t always have a specific goal in mind, other than “I’d like to make a nice photo,” but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try to include some deeper meanings in your images.
These days, I try (key word) to take take a similar walk each day although I must admit that it’s not as easy for me today as it was in the past because of my current mobility challenges. When I lived in my former home I was better (and motivated) at meeting that goal but I was also a lot younger. On these walks, I always brought along a camera and walked past the farm pictured that was literally across the street from the neighborhood where I lived. When I take similar walks these days, I also typically take a camera—often an infrared-converted mirrorless camera—with me as well and sometimes will call’em PhotoWalks.
Along with photographer Barry Staver, Joe is co-author of Better Available Light Digital Photography with new or used copies available from Amazon, as I write this.