He took her advice, started using different print paper and there was a significant change in his success. As for Dody's approach to the craft, she reflects in her personal papers (1980s):  I have always approached photography as an artist. The first thing I learned about photography was that it is seeing---pre-visioning---with the eye and not the apparatus of the camera. Anyone can learn the basic mechanics first, but then you experiment. Photograph what you know to begin, but try to look, to see with a fresh eye. Images are everywhere around us---in our own backyard. I like finding rather than accumulating (staging the arrangement of what is photographed)--like an eternal treasure hunt of the eye.” Dody was initially influenced by black and white photography—and it was her first love. As she mastered her darkroom developing skills, she reports in her journals:  I had never realized that this virtually infinite variety of intermediate shades of black and white constituted a unique phenomenon...not to be found in any other medium in the entire history of art...this scale of greys which the skilled photographer---never mind the appearance of the original subject---can expand or contract like an accordion of unknown but variable length pretty much at will.” In the many interviews with Dody and with family members it is clear that the freedom to explore her creativity, to share her insights with the world and to encourage young people to hone their creative skills were the themes of her life. Those who knew her describe her as a gifted and master transmitter of what is captured in the eye and lens. Dody would describe this process as magically translating her vision onto plain white photographic paper. Dody passed at her residence in Los Angeles, California on October 14, 2012 at 8:30am. She was 89. In August 2013, the Thompson Family Trust donated 491 original black-and-white and color prints of Dody's photography and her document archive to Scripps College, Claremont, California. In September 2014, the Thompson Family Trust donated 234 original black-and-white and color prints of Dody's photography to the Center for Creative Photography, Tucson, AZ. In September 2016, Helen Harrison donated approximately 150 distinct black-and-white and color prints of Dody's photography, along with copies, to the Inland Empire Museum of Art in San Bernardino County, California. During her career, Dody worked with several cameras. Large Format: Agfa 4 X 5  Medium Format: Copal 2 ¼ X 3 ¼ Zenza Bronica 6 X 4.5, 6 X 6 & 6 X 7 cm Polaroid 95 Land Camera Yashicaflex TLR  Small Format: Olympus 35mm Yashica Copal           Weston: Life Work.