Cody Redmon - Photoblog

I’m a bit busy with the holiday, but wanted to get another post up.  This is an unnamed reservoir in the Shields Valley on the way to the Martinsdale Reservoir.  Happy 4th of July, everyone!

What’s a field without rows?  This is the second in a series I started back in March and will likely continue for years to come.  Being such a common theme, it’ll probably take that long to build a collection of such images that speak for themselves from within the crowd.

I’ve been talking about the Martinsdale Reservoir for the past couple of posts, but haven’t shown any images yet.  So today, let me take you there.  These magenta flowers were only growing in a few areas around the water’s edge, but added splendidly to the scene.  As my friend Vicki noted about her last visit…a million bees everywhere.  But they were more interested in the spring cycle than me standing in their midst, so I was grateful.

Though it will come out a day late on my blog, at the time of my writing this post it is my parent’s 52nd wedding anniversary.  My love and admiration to you both for being who you are…

Another image from my recent drive north to the Martinsdale Reservoir…

Today was without question one of the best photo days I’ve ever had.  My buddy, Jay, and I headed north to the Martinsdale Reservoir about 1:30pm with perfect clouds filling the sky and nothing but stunning scenes to behold.  It occurred to me at one point that when you live in places congested with countless other people, what you think about is “people”.  But when you live in a place with very few others and so much natural beauty…you tend to think about “the world”.

I’ve come to love shots with flat, ambient light, taken just after the ‘glory hour’ of sunset.  When working with black and white or duotone images, sometimes a scene is best photographed after the sun is already down.  This results in zero shadows and even light across the entire frame, making it ideal for dodging and burning.  As with yesterday’s post, sure, I’d love to have light on these flowers – it would definitely give them more ‘pop’.  But there’s something to be said about the subtle, almost calming mood that comes from this scene…a mood which ‘pop’ tends to go against entirely.  And yes, that’s a bit of social commentary.

I’ve been shooting a lot of images north of Livingston lately, but last evening I decided to head south for a change.  I was rewarded with a few really nice captures of ‘last light’ in Paradise Valley.  I processed this image fairly dark, but hopefully not so much that it compromises the viewing experience.  I would have liked to see the entire tree with light on it, but this way it creates somewhat of a surreal feeling in an otherwise normal landscape.