Cody Redmon - Photoblog

With the colors of fall comes the rut, the time when “antlered ungulates mate.”  Elk are well known for their distinct bugle during this period, a hauntingly beautiful call to any contending males in the area. Speaking of contending males, while searching for that bugle video, I came across this one…amazing!  Though the season is over now, it was in full swing during my recent visit to Grand Teton NP and the forest echoed with these throaty taunts.  Just after dawn one morning I was headed to the interior of the park when this big fellow stepped from the trees in pursuit of about a dozen females.  They sprinted off ahead of him, but his gait was slow and calculated, making me think that maybe he was fine with fighting to win them back.

Somehow winter snuck in…we received over a foot of snow in the last two days and it’s not even the middle of October.  They’re expecting 40 inches in some parts of MT…crazy.  I’ve not gotten out to take any shots yet, but that’s probably a good thing since I have a lot to post from my time recently spent in and around Grand Teton National Park.  Here are a few that I picked out, each one unique in its own way.  You’ll notice on the last of today’s images that the very tip of The Grand is darkened from a cloud – I’m not sure if that’s good timing or bad.  I have a feeling I snapped the shutter about 3 seconds too late, though.  Ersh…

**Note - I was, until recently, using a plugin for stat tracking that had an undesirable feature I was unaware of.  It seems that some of you were seeing the text “You’re being watched” on the bottom of my individual post pages, which became known to me only last week.  I have removed the plugin and apologize for the impression it may have given…this blog is NOT a forum for me to snoop on you, it’s a forum for you to snoop on my work.

The Caribou-Targhee National Forest runs through the southeast corner of Idaho and is home to one of my favorite dirt roads.  Formally known as Grassy Lake Road, it was introduced to me as Redemption Road and is the name I’ve held onto.  It begins in the ancient lava flows that have become today’s famous potato fields and travels along the northern edge of the Teton Mountains.  Ultimately becoming a back route into Grand Teton National Park, it might just be the longest ‘secret side-entrance’ I’ve ever been on.  About 50 miles of ‘no pay’ gravel and you’re in…

I just returned from a 4-day photo adventure through some of my favorite regions of Montana, Idaho and Wyoming…all ablaze with the colors of fall.  Like a stained glass kaleidoscope, the mountains and forests were something out of a myth.  As has been said before, time flies…and boy, was I having fun. Despite all the amazing yellows, oranges and reds, I’ve decided on this image as my first post from the trip.  The scene represents so much about my love for this land - the serenity that hangs in beautiful balance, the distant peaks that hold one’s eye to the horizon of all things, the pristine isolation that pales by those who traveled this land before me and the humbling effect of all.  Can a photograph register my immense pride at being a resident of these wild lands?  This one comes about as close as any…

Just as studio photographers use soft boxes to produce healthier tones in their images, so too can this technique be applied in landscape photography.  Unlike a studio, however, in nature it requires a bit of luck at both timing and location.  As frail clouds dissipate into non-clouds they can act as a filter for the sun’s rays, similar to the cloth that ‘strobists’ employ in a soft box. That’s the case in this image I captured along a unique stretch of the Grand Loop in Yellowstone a few weeks ago. The varied light upon the cliffs and surrounding trees stands in gentle contrast to the brightly lit foreground.  The wedge of cloud in the background helps draw the eye, but it also completes a tonal range reminiscent of the Zone System which Ansel Adams helped to develop in the early ‘forties. (The link to Ansel is a great media post by the New York Times; click an image…)

I feel that I should apologize for my lack of posts this past month or so; I sure set out to do better than I have.  Excuses are just that, but I would like to share a little about one of the things that have led to my absence.  My dream of opening a media and design firm here in Livingston, MT, is finally beginning to take shape and more than ever I can see ‘the next level’ just waiting there to be had.  I’ve taken on a number of clients already, with several more in the works.  Web and graphic design, illustration, photography and video will be our primary services, with web being the main focus right out of the gates.  Despite a foiled attempt to escape to Utah for 10 days (right about now, actually), I’m still taking a few treks now that fall colors are coming into play - Glacier, Yellowstone and Teton national parks, as well as to the Gravelly range, Mesa Falls and across Redemption Road.  As for this blog – it’s not going anywhere.  I’ll continue to post as much as I can, but while posting less my goal is to increase the overall quality of the photographs I share.

Today’s image comes from the Shields Valley and is a simple scene that I’ve photographed on a number of occasions.  As opposed to the bright road that runs through the image from my last post, these tracks are dark and give evidence to the life that grows around them. Year after year, as I’m called to stop and take the shot, I silently thank the farmer who visits this field each day.

I decided to go back over the images from my trip to the Gravelly Mountains about a month ago and this one grabbed me.  Beyond the road, as it applies to today’s title, there is also the dark storm which had been teasing for hours yet never overtaking me.  Along its edge I drove for most of the day, presenting a number of dynamic scenes such as this one while riding the line of light.