Exploration with Culture
Last week my buddy and fellow photographer Paris Gore stepped into Tracy Lang’s Ryderville Ink realm to experience his first tatt. He wanted a skeleton cedar tree. She designed it, sketched it, and then drew it under his skin. It was nice watching a friend feel the pain while photographing. It made my time under the needle more enjoyable (the beer is a prop in the above photo).
Hot off PS6, I’m stoked with my most recent image. Shot yesterday with Casey Zautke of Barn Owl Builds, he and his brother Josh own a customized furniture company. Each piece of reclaimed wood is hand-picked specific for each order. Here, Casey runs a thick fir plank through a joiner in order to flatten its surfaces as they begin constructing a conference table.
Over the next couple of months I’m thrilled to be working with them, creating content for their brand and new website.
Location: Barn Owl Builds – Seattle, WA
Camera/Lens Specifics: Canon 5D Mark III with Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8L II USM Lens
16mm, 1/60 sec at ƒ/10, ISO 100, tripod, composite.
Post: LR4 & Adobe PS6
I invited Matt over on an unusually warm late winter day in the PNW. Two ideas: Matt in his element pruning trees outside (above); Matt taking the outdoor technique indoors and getting a little carried away (below).
This blossoming flibert tree (also known as a hazelnut tree) is a sign of the beginning of spring. The pollen on each flower is loaded, and the slightest gust of wind releases plumes of the fine yellow dust. Honey bees were loving it, one of their few choicest sources of food this time of year. Matt climbed the ladder. I positioned lights and posted on top of his car. Snap.
Banzai pruning is an artform, same as large-scale pruning, but on a different level. Instead of setting up Matt to look like a Zen master delicately snipping away at this miniature money tree, I wanted him to look guilty, cutting away his profits with shock and awe. Maybe it also reflects the scale of environmental damage that the fracking on the Bakken Shale in Montana and North Dakota cause, as well as the further advancement of permitting for the Keystone XL Pipeline. As an individual, spending his days outdoors working with trees, Matt chooses the preservation and cultivation of nature over the growth of the “money tree”.
Now this was fun. I brought two of my buddies over with the idea of creating an ad for a flatscreen TV. Composited of multiple images, I slowly pieced through from right to left until the final shot with the action. And we were nervous. I heard of dangerous fumes inside old tube televisions, but this wasn’t that old. So with a couple of deep breaths, some practice swings and snaps, and a wooden baseball bat, we counted down. One. Two. Three.
It was the loudest sound. Bat bouncing off the screen, cracking the wood but not the glass. We were amazed. Maybe he just swung wrong. Second time. One. Two. Three.
Again, this time the bat shattered and our ear drums rang. Okay. Something heavier. With a neighbor’s sledge hammer we felt more confident, more practiced with the swing and the shutter release. One. Two. Three.
Glass everywhere and the beautifully astounding sound of exploding glass. And then the poof of powder, fumes. We dropped our gear and ran out of the house.
All and all, once the dust had settled, the ventilation flowing, a mere two hours with a Shop-Vac and thick gloves cleaned the disastrous mess, revealing a 2-inch thick screen of glass now in a million pieces. The bat never had a chance. A few hours of PS6 later. Success.
An idea pops into your. You’ve been listening to the radio, following current events, examining your place in the constant shifting world. Then the idea takes shape, morphs into words, thoughts, conversations and a variety of imagery.
The gun buy-back program has been incorporating our society. The process flowed through my brain-waves and thus the above image. I wondered about the origins, the beginnings of such violence permeating humanity. Then I read an article in this month’s National Geographic entitled The Left Bank Ape, which explores the unique adaptations between two species along the Africa’s Congo River. The north side (or right bank) are our common ancestors, the chimpanzee, whom we share 98.4% of our genetic DNA, while the south side (or left bank) is the bonobo. And what makes these two species of primates markedly different are their social behaviors; during disputes the chimp is more aggressive, often resulting in death, while the bonobo prefers the tender acts of affection and using sex to solve issues within the community.
Observing today’s violence around the world, I ask: Where did we come from? Where are we going? And what are we doing to get there?
Aaron Kuester is a busy man. With a wife and 3 year old son, work as a steel-shaper of sorts at Kitsap’s Naval base, and an enthusiastic car builder and racer. Currently, he’s working on building a custom Volkswagon Beetle Baja Desert Racer, not necessarily for the Baja 2000 Off-Road Race, but some day… some day.
But with The Sequester approaching on March 1st, 2013, government spending-cuts will affect Aaron and his family. As an employee repairing the steel parts of submarines and naval ships, the full-force of the $85 billion-dollar cuts would mean his 5 day work-week will crunch to 4 days within the 22-day furlough. Anything longer will be technically a lay-off, which Aaron, as well as every other government employee, hopes will remain a distant impossibility for him, his family, and his hobby.
On a quiet President’s Day afternoon, Aaron invited me into his garage, and below are some of the images I created with four strobes, some daylight fill and a little PS6.
I had the opportunity to connect with CannaTest, LLC. to explore the new changes in Washington State regarding the passing of Initiative 502 and the legalization of recreational marijuana. CannaTest’s tagline “What’s in your medicine?” legitimizes the professionalism of medical cannabis in the emerging industry, breaking down the percentages of Cannabinoids that are within each strain of plant. From THC to THCV, CBD, CBG and other active ingredients, CannaTest provides qualitative numbers for accurate labeling to insure clients are receiving the necessary medicine for their specified therapy.
Visit www.Canna-Test.com for more information.
I had the opportunity to shoot some promotional material for Bainbridge Island Boxing Club. The owner, Ben (i.e. The Bear), is an ex-pro, coaching his students in both traditional boxing as well as Muay Thai, or Thai boxing. It was thrilling to spend a couple of evenings with them, watching as they used every muscle in their bodies with agility and speed. Next time I step foot in the gym, hopefully it will be without camera and only gloves.
After traveling to Ambergris Caye in Belize, photographing various artists utilizing the skill and exactitude of their hands, I purchased one of the wooden bowls from Graniel’s Dreamland as a gift, gifted, took it back and brought it into the studio… whew. And now it’s done.
Full bowl studio shot
Close-up bowl studio shot combined into catalog spread with on-location workshop shot
While traveling to Ambergris Caye in Belize, I reached out to local workers and artists about creating captivating imagery about their careers or passions. Below is a taste of what came to be while visiting.
Local handyman and contractor, Landy T. laying tiles in a vacation home.
Workers at Graniel’s Dreamland build furniture, piers, bowls and anything wood out of locally harvested trees from the mainland of Belize.
Glenn Schwendinger is an entrepeneur extraordinaire. Fourteen years ago he landed on Ambergris Caye with his wife and chef Colleen, opened the fabulous Rendezvous Restaurant on the north end, created it’s own wine label and became the world’s largest conch pearl dealer. Conch pearls? you might ask. The world’s rarest gem found in 1 of every 10,000 conch shells.
Cameron Karsten's Imaginarium 