Exploration with Culture
The Explorers’ Club hiking through the jungles of Bainbridge Island. When I was a child, I was obsessed with exploring. I wanted to go everywhere and find anything new that I could set my eyes upon and reach for. The above image was shot for a family with this exactly in mind, putting me in their feet back when I was a child in search for adventure.
Here’s a look at the newest project, creating a youth group surviving in a post-apocalyptic world. Living as a nomadic family, these characters have bonded and divided up the tasks in order to hunt, cook, carry, prepare and maintain within a hostile world. They’re in constant threat, picking their way through a tattered landscape, foraging for their everyday amenities. Thank you to the Field’s family for participating and going along with my vision.
On the move
Portrait of the Water-Bearer
Portrait of the Fire-Carrier
Portrait of the Fire-Carrier II
The Hunter and The Hunted
Eagle Eyes
The Kill
Portrait of The Hunter
The Pool of the Un-Drinkable
Spotted
Fishing the Uninhabitable
Alone and Surviving
Portrait of the Warrior
Portrait of the Warrior II
The End of Innocence
Back to the Woods
For more visit http://www.CameronKarsten.com
From YES! Magazine’s Spring 2013 Issue #65, author Marjorie Kelly arrived on Bainbridge Island as a speaker in residence in Island Wood’s Business Management program. For YES! Magazine, I had the opportunity to spend a few hours with her, photographing at a few different locales. Kelly’s article The Economy: Under New Ownership discusses the positive roles of cooperatives, specifically their business models, and how they’re creating a healthier more stable world economy for employees and consumers. She is also author of her new book Owning Our Future: The Emerging Ownership Revolution
Unveiling the faux SOG Knives Beach Party Campaign. I had a blast with this shoot, from vision to pre-production to execution outdoors and the very fine details in-studio. Then there was post-production. Here you have the SOG Fielder knife, the SOG Machete and two SOG Tomahawk throwing axes (one chrome, one black) – and the characters that like to use them.
Visit www.CameronKarsten.com for more
Madison Rose of Heffner Management came up to Port Townsend with a crew to help create a working-woman’s scene set in vintage era, somewhere between 1936 and 1955. Bergstrom’s Antique & Classic Autos became the perfect setting with a garage full of antique parts shelved from floor to ceiling. Here Maddie played Rosie the Riveter, slowly transforming into an era of classic fashion and the American denim.
Model: Madison Rose
Stylist: LK
HMU: Todd Baylor of Firefly Salon
Photography Assistants: Carson Artac and Bryan Anton
For more visit www.CameronKarsten.com
With five consecutive days of creating conceptual shoots in and around Port Townsend, WA, on Monday, June 6th, I convened at Jefferson County International Airport with an empty canvas to play with. Six hours later amidst a host of amazing hands to help with construction and execution, the above shot went from imagination, visualization to fruition. Welcome to the ring where “Fight Club” meets “Top Gun” and the varying portraits of the characters taking place in the raucous carnival.
The hands were aplenty and the gear a variety. Shot with a Mamiya 645 AFD III digital body and a Mamiya 35mm f/3.5 AF lens, ProFoto heads, ProFoto B4 Battery Pack, ropes loaned from Net Systems and costumes from The Federal Army and Navy Surplus Store in Seattle. Scott at Tailspin Tommy provided the 1941 Jeep Willy and the retro Norton motorcycle along with the planes in the background. Thank you to all those involved, including Bill Gratton of Mac-On-Campus and Ralph Portillo of Glazers Camera.
Location: Jefferson County International Airport – Port Townsend, WA
Camera/Lens Specifics: Mamiya 645 AFD III with Mamiya 35mm f/3.5 AF Lens
35mm, 1/50 sec at ƒ/16, ISO 50, tripod, composite.
Post: Capture One & Adobe PS6
I know Ryan from the local community on Bainbridge Island, and as we got to know each other, I asked to come and shoot him at work in his shop. As I walked into his space, I realized what an extreme artform this age-old process is. Lots of heat. Huge machinery. And tons of force. Here is a test phase of more shooting to come with blacksmith artisan Ryan Landworth.
Thanks to the “shameful” state of our country’s Senators, the expanded gun-buyer background check failed yesterday with a 55-45 vote against the plan. Without tougher gun-control laws, the US Senate potentially disregards the safety of our country’s children and citizens, allowing equal ease to gun access, and essentially setting up continued failure on the ban of assault-style weaponry and high-capacity magazines. What school, Town Hall, movie theater and crowded shopping mall is next?
Barn Owl Builds – owned, operated and built by Casey and Joshua Zautke – let me invade one of their spaces as they prepared a conference table for a client. It takes an immense amount of skill to form recycled pieces of wood into a solid, effective piece of furniture. But that’s what they do. Barn Owl Builds custom selects each piece of salvaged wood for your furniture and then commences the true art of craft, creating a piece of furniture for your office, home or party den. More photos to come as I help them build their brand and market their business with product and environmental portrait photography.
I’m stoked to share this award from One Eyeland, as all the entrants were top-notch! And with the final months of school coming to a close, these awards and recognitions only increase my passion and drive to succeed in the industry of commercial photography. Below is the winning series titled His or Her Hands.
The Beekeeper 2012. Shot in my backyard as a fellow beekeeper and I harvested the honey from the hives.
Tracy Lang transitioning from a landscaper and accomplished large-scale woodblock print artist to the art of tattooing. Here she practices at home, surrounded by her inspirations, while her daughter watches over her shoulder.
Kelly Foote can either be found surfing the Pacific Northwest, surfing anywhere around the world, or holed up in his shaping trailer creating the boards he loves to ride. What he does quickly becomes second nature.
Robert Carlson is an internationally-acclaimed glass artist, creating amazingly complex pieces of philosophical shapes, ones that emerge from the depths of his subconscious. He peers through the mirrors of everyday life.
Matt Kuntz spends a late summer’s afternoon working on his Ford Mustang. There is still much work to be done.
A list of all award winners can be found here.
Cameron Karsten's Imaginarium 