Exploration with Culture
Hana Organic Skincare has a new line of all-natural organic products, which I had the pleasure to help showcase with product photography. We threw in Ali Lorenz for something different, added a brush of essential creme down the right side of her face and shot her profile to come up with the above ad. Go check out Hana Organic Skincare online or at the Bainbridge Island Farmer’s Market every Saturday.
For the Gun Buy-Back Program project, I had to purchase an armory of squirt guns. Instead of letting them go to waste, I laid them out in a different scenario. Could this represent the gun collector at age nine? Or does our adult behavior represent the love and care of our parents and the environment in which we’re raised?
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.
By approaching Rwanda Partners and offering them my help, I scored the opportunity to take a selection of their bowls into the studio and photograph them for their website. With three lights, some plexi glass and fishing line, I was able to create a clean, depth-defining product shot to help them better portray their products. Hopefully, more opportunities will arise with Rwanda Partners after the initial shoot. Visit RwandaPartners.org for more.
Location: SCCA Studios
Camera/Lens Specifics: Canon 5D Mark III with Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L IS USM Macro Lens
100mm, 1/160 sec at ƒ/16, ISO 100, tripod.
Post: Capture One & Adobe PS6
Found within a friend’s basement, these bottles were too characteristic and entirely toxic to pass up. Setting up in an open-air carport settled the minimum level of fumes and maximum amount of ventilation.
Location: CK Studios
Camera/Lens Specifics: Canon 5D Mark III with Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L IS USM Macro Lens
100mm, 1/25 sec at ƒ/16, ISO 100, tripod.
Post: LR4 & Adobe PS6
From my last studio shoot, left over was a classic-looking baby bottle. So before I found another home for it, or fulfilled it’s recycled destiny, I wanted to shoot it as a product spewing milk. Viola.
Location: SCCA Studios
Camera/Lens Specifics: Canon 5D Mark III with Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L IS USM Macro Lens
100mm, 1/200 sec at ƒ/10, ISO 100, tripod.
Post: Capture One & Adobe PS6
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
After weeks and months of design, storyboarding, preproduction, shooting and post, the following seven catalog spreads are finally complete.
Bee vs. Bee-keeper: Above is a shot of a Northwest bee-keeper harvesting the season’s honey, while to the right a bee flies, stinger ready, protecting the colonies winter surpluses.
Foote Board: Inside his mobile shaping room, PNW surfboard shaper Kelly Foote sands down a new design.
Carlson’s Imagination: Internationally-renowned glass artist Robert Carlson prepares the next phase of his creative process, applying paint to the artforms.
Prince Rolex: An early 20th century Rolex watch worn in style.
DDT Apocalypse: DDT, a pesticide banned in the US, explodes with devastating consequences.
Lang Tattoos: Woodblock print artist Tracy Lang transforms her career as a tattoo artist.
Kelly Foote Surfboards: A new design, a new board, more waves.
Internationally-renowned glass artist Robert Carlson recently spent one week as the Artist-in-Residence at Tacoma, Washington’s Museum of Glass Hot Shop. Here, he worked with the shop’s artists and interns to create the next line of imagination: 10+ orbs of glass weighing from 5 – 25lbs, each unique with twisting sculpted tentacles and bulbous knobs and hooks. They now await to be adorned with color.
Location: Carlson Studio
Camera/Lens Specifics: Canon 5D Mark III with Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L IS USM Macro Lens
100mm, 1/50 sec at ƒ/22, ISO 100, tripod.
Post: Adobe LR4 & PS6
Location: Bainbridge Island, WA
Camera/Lens Specifics: Canon 5D Mark III with Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8L II USM Lens and Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L IS USM Macro Lens
Composites
Post: Adobe LR4 & PS6
After my adventures with bee-keeping, I spent an afternoon this fall harvesting 20lbs of fresh honey from my hives. I could have collected more, but the honey they gather throughout the spring and summer becomes their food surplus for the cold fall and winter months ahead. They were already pretty pissed, as one can tell.
Cameron Karsten's Imaginarium 