Located in the beautiful Yakima Valley, Washington, Cornerstone Ranches is a fifth-generation (since 1897) family farm that grows a variety of hops, apples, and grapes on over 1,000 acres of land.
In anticipation of autumn’s weather changes, the Valley is abuzz with activity as the harvest season approaches. In October, Cornerstone Ranches owner Graham Gamache hired Seattle-based agriculture photographer/director Cameron Karsten to document this year’s harvest.
I’ve been out to the ranch on four different harvests, as well as during other seasons of the year. Graham and I have become friends, and we’re constantly discussing other projects that we both want to do to benefit each other’s businesses and relationship.
Cameron was a perfect partner for the project due to his extensive experience photographing people, whether environmental portraits or people in action within their spaces, doing what they do for hobby or profession.
Whether bringing in additional lighting or utilizing the play of light and dark in the late summer sun, it just adds to my ability to adapt to the situation and problem-solve to keep shooting and creating a cohesive library of imagery for the client.
Each time Cameron heads out to Cornerstone Ranches, which is about a five-hour drive from his home in Bainbridge Island, he speaks with Graham to see what is happening at the farm and discuss what he can do to bring his vision to life. The harvest is a particularly poignant time as it brings an array of seasonal workers. Some of whom have traveled far to support themselves and their families, an opportunity that only comes once a year.
I have such a keen ability to connect with the various people working at the farm. The majority speak Spanish as their primary language. Graham just asks me to do what I do and connect with them naturally.
The harvest is operational 24/7, with three eight-hour shifts for five to six weeks picking and processing the hops. The whole region is alive with action, and the earthy aroma of hops can be smelled throughout the Yakima Valley. The hard work and dedication that goes into the day-to-day process of the farm is felt in Cameron’s ability to find the subject’s genuineness in his imagery.
Authenticity is always the intent. There is little to no post-production in the imagery. It’s as it is. Real people working hard around the clock to accomplish the year’s beer-brewing hops harvest. And everyone that I know of on the farm loves working for Cornerstone. They treat their employees wonderfully, and all are grateful for this. So authenticity and hard work shine through within the images and throughout the company’s identity.
The Yakima Valley produces around 75% of the world’s beer-brewing hops, thanks to its fertile and productive agricultural lands, which are rich with volcanic soil and water from the Cascade Mountains. This, combined with the knowledge of generational family farms like the Gamache’s, makes for emphatic results.
The nights are always cold. Yet throughout the years, I’ve never seen any rain. Dry and hot. Or dry and cold.
It’s a fast-paced, around-the-clock environment within the hop fields or the apple orchards. There is a race to pick the fruits before the weather turns cold and disturbs the quality of the crops. Cameron used his discretion to not intrude on the workers’ busy schedules. Instead, he was attentive without interfering to allow the most authentic moments to transpire while he captured the spirit of the work and the aura that comes with harvest season.
Working in a wide-open landscape allowed Cameron to let his creative juices flow to examine the composition possibilities and find the soul of the assignment.
I love showing the energy and efforts behind the scenes of such commodities. I love walking the landscapes and the machinery, capturing the moments’ humanity interacts with nature and harvests her fruits. And capturing the honest emotions of people through portraiture and all the nitty-gritty of agriculture/industrial details. It makes me happy and ignites that creativity within.
The fatigue of cold early mornings pre-dawn or late nights after a long day is a big challenge when all I want is a beer!
Cameron utilized his innate people skills to engage with the employees, allowing for an open and comfortable shooting environment. Despite the language barrier with some workers, he still managed to form a connection.
Through body language and understanding, I can step in without disrupting the flow of the harvest’s operations. It’s all like a fluid river, and I don’t want to dam it up. Rather, I can jump within it at certain times and then jump back out.
Like any other industry, people within the agriculture sector work as hard as any human being to bring the world its most basic and fundamental commodities. To view the imagery, I want to come away with an appreciation of these efforts and realize something doesn’t come from nothing.
with Cornerstone Ranches – Lower Yakima Valley, Toppenish, WA
Every end of summer, the valley is buzzing with activity. Whether an apple harvest, grape harvest, or what the region is known for, a beer brewing hops harvest, there are people, machines, noises, scents, and 24/7 labor until every last commodity is picked, processed and delivered. For farm owners it is time of little rest. And for seasonal workers whom some have traveled far to support themselves and their families, it is an opportunity that only comes once a year.
Cornerstone Ranches produces some of the world’s finest hops and apples. But in terms of beer brewing hops, breweries from all around the country come to visit Graham Gamache’s historic hops facilities. Within the Yakima Valley of Washington State, an astounding 75% of the world’s beer brewing hops are grown and processed. And Graham’s Cornerstone Ranches has been within the industry for generations, growing some of the finest cones for beer brewing.
Let’s work together! Visit www.CameronKarsten.com for more and shoot an email to cam@cameronkarsten.com
seeking AUTHENTICITY – true to one’s own personality and/or spirit. Represented by the folks at The Gren Group.
From his glass imagination, Robert Carlson has created a new series of blown artwork. These pieces are delicately sown with vaporous hues and streaked with air pockets locked in time. Closest to a vase, they are signature art forms that glow in their own empty spaces.
Recently, I ventured into the Hoh Rainforest with STORMR foul-weather gear for a 4-day 3-night adventure. With four woodsmen we explored a sodden mossy wilderness furthest from humanity. These are the western edges of the Olympic Peninsula; a place so remote and ecologically diverse that it could be considered its own evolutionary island.
What we were in search of was the elusive black-tail buck. What we discovered were torrential downpours, rivers full of returning steelhead and King salmon, as well as pockets of clear-cut forests amidst pristine woodlands of idyllic nature where migratory elk bugled near the trails of deer, bear, and cougar scat.
Oysters are delicious, but they’re also highly important to our marine ecosystem. They’re natural filtration systems, removing toxins and cycling nutrients back into the water that help combat pollution. Oysters within the Puget Sound are also some of the first species to feel the effects of a new threat called Ocean Acidification (OA). As the ocean becomes more acidic due to decreasing pH levels from human industrialization, oyster seed shells begin to dissolve causing holes, disease and early death.
Puget Sound Restoration Fund (PSRF) is helping restore these mollusks by planting native oyster beds throughout Puget Sound. They’re creating a community of oyster harvesters through their CSA program, as well as partnering with research institutes to further study and treat the effects of OA. On an early morning on Bainbridge Island, Washington local volunteers gather to take advantage of the low tide and collect the native oysters.
Fall 2013 passed in the wind, and the styles of Firefly Salon became light but short, simultaneously dark but long with contrasting shadows. Sisters both exit and enter the woods through a ray of cool warmth.
To cut stone sounds like a recipe of alchemy. But it takes power, not always the power of enormous piston-driven spikes and powder-lit explosives. Often, with the right hand-tools and visionary skill, rocks can be as easily molded as clay. Meet Ethan Currier.
When on Bainbridge Island, Ethan lives in Eagle Harbor aboard his 1940s’ refurbished navy boat, building unique rock sculptures by day. Located in a small modest workshop, which once ran as a single-pump gas station, Ethan brings in specific stones to match his concept of upcoming projects, visualizing their forms and structure prior. By design and with the use of few hand-tools, these ordinary stones take on new organic shapes.
Having spent the summer on the east coast working on boats and building commissioned pieces for personal gardens and cityscapes, Ethan continues to create, building a reputation and potential-future following like those of artists Andy Goldsworthy and Dale Chihuly. A controvertial sculpture on a city-owned island Blakely Rock brought him in contact with people who both love and disapprove of his work. Over four nights in the middle of winter in 2012, Ethan installed a 12-foot tall stone man in the common yoga posture Tree Pose. Visible from the east shores of Bainbridge Island, as well as along the Seattle-Bainbridge ferry route, the sculpture has become in need of further special attention. Upon his recent return, people have continually asked him about it. He responds with a calming smile, “It needs repairs.” Locals now are expressing their interest in helping in anyway possible in its resurrection.
With the nearing end of the the summer, a north hemisphere-wide honey harvest is about to begin, and I’m feeling pretty damn excited. Longtime friend and fellow traveler Dennie P (aka D) stopped by and had the opportunity to check in on my hives. I’m hoping he’s hooked! He looks like it.
Location: BI, WA
Camera/Lens Specifics: Canon 5D MarkIII w/Canon EF 16-35mm 2.8L II USM Lens
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.
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.
Cameron Karsten's Imaginarium 