Amazon from A to Z

We covered the spectrum this year with Amazon, capturing 3 different campaigns for various departments. The first one was my favorite in terms of planing and logistics, and making sure the skill of anticipation was properly tuned. The 2nd and 3rd were more storytelling processes, highlighting the teamwork, effort and energy put into Amazon deliveries. Ultimately, this is a story about commerce and how it moves, and the people that move it, across the country.

For the 1st campaign we traveled to Los Angeles, piggybacking on a motion campaign. We captured the A to Z of Amazon delivery, specifically highlighting the new Amazon Intermodal container branding. From trains and tracks and yards, to trucks and the excitement of fulfillment centers, to passing planes, it was an extensive effort in planning, including loading a BNSF train with only Amazon Intermodal containers and traveling from Chicago to LA just for a mountain pass shot.

The 2nd campaign was a quick 1-day shoot of personnel delivering boxes, from the sorting centers to the delivery truck and on the streets to a front doorstep. The final assets land as classroom wraps where trainees will be taught the process. It was an in-the-moment shoot, often creating something out of nothing, whether camera angles, foreground elemental distractions or manipulating backgrounds to appear as if we were not located in the Pacific Northwest.

Lastly we were in Virginia, where a man by the name of Bayar Palani has partnered with Amazon Relay to help deliver Amazon packages throughout the region. This partnership has helped Bayar grow his business exponentially and create the dream-life for he and his family. As an immigrant, whom traveled halfway around the world with his parents to seek better opportunity, he is a perfect example of what hard work, dedication, belief, and persistence take to open the right doors and fully live one’s dreams for a better future. He is the perfect example of what all persons should have the opportunity to create.

For more visit www.CameronKarsten.com

Seattle Central Creative Academy: Photography Assignment (Food Prep)

Food Prep.  An enjoyable shoot because after you’re finished you get to eat it.  I wanted to create a striking image focusing strictly on the food and a particular message.  And the message?  Polluting our planet, polluting our food.  We live off the resources this planet provides us, and by wrapping a plastic holder for a six-pack can of Dale’s Pale Ale around the salmon’s head while floating over a white ceramic plate, represents the sense of fragility yet power which our food is.  This image is a composite: one image exposed for the plate, the other for the salmon which was hung with 15lbs fishing line cleaned up in PS5.

Location: SCCA Studios, Seattle, WA

Camera/Lens Specifics: Canon 5D Mark II with Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM Telephoto Zoom Lens

70mm, 1/25 sec at f/4.5, ISO 100, tripod mount.

Post: Adobe LR3 & PS5