GoatBox Co – The OP Hunt

Creative Director John Idle reached out to me late last year for a last-minute campaign featuring a new product made by GoatBox Co out of Texas. We were looking for a hunting scenario, and immediately my mind began to tick. Being a small production with minimal budget, I called up a couple of friends, told them the what, when and where, and started scouring Google Maps for a close location.

Within less than two weeks we were dialed in on a beautiful day, out shooting on the Olympic Peninsula with a badass truck, a cooler fitting for the occasion, and all the props necessary to pull off an early morning deer hunting scene.

Besides the hunting scene, the client also was seeking a fishing scenario and a general lifestyle, product shots. Being the middle of winter and resources limited, John, my two talent models (who look way better on camera), and myself pulled off the impossible to make winter look like a late afternoon fishing outing during “warmer months”.

For more, visit www.CameronKarsten.com. Represented by The Gren Group

Olympic Day Hiking – The Brothers

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Spent a sunny summer day hiking to the base of The Brothers on the Olympic Peninsula, reaching just above the tree-line before running out of time.  An hour and twenty minutes up to Lena Lake and then an additional three hours upwards.  We passed below massive pines and wound through streams that disappeared beneath the riverbeds.

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Cameron Karsten Photography

Photo Essay: Wood – A Story from the Olympic Peninsula (Pt. III)

Photo Essay: Wood – A Story from the Olympic Peninsula (Pt. II)

As I continue to drive out into the Olympic Peninsula, camera bags full and surf gear packed, I slowly observe the culture of a timber industry unfolding before my eyes.  It is a people’s livelihood, their subsistence within the forest, bringing shelters over families heads and food to their hungry tables.  And for the blue collar, it is not a wealthy industry.  They are the cutters, sawers, operators, drivers and haulers of a civilization taking over the wild places.

With video files and the numerous still images of the cold cloudy spring passing over the Northwest wilderness, this project is evolving into an unbiased perspective of Man vs. Nature, and how the two can equally subsist; prosper side by side and thrive within one another.

Below is the second essay of imagery and visual thoughts from a story of wood deep within the Olympic Peninsula.

Photo Essay: Wood – a Story from the Olympic Peninsula (Pt. I)

Wood; a precious commodity.  Cut, sawed, shaped, nailed, lacquered, stained.  Occasionally it’s replanted, and years later, generations gone, money is made again.  Wood is money.  The forests are for sale, for their resources, for their lands, for their habitat.  The following images are the start of a multimedia project telling the tale of wood, from origin to combustion, and the phases of transition in-between.  How does it effect us?  How does it feed us?  How is the life under our feet and that above our heads impacted today, tomorrow and those generations ahead?

Photo of the Day: Textured Rep

Captured in the jungles of southeastern Costa Rica, this little lizard rested in the afternoon heat upon a leaf of a local palm. Composing the image, I wanted to photograph the details of the tropical jungle, highlighting the lizard’s intricate skin while diffusing the background of a deteriorating jungle floor.

Location: Manzanillo, Costa Rica

Camera/Lens Specifics: Canon 5D Mark II with Canon EF 24-105mm f/4 L IS USM;

1/25 sec at f/4, ISO 1000.

Post: Adobe LR3 & Photoshop CS5

Photo Essay: The Back Woods of the Olympics