Olympic National Park – Cameron Karsten's Imaginarium

The Last Great Wild Place

The Olympic National Park is in my mind one of the last great wild places on earth. It’s absolutely remarkable with thick rich flora and fauna, and some of the last largest stands of trees. To venture into its rivers is an experience in and of itself, especially when you’re walking with two great anglers. Dylan Tomine and Nate Mantua are highly educated about the remaining wild fisheries around the world, especially the great steelhead runs along the West Coast. With Sage and Patagonia, I had the opportunity to spend two days wandering up and down the tributaries with them, and a host of other wildlife.

© Cameron Karsten Photography Patagonia flyfishing Ambassador Dylan Tomine throwing flies at the Olympic Peninsula steelhead run in Western Washington

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?