Garden & Gun Magazine – Captains For Clean Water

I had the distinct pleasure to shoot with Garden and Gun Magazine recently.   Garden & Gun is an amazing publication with not only great editorial content but is also coveted among photographers as a publication that “get’s it”.   They have a history of working with really amazing photographers and giving them the creative freedom and support to do their very best work.    It was truly a pleasure working with them and I hope we have many more opportunities in the future.

For this assignment I was contacted by Margaret Houston the photo editor to shoot for an article featuring Captain Chris Wittman.    Chris is a fishing guide in Florida (Stillwater Charters) who heads up an organization called  “Captains For Clean Water”.   After being briefed on the article and what CFCW was all about,  I jumped at the chance to hop a plane back to Florida from Utah to shoot for G&G and do my part to  support such a worthy cause.

Captains For Clean Water is a Grassroots Nonprofit Organization Advocating for Clean Water & Healthy Estuaries Across South Florida.  They started out as a group of fishing guides that “had enough” of Florida’s poor water management practices. Given the destruction seen firsthand, they were convinced that if everyone knew what they knew, the problem would have been already fixed. They discovered, the solution has been delayed for decades because of a lack of political will and public awareness.


On average, billions of gallons of nutrient-laden fresh water flow into our lower estuaries via the Caloosahatchee and St. Lucie rivers every day. The concern to our estuaries is not just that these unnatural discharges contain pesticides, herbicides, fungicide, high nutrient loads and bacteria which have led to public health warnings; the volume of the fresh water alone is enough to disrupt our fragile marine ecosystems. The nutrients, and other pollutants, enter our waters through agricultural and urban areas in the center of the state, mostly north of Lake Okeechobee. Thankfully, with cooperation of farmers throughout the state, they have slowly been able to reduce phosphorous and nitrogen loads that enter the water supply, yet nutrient levels remain much higher than natural lake and river water.

Here’s what it’s all about…

Under normal circumstances, Everglades Agricultural Area (EAA) farmers may not contribute substantial nutrients to this water supply. When we experience heavy rains, however, sugar and other farm lands south of Lake Okeechobee flood. That water is then drained into ditches and ultimately pumped into Lake Okeechobee. This practice is known as back-pumping, and it adds fair amount of fresh water and nutrients to the lake. Back-pumping doesn’t happen on a daily basis, only during periods of heavy rains. The practice is justified in the name of reducing flood risk in largely agricultural areas south of Lake Okeechobee, however it is arguably a violation of the intent of the Clean Water Act and works mostly to the benefit of agricultural corporations operating in the EAA. And it is just one example of the many Lake Okeechobee water mismanagement issues facing our state.

The excess nutrients in Lake Okeechobee discharge water works to fuel toxic algae blooms in our marine (salt and freshwater) environments. The nutrients also have the potential to “fertilize” an already present red tide organism. These recurring fresh water discharges can create two deadly options for marine life in our estuaries: die in the fresh water discharge or be washed out to sea into a supercharged red tide bloom.

The murky, turbid Lake Okeechobee discharge water also kills seagrass, oysters and other life on the sea floor. It blocks light from reaching the seagrass and prohibits photosynthesis. Prolonged exposure to low salinity also kills grass, oysters, and other marine life.

Our seagrass beds and oysters are the foundation of estuarial marine life and an incredible natural filter. Without them, our estuary ecosystems face an uncertain future.

For many years we have witnessed, first hand, a decline in the lower Caloosahatchee, Pine Island Sound, and Indian River Lagoon estuaries due to this long term water mismanagement. While we drown in fresh water, Florida Bay is suffering from a lack of it, causing the water to become too salty to support critical sea life.

Our state needs land in the Everglades Agricultural Area necessary to clean the Lake Okeechobee discharge water in an attempt to restore natural sheet flow to Everglades National Park and Florida Bay. This will take large tracts of contiguous land for the construction of storm water treatment areas that will substantially reduce phosphorous and nitrogen levels in the water. Nutrient reduction is critical so we do not simply send our problem south.  For more information,  head over to www.captainsforcleanwater.org or pick up a copy of this month’s Garden And Gun Magazine and you can read the article!

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Update from the Road – Part 2 Spring 2016

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Hi there…   me again.    Thanks for coming back for Part 2 of my “Update from the Road”   Spring 2016 edition.   When we left off earlier this week I was recounting the various shoot projects from our stay here in Park City from the last couple months,  but that is just part of the story.      For those of you scratching your heads wondering “how the heck is this guy able to do this?”  I thought I’d share a little insight on what it takes to make it happen…   No I didn’t hit the lottery,   nor was I born with a silver spoon in my mouth.    Just good old hard work and careful planning & budgeting…

So what does it take keep this journey successful and profitable?   It is no different than if I were in my office back home in Florida.  Well it is different in that my view outside my office window is always different.   🙂

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Day after day in between shoots and when we are not traveling,  I put in the long hours that feed the machine and do the things that make it all happen.  Like any small business owner I wear many hats….  The producer hat-   This entails countless days on the computer and the phone planning and producing our next project.    The retoucher hat-   There is a ton of post work from shoots past….  processing of images that need to be retouched, color graded and finished.    The marketer hat –   Once the images are finished comes the job of pushing these images out to the various portals such as online portfolios, websites, stock agencies,  social media,  getting new work to the reps and working on creating new marketing materials.   I’ve doubled down on my advertising budgets and am going heavy with my media buys this year.  We have just finished sending out our next three spreads in The Workbook for the book that comes out this fall.  Also we are going to be advertising in Communication Arts for the Photo Annual that comes out this summer.    I’m also very excited about the direct mail piece we are mailing now….  It is a 28 page 6.5 x 8 inch printed booklet of images from my American Worker Project  that is hot off the press at the printers and is mailing this week out to 3000 creatives and other clients across the country.    Click the image below to thumb through the booklet.

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I also printed 5 hard cover books of images which are a Volume 1 of the American Worker Project…  That will serve as a supplement to my printed portfolios for in person showings.

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It Takes A Team:      Last but certainly not least are the people who support me…  All that I mention above is just part of what it takes run the biz…   I am fortunate to have a great team behind me and there is no way I could do all this without them.  My reps Blake and Glen at VISU are busy making the rounds with portfolio showings at advertising agencies all across the country from NY to Detroit,  Chicago and on to Minneapolis this month and they will show in the west from Dallas, on to LA,  San Francisco and Seattle later in the year.

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I’ve also been working hard with my my marketing partners at Wonderful Machine getting some great press and establishing a ton of new contacts.   Working closely with Alex (pictured left and center below) we have implemented a whole new marketing plan….     She has been busy creating new,  targeted lists and then promoting to those people by sending out emails and working the phones,  getting people to look at the work and setting up meetings for me to show the work when we get to various cities around the country.

Meanwhile I’ve been working closely with my publicist Jessica  (also from WM – pictured on right below) to put together a press release announcing the work we are doing with my American Worker Project.    She then sent them out to a targeted list of about 40 photography trade publications and we have had a fantastic response from them.  To date we have had about 8 interviews and articles written about the project.    You can read some of them here.       Future plans are to broaden our reach to include various photo blogs and podcasts and outward to the advertising trades, consumer magazines and newspapers as well.3up

The proof is in the pudding:    Judging from the analytics that report activity on my website and blog, we are doing something right…  People seem to be liking what they are seeing.    Traffic on my website and blog over the last month has spiked as much as 15 times my normal daily traffic after some of the articles hit and my overall average has just about tripled on a day to day basis in since the articles ran.

The results of all this hard work:    It is very rewarding to see that all this work is leading to positive results….   The calls are coming in for bunches of cool projects.     Most of which I can’t give you the details of as we are under NDA’s.    But what I can tell you is  that we are up for a shoot with global reach for a beverage company shooting with an international sports star shooting in late June in Orlando.   I also had a call this morning for a job for AirBnB.

Jobs that have been awarded….  We have also had the good fortune to land a few really great gigs that are happening over the next two months…      One of these jobs is an awesome sports lifestyle oriented shoot with a large Pharmaceutical company that will have us shooting in the mountains of North Carolina early next month.

I am also extremely excited to be working on a project with a legend in the advertising industry, on some really exciting work for a Whiskey distiller.     This is an ongoing project that I will be shooting at various points in the upcoming month as we travel across the west from here in Park City on down through Monument Valley,   the Grand Canyon,  back through Sedona and then westward to California.    Should be some killer stuff that hopefully will catch the attention of the awards shows when finished.

Next week we are heading down to Jamaica for a quick job for Vista Print.   Should be cool,  it’s been a few years since I’ve shot in Jamaica.   Will be great to get back.

And last but not least,   getting back to what I mentioned earlier in Part 1,   I’ve just returned from Florida where we shot a tandem Print and TV shoot with Huffy Bikes alongside the talented director Ernie Mosteller of Fried Okra Entertainment.   Fun Stuff!!!

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Wrapping this up….     So that’s it for now.  Thanks for following along,  if you don’t already follow me on Instagram,  please do… my Instagram handle is @petebarrettphoto and is chock full of interesting shots from our adventures.

Don’t forget to check back in!!!  –  Stay tuned for more great adventures from the road in the coming months as we press on up the coast of California and north up the Pacific Coast Highway up through Big Sur,  Yosemite National Park,  through big sequoia country and northward through Oregon, Washington and hopefully British Columbia!

American Worker Project features in the Press…

So our American Worker Project has been enjoying some very nice Press lately.     With articles being posted online on APhotoEditor,   The Huffington Post,   Creative BoomAmerican Photography,  Popular Photography and The Phoblographer as well as the many news feeds that feed off of each of those publications,  it has been garnering lots of attention.    Click each of the links above to see the individual articles.

PressThe exposure and response from these articles has been fantastic.     More and more people are starting to follow along on Instagram  (you can follow here)  and the analytics show that traffic on my website and blog have exploded with about 15 times more hits than the normal average.    Plus, we have had several requests for the portfolio and a bunch of recent bid requests for a really nice job for a national campaign for a multinational Electronics and Appliance manufacturer and also a campaign for a large investment firm to shoot in California next month.    Fingers crossed on these!!  🙂   Thanks to everyone for following along and stay tuned as we have lots more great imagery planned in the months coming…

*Update:    We have also just booked great job for a global campaign for a large Pharmaceutical company based on our efforts!  Shooting early next month.   🙂   🙂   🙂

Park City Powder Cat Guides – The American Worker #8

JohnnyStairStepsV2This entry into The American Worker Series led me way up high to some of the very best back country skiing terrain available in the country.     I was very fortunate recently to have been invited to join the guides of Park City Powder Cats on the beautiful 1000 Peaks Ranch in the high Uinta Mountains  just east of Park City Utah for two days during a storm that dumped well over foot and a half of fresh powder on of some of the most epic terrain I have ever ridden.   Over the two days I met some amazing people and got some really great photos while getting access to some of the most epic skiing and snowboarding terrain one can find.    *Note-  Some of these images need to be seen large to really get enormity of the terrain…. click the image to see a larger version.PCPowdercats1394PCPowdercats1553For those of you that have not heard of back country Powder Cat skiing,  you don’t know what you have been missing.    Instead of skiing within the boundaries of a ski resort and being herded with the hoards and masses up ski lifts where you are lucky if you get one un-tracked line on a powder day,  you are instead being brought up a private mountain in a heated Powder Cat coach that delivers you and 9 or 10 other lucky skiers and snowboarders to the top of some of the best un-tracked terrain in the country.    At Park City Powder Cats they have over 43,000 acres of private land to choose from.   That is an area larger than Vail,  Aspen and Killington Mountains combined.    What that means is you can go for days and days and never have to ski over someone’s tracks if you choose not to.       We are talking HUGE bowls of steep and deep riding in some of the lightest and fluffiest powder I have ever experienced,  which says a lot as I have well over 20 years on the snow.

A warning though….  a few good days here will literally ruin your experience at even the very best ski resort out there.    It sets the benchmark way high and everything else pales by comparison.  🙂

CatOnPeak1 PCPowdercats1604v2sqSo epic skiing aside,  my reason for being here was to shoot the people that make it all happen at PCcats.     I wanted to document the hard working ski guides,  snow safety and drivers that take people out day after day into some of the most incredible,  (yet potentially dangerous) areas to feed their nonstop craving for fresh un-tracked powder.       Over our two day shoot I had the pleasure of shooting and riding with their amazing guides Johnny,  Jason, Chris and Nancy.     These folks have the best jobs in the world and they are very good at it.    Their ever present positive attitude is infectious.     Though I guess it would be easy to be positive given the venue in which they work!

PCPowdercats0456Sq PCPowdercats1802sq It’s not all just “atta boy’s and good jobs” though,  in addition to making sure people have a great time,  this hard working team’s most important job is one of making sure your experience is a safe one.   You have to remember that this is the back country and it can be extremely dangerous if you do not respect it and know what you are doing.  Avalance potential is ever present in the back country and it is paramount that you know what to do and not to do.   Every skiier is given an avalanche beacon and a safety briefing in the morning before leaving base camp.    Before each individual run,  they tell you exactly where to go, or (more importantly), where not to go to keep you safe.    The guides work very closely with their expert snow safety patrols.   Together they constantly assess the conditions and determine where their next run will be and exactly what parts of each peak will be not only the best run,  but also how to best approach these runs to get everyone down safely without incedent.PCPowdercats0371

PCPowdercats0865sqTheir snow safety team are constantly out on the various parts of the mountain during the day cutting new lines,  knocking down dangerous cornices and throwing the occasional explosive charge to help mitigate much of the avalanche risk.    They work hand in hand with the guides to help them to craft the perfect day for their guests and keep them out of harm’s way.PCPowdercats0952-2v3The image above shows snow safety patrollers Dave and Wes setting a charge to help shake loose any dangerous snow that might potentially be a problem to their guests.   This particular shot was from Day 1 of our shoot way up high around 11,000 feet on a seriously steep grade with a dangerous cornice during one of the only moments where the visibility was good and not a complete white out.    Nothing like heading out to the top of the world and throwing explosives, all in the name of safety!     They have to be on top of their game and have razor sharp focus as without what they do,  as the guides would have no way of knowing what each face is doing on that particular day without them.

 

PCPowdercats1815webThis is General Manager and head honcho Ron.    This guy is amazing.   He is quite literally everywhere doing every conceivable job you can think of… from helping coordinate guests, to running a cat up the mountain to groom the cat trails so that the drivers can get the guests to where they need to be, to shuttling people out on snowmobiles that need to get to different areas around the mountain, to coordinating with a production company filming a movie on property.  He does everything and all with a constant smile on his face!   With him running the show and his amazing “Can Do” attitude it is no surprise that he has such a well oiled and positive team.   Good management filters down through the ranks and it shows throughout their entire operation.

PCPowdercats0265Last but not least are their team of talented powder cat drivers.    Without these guys at the helm they wouldn’t be able to deliver their guests to these amazing spots.    Make no mistake, their job is not easy.    They have to be experts at what they are doing.  These are large, HEAVY pieces of machinery,  they do everything from crossing running ice cold river beds to climbing up super steep grades and chugging through giant snow drifts that can take 5 or 6 tries to get through.    There are many times on any given climb when you look out the window and realize you are motoring up a steep grade riding on only a tiny ridge line with no room to spare on either side, and thousand foot drops to your right and left.    These guys do it without breaking a sweat!!

If you are an advanced skiier and you’ve never done this before,   you owe it to yourself to save up and go out and do it at least once.     I guarantee when you leave, you will leave craving your next opportunity!     You can reach them here to book your next trip!!

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Lobster Fishing- The American Worker Project #2

Lobstah10 My second installment into The American Worker Project brought me Down East to the coast of Maine in a little place called Brooklin Maine.    Specifically the waters off of Eggemoggin Reach just a few miles south of Mount Desert Island, but a seemingly miles away from all the crowds and tourists that one encounters when touring Acadia.

I was introduced to my new lobstering friends,  Patrick and his sister Sharlene Grant, by our new friend and host Laurie, of Ocean Front Camping of Reach Knolls in Brooklin.      Laurie and her husband Paul were amazing hosts and also a wealth of knowledge in assisting me with setting up several of my shoots.   But that is a story for another post….  Stay tuned.

Getting back to my exciting day of lobstering….   Here are a few more photos from that cold morning on the water.     Scroll down below the following photos for more info on my hard working subjects Patrick and Sharlene.

Lobstah13Lobstah05Lobstah04Lobstah12Lobstah16We started out our morning early at the crack of dawn,  what turned out to be a late start compared to their normal days.   After boarding their boat and loading up the day’s bait, we had a quick discussion about what we were going to shoot and how I can get the best shots without ending up in their way or over the side of the boat.  😉   I couldn’t have asked for better subjects.  They  were super nice and gave me free reign on their boat to shoot whatever I wanted.   

Patrick and Sharlene are second generation lobster fishermen.    Both started out at a very early age just as their father before them.   Sharlene worked the boats off and on over the years and took time every summer to fish alongside her brother and her dad.   Patrick has followed in his dads footsteps and has hardly missed a day on the water in over 30 years.    It is hard work, but when you talk with them you see that they really love it.    You would have to love it to get out on some of the cold mornings…    😉   It was a blustery 29 degrees Fahrenheit the day we went out.    Fortunately the sun was out.   I can only imagine what it must be like when it is cold and blowing with rain added in on top of that.

The job of a commercial lobsterman is hard.   You work really long hours,  get up super early and head out to search for your bouys in a sea of what seems like millions of bouys. This task of finding your traps (or Pots) has been simplified somewhat with the invention of the GPS but finding them and hauling them in is still an arduous task.    Patrick captains the boat and snags and hauls in the traps while Sharlene preps the bait and does all the measuring, banding and sorting of the keepers vs the rejects.    Then Patrick drops the pots and the process is repeated about a zillion times.    All the while being soaked with freezing cold water.   Simple right?  😉   Watching them work was something else,   they are like a well oiled machine.      One of the highlights of the day was when Sharlene pulled in a pot that at first glance only had two lobsters in it… upon further inspection it turned out to be one lobster that had shed its shell and left a perfectly preserved shell of its former self right next to it.    A pretty rare find,  even for a seasoned pro.

All in all we had a pretty good day.   While it started out slow,   it picked up about mid morning.   Patrick joked that it seemed like every time I would switch from stills to video  we seemed to bring in lots more pots full with lobsters.    Sounds like a joke but it literally happened like that 3 times in a row.   Stay tuned for an update with our video we shot that day.  In the end we went back in to port with about 4oo+ pounds of lobster.    Which is a pretty good haul for about 1/2 days worth of  lobstering at the end of the season.

At the end of the day they sent me home with a giant bucket of lobsters and a few crabs and my family and I had the feast of our lives!    Thanks so much to them both for making me feel welcome and for being such great subjects!
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Hammond Lumber Company

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As I recently posted,   I have begun my new series,  The American Worker Project which will be an ongoing project as we travel around the country,  documenting the American Worker.      I chose to start this adventure and visual assignment in my home town in Belgrade Maine.      As many of you know I grew up in Maine and it is where we spend the better portion of each summer for the last 14 years when not off on assignment somewhere.

I figure what better place to start than the area you know best.      I chose Hammond Lumber Company because it is a classic example of a good old fashioned family business with its heart and soul wrapped firmly in the people that work there.    It also helps that I am friends from back in our childhood days with one of the principles of the company.

Hammond Lumber is a company that was started back in the early 50’s by Skip Hammond with only $50 and a dream.     It has been a staple in the town and now around the entire state of Maine ever since.      For over 60 years they have grown from a small mill with 3 employees including Skip himself to a large company with 13 stores and counting with many many loyal employees,  many of whom have worked there for 20 – 30 years or more.      Hammond Lumber is one of those special kind of businesses where you  know you are much more to them than just a number.    They offer personal service that is rare these days,   all at a fair price.

I’d like to thank Mike Hammond and the other great folks at Hammond for giving me cart blanche and basically unrestricted access to film in their main saw mill.    Over the coarse of 3 days we shot a ton of video footage and stills of their hard working employees.

Here are just a few images from the shoot.     Click here or on any of the images to see a larger gallery of images posted to my website.

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Beginning The American Worker Project.

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Well at long last after hunkering down over the holidays we are able to post the first of many shoots to come for my new ongoing project called “The American Worker Project”. As we are traveling around the country we are getting the opportunity to meet and shoot all sorts of new people and things.     The American Worker Project is a way to visually feature and document (both on video and stills) some of the wonderful people we are meeting along our journey.   So far we have had the great pleasure to shoot in a lumber yard in Maine,  lobster fishermen on a lobster boat,    a man who hand makes wooden boats and also carves wooden boat models,  an old friend and metal roof man,  the owner of the oldest surf shop in New England,   Amish dairy farmers,  a train engineer and much more.   Here are a few images of the first of many to come.   Stay tuned….

UPDATE:   Added more shots from new shoots,  see below…

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Update from the Road

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Update from the Barrett camp…

Well we’ve been at it about almost 2 months and it seems like a blur.   I have been non stop shooting one project after another.  We’ve been so busy I have not had time to update this blog but will be adding new stuff soon. If you’ve been following along on Facebook or Instagram you have no doubt seen my steady stream of teaser iPhone photos.     This upcoming week I am actually trying to schedule some down time to work on processing, finishing work and color grading on a backlog of finished shots and will be posting them to my blog and as well to the various social media channels soon.     We also have a ton of video that hopefully will make it to the editor in the coming month to expand my reel.

Just a quick recap of where we’ve been and what I’ve been shooting.    We started our journey by heading to Maine to shoot in the remaining nice fall weather.  Immediate plans have had me shooting everything from flyfishing with fishing guide Mike Guarino of Maine Wilderness Tours in the Kennebec River  for Maine Tourism type stuff,   Shooting on a freezing 28 degree day on a lobster boat, the “F/V Pud Lee”  with Captain Patrick and his sister Sharlene Grant,  a couple of hard working  Lobster Fishermen.    I also spent several days shooting a reportage documentary style people shoot in the saw mill at Hammond Lumber in Belgrade Maine,  shooting both stills and video.    This project also marks the start of a series that I am working on called  “The American Worker Project”  where we will be shooting real people in real jobs all over the country.      Very Heart of America kind of stuff.   It’s a great opportunity to get out an meet new people and shoot some killer new stuff for the books.    It also doesn’t hurt that this type of work is in very high demand right now and is great for getting all sorts of clients.

After leaving Maine,  we headed south to Boston to take a few days showing the portfolios to some ad agency clients.    I also had the opportunity to shoot Sid Abbruzzi who is the owner of WaterBoys in Newport Rhode Island which is the oldest surf shop in New England.   Sid is also about to be inducted into the Surfing Hall of Fame and is a really great guy with a million stories to tell about the interesting life he has lead.    I also shot some neat stuff of some guys working in a motorcycle shop for the American Worker Project.    While I was busy shooting.   The rest of the family got to explore Boston and learn about the history of our country touring the Freedom trail and other cool stuff.

From there we found ourselves in New York City for 5 days.    I had a quick editorial job to shoot and spent the rest of the time doing personal work,  street shooting and hitting a few of the iconic NY spots with the family.

This last week as you’ve seen has been spent in Lancaster County in MidWestern Pennsylvania  shooting Amish Country and some really cool old steam trains.   Which brings me to the present… Suffice to say, it feels like a whirlwind so far.    What an awesome trip for all of us.

Tomorrow we head towards Philly and I shift into post production mode for a few days as I literally have tens of thousands of images to be edited.    Thursday is a much needed down day as we stuff ourselves on Turkey day visiting Deirdre’s side of the family in Southern New Jersey.

Speaking of stuffed….   Our calendar for the next 30 days does not have a free day on it.    What we have scheduled for the next month makes what we have done so far look like a stroll in the park.    Many miles ahead of us as we zigzag through the the entire Southeastern seaboard.    Some of the travel is part of the various RV road trip photo projects  and,  oh yeah,  I actually have a couple pretty decent ad jobs that I am scheduled to to fly out for as well.    All this before a much needed Christmas break down in Naples FL.

But that is a story for another night….

Please stay tuned for more installments… Thanks for all the “Likes” and great comments,   keep them coming and please feel free to share with your friends.   If you have not done so already,   Please follow me on Instagram @PeteBarrettPhoto as I am steadily growing my following there as well.

Until next time….

Road Trip Anyone?

All sorts of new and exciting things happening in the Barrett Camp these days!     We have been busier than ever with a new extended ongoing travel project.    Some of you may already be following us on our adventure, via Facebook and Instagram (follow me on Instagram @petebarrettphoto) but for the rest of you that don’t yet know,  here’s what we’re up to…

Hit the roadIt’s no secret that I love to travel and I am fortunate that I have a great career that very often finds me traveling to shoot photos for great clients all across the country as well as elsewhere in the world.    My wife also shares that passion for travel and several years ago she planted the seed for an idea of getting an RV and traveling all over the country with the family.    Something everyone would love to do at one point in their lives but for someone with a busy career and a family,  it seemed like a “pie in the sky” idea to me at first.    I have to credit her with being persistent and the more I considered it the more it started sounding not only do-able but also an amazing opportunity to shoot a TON of new work all over the country which also goes a long way toward giving me new and exciting things to promote for new upcoming assignment work.

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Doing What It Takes: Pete Barrett – A Sporting Life Article

The website “A Sporting Life”  just ran a feature article on me.   See the link http://www.asportinglife.com/doing-what-it-takes-pete-barrett/  or read below:

Pete Barrett is an advertising photographer who shoots lifestyle and sports photography for a virtual who’s who of clients ranging from AT&T, Pfizer, Ford Motors, Cannondale Bikes, New Balance, McDonalds and Anheuser Busch. Most of Pete’s shoots involve large productions with teams of producers, stylists,  hair & makeup, location scouts, digital techs and many photo assistants. “I work with a terrific team of people.  Every job is a collaboration where the whole team is working toward a common goal of creating amazing images.”

Pete Barrett

Whether the task at hand is a big budget multishot campaign shot in studio with LeBron James or a recent Sports Illustrated assignment with tennis pro Jack Sock where he shot solo,  Pete puts the same attention to detail and creativity towards the job.

A lot goes in to putting together a shoot in advertising and even some editorial jobs.  There are seemingly a million things that need to be considered and arranged.   Dealing with professional athletes brings with it special considerations, like do they have special needs or requirements?   It is not uncommon to get a list of requirements such as transportation to and from the shoot,  specific menu or chef for catering,  studio or dressing room requirements,  type of music preferred etc. Couple this with the common shoot logistics of finding locations, acquiring wardrobe, special lighting, arranging RV’s  and it’s enough to keep a team of producers and PA’s busy.

This series of images came from a project for Remicade which is pharmaceutical product of Janssen Biotech. The athlete we were to shoot was the Edmonton Oilers right winger, Fernando Pisani.

Pete Barrett

Every job comes with its own unique set of challenges and this job was no exception. Being a pharmaceutical client they come with a laundry list of do’s and don’ts from their legal department.   On this particular shoot we were tasked with putting Fernando in wardrobe that had to be generic and non specific.    No logos are allowed.   No Nike logos,   no Oilers logos,  no team colors,  nothing…  Not as easy as it sounds.   It couldn’t even be a blank jersey from a team as the design of the shirt is patented.   This requires the stylist to have a generic jersey custom made in solid grey to have only his number on it.   This way no other companies can get ruffled by the use that they themselves are not promoting.

Pete Barrett

One has to be ready for anything and be able to solve problems quickly. We had one such problem almost derail the shoot entirely. Fernando broke his ankle 3 days before the shoot and his ankle was now in a cast.   Since two of the shots had him skating and 4 others were to be full figure portraits in gear this put an obvious damper on the plans. Pete quickly solved the problem and the shoot went on as scheduled. “I called my producer and had him source a body double.    We then shot every shot twice,   once with Fernando and again with a body double dressed the same way with full gear and skates on in the same position. I then removed Fernando’s legs and broken foot and replaced it with that of the body double in post. This was easier said than done as you need to also retouch in shadows and reflections. The biggest challenge was getting the action shots of him skating and showing speed. We built a platform rig that he could stand on which consisted of several sheets of thick plywood with hockey pucks screwed to the bottom of it so it would slide easily on the ice. Two photo assistants towed Fernando across the ice on this thing while a third pushed me alongside sitting on a folding chair while I shot.  It worked great! Fernando just stood hunched in a prone position swinging his arms and I did a little flash and drag where the flash freezes him and the shutter stays open a bit longer to show the motion.  In the end it worked out great. Happy clients, happy athlete, happy photographer!

Here are more of my photos:

Pete Barrett

This shot is from a Cannondale Bike shoot we did up at Mount Tam outside of San Francisco. To get a consistent low angle on the cyclist as he rode through the hilly landscape, my crew built me a shoot platform that extended out the side of a minivan about 6 feet.  We paid for several off duty police officers to stop traffic for about a mile and spent the morning chasing this guy up and down Mount Tam while I knuckle dragged it hanging off the gang plank.

Pete Barrett

This shot was done for self promotion and for stock. For this we shot at night. We hung a huge sheet of black duvateen fabric across the back of the pool on highboy stands and speed rail. Lighting was from 4 Dynalite heads,  two on grids back lighting the water and two from the sides to flank the swimmer.    Power on the strobes was dialed way down to keep the flash duration short to freeze the action.

Pete Barrett

This was shot for self promotion and for stock. We did a whole story of this guy starting from pulling his board out of the car and followed him through his morning,  down the path, up the beach, watching waves crash and then paddling out.  We are shooting a motion version of this as well that will be cut together to make a spec commercial that will target the financial markets.

The Last Word

I had the privilege of working with Chris Toth from Tothwork.com on a pro bono campaign for a great cause the other day.     It’s a PSA to get people to stop texting while they drive.

Imagine you are trading texts with someone special…  your wife, your son or daughter,  your dad….  and you get a text from them saying something trite & trivial like “LOL” or “CU L8R”  only instead of being cute,  it ends up being the most tragic thing you could ever imagine…    Because you see,  in this scenerio,  that was the last thing your special someone ever said.      Boom!   Lights out.  They are gone.

All because they were texting when they should have been paying attention to the road.   What’s worse, they were texting to you.    It’s a hard pill to swallow and the photos strike right at the heart of that message showing you the pain and anguish that these people are feeling.

Special thanks to Chris Toth for coming up with some great creative ideas and to all the talent and crew who generously donated their time for such a worthy endevour.    If we keep just one person from making this tragic mistake it is worthwhile…  hopefully we stop many more.

Don’t Text while driving,  the life you save could be your own.

Nostalgia from FoundXposed.

I seem to be on a roll lately.   The folks at Foundfolios just featured some of my personal work from this summer in their email promo today.

It’s always nice when people take notice of your work want to show it.   While our advertising venues are paid to promote us as photographers,  it is especially nice when they go the extra step and show your work in their own promotions which are over and above the ad space that we pay for.    Much like the AtEdge email ad from my last post,   these dual purpose campaigns do a lot to promote the brand of the sourcebook as well as push the individual photographers in a value added service that they provide their photographers.      Thanks guys!

AtEdge Shoutout!

The folks at AtEdge gave us a shoutout recently by featuring me in their email mailer.     The exposure was great!  We saw a marked increase in web hits as people clicked through to my website and even got a few calls for potential work.   Thanks to Glen Serbin and the folks at AtEdge!

Pete’s Work Climbing the Ranks at OneEyeland

My work has been climbing the ranks on OneEyeland’s ranking system for most accepted and best images.   Currently I am sitting at #3 of all their photographers Worldwide for this month!   I am honored that my work has been so well received amongst such a talented group of image creators.

For those who are not familiar with OneEyeland… It is very different kind of web portal featuring the works of some of the worlds very best photographers.

Images must pass a rigorous editing process and only the best are excepted after being judged by a Jury of 5 members who evaluate images on 5 parameters.

1. CONCEPT –  Is it more than a pretty picture? Is there an idea behind the image?
2. POINT OF VIEW – How fresh is the point of view?
3. CRAFT – What is the level of finish of the image in terms of execution?
4. EVOCATIVENESS – Does the image evoke many stories? Or is it linear?
5. MEMORABILITY – Does the image stick in the head even after you see several other images?
All the parameters are judged on a 1-10 scale by the members.
Then the score for the image is tabulated.
If the score is above 30, an image is shortlisted for consideration.
Then all 5 members take a vote on whether the image is worthy of being inducted into One Eyeland.
If 3 or more than 3 say YES, then the image is selected.
Sometimes, some images lose out after being shortlisted.
It is highly possible, that some of your images, may have been shortlisted, but didn’t make the final cut.
The jury at One Eyeland, try their best to be objective.
You can link directly to my images on OneEyeland by clicking here.

Chumley makes the big time in National Geographic Magazine!

Ok, so his name is not Chumley…  it is actually Uquq… but I like the name Chumley…

Once again,  ‘ol Chumley is getting some serious press.    Just this month,  I had the honor of placing my photo of Uquq  in the March 2011 issue of  National Geographic Magazine in the Visions of Earth section!