Update from the Road – Part 1… Spring 2016

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Well it’s been a while since my last “Update from the Road” and time has just been flying by!     When I last left you we were on our way to Park City, Utah to catch the tail end of the snow season with plans to shoot a bunch of winter and mountain adventure sports.      Today is the 6th of May & I’m typing this on a plane returning to Utah from a job we just shot in Orlando, (more on that later)  & reflecting on the last couple months.   Once again, our time here seems like a blur.

So much has happened….      If you’ve been keeping up with my blog entries,  you read about my shoot with Park City PowderCats.   If not you haven’t had the chance to read and see the photos yet,  you can read about it here.    It was such an amazing couple of days on some of the best snow imaginable, making some really cool images images and I also had the opportunity to meet some really great people.

We also shot with RAMP Sports which is a really cool ski and snowboard manufacturing company based right here in Park City Utah.    They have a very unique culture and make awesome hand made skis & snowboards using a very Earth friendly sustainable process using bamboo as a base.  All their products are not only green but they are also certified “Made In America”  as they are hand made right there in their shop.     I spent the day shooting a bunch of their employees at work and captured the various stages of the process of making these killer skis & boards.   Later that week I spent the morning skiing up high at The Canyons,  shooting their CEO Mike on one of the last powder days before the closing of Park City for the season.    I’ll post the images here on the blog as soon as I get the all clear from RAMP as some of the shots are proprietary in nature.   In the meantime,  here is a little teaser of one of the guys grinding the edges on a snowboard.

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It’s different up here…   It’s interesting being in a resort ski town and seeing the changes that occur after the resorts start to close.     The days are warm, the grass gets green & leaves start budding and flowering on the trees… which in itself is just like anywhere else in the spring I guess, but with one major difference…  While the lower elevations warm up quick and soon resemble spring,  it is still cold up high on the peaks.  Often times it will be warm and sunny and you look up at the mountains and they are covered in clouds….  Cold and clouds means SNOW!   That’s right,  there is still fresh snow up at 10,000 feet and higher and folks are still hiking and snowmobiling in and doing back country ski tours.    Just this past weekend Snowbird,  (where we shot last week) got 19 inches of snow over 2&1/2 days.     You’d never know spring has sprung there…. yet 15 minutes down the valley the sun was shining and it was a beautiful 60 degree day.

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Spring has sprung!     So as time presses on it would seem spring is here to stay.    As things in the lower elevations are warming up you start seeing people switching gears.   The snow toys get put away and out come the summer toys and along with them,  the road cyclists, mountain bikers, golfers and fishermen.  You know what that means?   Summer is right around the corner!!

We teamed up with fly fishing guide Joe Mitchell of Stony Brook Fly Fishing recently to shoot some cool fly fishing stuff on the lower Provo River just south of the Jordanelle Reservoir dam.   With the increased snow melt streaming down the mountains the rivers are running cold and fast and the fishing is great.     Up and down the rivers fishermen and women are out doing their best to catch their fill of the various fish that inhabit these waters.   I hope to be getting back out to get more of this tomorrow before pulling out of Park City to continue our journey.   I’ll be posting images soon from these shoots so stay tuned!    For now,   here’s a little teaser.

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Meanwhile back at the office….      The nice thing about being here for an extended period is we have been able to take the necessary time to shift into a different gear and hunker down and do the all important job of marketing.    As any photographer will tell you,   while we would all love to be shooting all the time,  most of our time is spent feeding the machine and beating our own drum doing the various things that we do to keep the work coming in.  After all,   if all you did was travel and shoot photos,  but never put in the hard but necessary work of getting it out there to the right people to see,   the proverbial well would run dry pretty quickly.    Then you are no longer a photographer and his family on an amazing photo journey but just a dude in a trailer who can’t afford to go anywhere.  or even worse…  a guy “living in a van down by the river!”   – Chris Farley.

Well,  the flight attendants are telling us we need to prepare for landing which is my cue to bring this post to a close.   We have lots of other news and information to share so the next post will likely be just around the corner.    Tune in next time… (later this week) when I talk about what it takes to make a journey like this not only possible but profitable.  I’ll be sharing some details about marketing & promotion and the results we are seeing from all our efforts.

So as they say in Germany…   “All feet are the same!”

*Update…. what the heck does that mean?  Why is he talking about Germany and feet?Sorry…  Bad language joke: if you say “All feet are the same” in just the right way, it sounds sorta like Auf Wiedersehen (German for Goodbye) & that is exactly what I am doing!   🙂

 

 

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.   🙂   🙂   🙂

Update From The Road. Winter Edition – Part 2

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Last time on my “Update from the Road”, we had just left The Big Easy  –  New Orleans Louisiana.    We left town  just as Mardi Gras was reaching it’s fever pitch.    Just in time it would seem,  as we got to enjoy some of the mayhem and see a ton of parades but before the entire town shuts down and everything comes to a standstill while everyone parties at max levels.    We had work to do,  so off we went.     This time,  we headed north to Northern Louisiana/Texas Bayou country on a quest to meet some interesting back woods bayou fishing guides.

After getting a recommendation that Caddo Lake in the little town of Uncertain, Texas was the place to go to find such a person, we met Billy Carter.   Billy is the owner and proprietor of Johnson’s Landing Marina.   We had a great shoot with Billy touring the swamps around Caddo Lake.   Below is a few sample images from that shoot.   In case you missed it, I blogged earlier this month with a more in depth look at this shoot and info on Billy and the historic town of Uncertain, TX  Click Here to see this blog entry.

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While we were there we also had the opportunity to shoot with a local legend in the area, who is simply known as Mr. Henry.   Mr. Henry was quite a character…  At almost 80 years old, he is the oldest bayou fisherman in the area.  He has spent most of his life fishing the waters around Lake Caddo fishing primarily for crappie.   He’s definitely one-of-a-kind.  I think the pictures speak for themselves.  Here’s a quick teaser image but please stay tuned on my blog as I will be showing more of his pictures in the coming week.

CrappieFishermanV2webAfter leaving Uncertain we headed West….   The following days turned out to be very eventful as we crossed the great state of Texas.   We had the good fortune of being contacted a week prior by an ad agency client of mine who heard that I was going to be in the area.  They had a shoot they needed to get done for a major energy client of theirs and    asked “if I would be interested in shooting in Texas while we were there?”   Well of course the answer was yes, and as such we jumped at the opportunity to quickly pull together a stellar crew out of Dallas to do a quick shoot “Deep in the Heart of Texas” in the giant wind farms that dot the countryside of this huge state.    The initial use for these photos is internal but plans are that they will become part of an ongoing ad campaign that will be released later this year.   As with most advertising assignments,  I cannot divulge the client name or show any of the photos that we took until they have been released to the public.     So at least for now, you will just have to use your imagination…  🙂

However, I am allowed to say that we shot giant windmills and it was super cool!   I  know,  it’s not much,  but here’s a quick teaser shot I can show…

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These things go on for miles and miles… Hundreds and hundreds of them.   If you’ve never seen one up close… well let’s just say they dwarf you.    To say they are impressive is an understatement.   They are absolutely massive.  Standing at over 300 feet tall,   each one has three giant blades, (each weighing almost 20 tons) that are constantly spinning as the wind blows.   Each of these tall windmills is capable of producing upwards of 3.6 megawatts or enough power to light up 3000 homes.   That is a whole lot of power.

From there we pushed on through to new Mexico where we did a quick overnight Boondock in the strange little town of Roswell New Mexico.   For those who don’t know,   Roswell is famous for its claim to have an abundance of alien and UFO activity.     Everywhere you go in this town there are little green men and UFOs.

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From here our little wagon train pressed on westward to White Sands National Park to shoot some new personal work of the amazing landscape,  and also to do some car photography for the portfolio.    If you never been there,  I highly recommend it… it’s quite a sight to see.     Giant white sand dunes made up of the finest sugar sand you’ve ever seen,  that go on for miles and miles.  It is strange to see them in the middle of a giant desert plain.  The thought of “where the heck did these come from?” crosses your mind.  Upon educating yourself to local geological history, you find that they are a natural occurrence from millions and millions of years of erosion washing gypsum from the nearby mountains followed by the strong prevailing southwesterly winds that blow across the valley floor pushing the sand up onto itself forming these huge dunes.     They are quite unique as they are the only pure white sands dunes found anywhere on earth.

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Our next stop on the map found us in Sedona Arizona for a week enjoying the sights, hiking and the serenity of the red rock formations.    Here we did a bunch of shooting for stock, social media and the travel book.   I also began scouting & brainstorming for a shoot for my American Worker Project that we will be returning to shoot later this spring.   If all goes well and we can arrange it,  I hope to shoot a person who owns and operates his own hot air balloon company that runs tours over the picturesque area of Sedona.   Stay tuned for photos on that one… should be cool!   Here is a quick teaser iPhone photo.   More to come…..

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From Sedona, we headed northward up past the Grand Canyon.  We did our best to put the blinders on and not look at it, as we will be returning here for a proper exploration later this spring and did not want to spoil the “oh my god” moment you hear so much about when you first see it.   This of course proved to be easier said than done,  as the drive itself is quite amazing just going past the area.   We did however stop to snap a few teaser photos and also hit Big Bend in Glen Canyon to shoot the following photos.  (see below)

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Stay tuned for a proper blog post with more images from here later in the spring when  we return in early May for a week of photo exploration.     I am currently working on making connections with a Canyon river guide who guides rafting and camping trips down the Colorado River.   This is another example of someone who has an amazing job and will be a perfect addition to my American worker project.   Fingers crossed on this one as it is a bucket list item for me!

But that is what this trip is all about…..   Creating amazing new images and getting to see and do all the cool things that this country has to offer.       It’s been an amazing experience for myself and my family so far and is now becoming a self perpetuating machine as clients are starting to take notice and job requests are coming in based on the images we are creating.

In a way it has been a very educational and moving experience.    You really appreciate the fact that you can create your own destiny.     Thoughts are things….   build it and they will come!     These words have meaning.   They are not just bumper stickers…..   The  proof is in the pudding!

Stay tuned for more exciting adventures on my next post where we find ourselves in Park City, Utah for the entire month of March and most of April shooting some really cool outdoor adventure type stuff,  catching up on the ever important office work, driving the sales and marketing machine and even shooting a couple assignments.

But as I always say…  that is a story for another day!    Until then… “May the Schwartz be with you!”

If you are not following me on Instagram please do,  or turn on a friend who might be interested in following.   My instagram handle is @PeteBarrettPhoto click here to follow along!

 

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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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Update from the road…Winter Edition – Part 1.

desert runWell it has been a while since I’ve posted a summary update from the road.     So much has happened since I last updated you back in late November I’m going to have to break this up into several posts.

As I reflect back on the whirlwind of the last few months I must take a moment to appreciate the view out my side window of my office in the back of our rig.     Today we find ourselves just outside of Park City Utah with a killer view of the snow capped Wassatch mountain range right out my side window.    It’s the kind of view that makes it hard to get work done as the mountains call to you.  Below is an image I made of this view just this morning.   Last night as I started writing this blog entry there was a soft pastel blue and pink sunset going on as the remnants of a 3 day storm that left the mountain with just over two feet of fresh powder started to break up and leave the area.    The next few days promise to be gorgeous blue bird days…  perfect weather for making some great images and harvesting the hidden powder in the back country behind the resorts.  But enough about that for now,   I’ll get back to the present day later in post #2.

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So what have we been up to here in the Barrett camp since Fall?   Where do I start?   The end of November and first week of December brought a few assignments that had me back in Florida shooting.     Because of these assignments and a schedule that required we be back in South FL at a pre determined point,   we had to skip over two locations that I really wanted to shoot.   One was The Outer Banks in North Carolina and the other was in West Virginia where I was to shoot coal miners for the American Worker Project.    A disappointment, but work is work and we’ll just have to circle back around another time to do these shots.

The rest of December and the first half of January was a blur as we found ourselves back in our home base of  South Florida.     We spent some much needed down time decompressing, visiting friends & family,  doing the holiday thing and working in the office doing post production work on all the images I’d shot in the past few months.    We also took a few weeks to explore other areas of our home state on the west coast from Naples,  up through St Pete and on up to the Panhandle.

SunriseAt this point our schedule demanded we hit the road as we had many miles and stops to make before getting here to Park City to capture the last months of the snow season.    Our first stop was more of a tourist/photo opportunity to visit the underground caverns (who knew Florida had caverns?) and explore the swampy bayou  ‘way down yonder by the Chattahoochee’.

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From there we spent a little over a week in the Big Easy… New Orleans, LA.    By then it was the beginnings of Mardi Gras so as you can imagine the town was abustle with tons of activity.   Parades happening daily all over the city and people having a great time celebrating.      I made some great connections to shoot  through some contacts at Peter Mayer Advertising,  who I had recently worked with, and also through the local tourism office.     New Orleans is a hot bed of creative artists and craftsmen and I jumped at the opportunity to shoot several of them for my American Worker Series (I’ve posted a few teasers from these 4 shoots here but I will be posting the real images soon!!)     We shot with Alex Gernier of Doorman Designs.   Alex makes furniture using reclaimed wood from the old houses of New Orleans destroyed in Hurricane Katrina.      Next came a shoot with Ben Dombey who is a glass blower who hand blows these amazing glass drinking glasses.    Each of them are unique in their own individual way and custom embossed with locally inspired items stamped in the base.    See Ben’s work here.       I also got the opportunity to shoot with Patti Dunn of Tchoup Industries.    Patti and her partner make these amazing hand made bags and backpacks.  You can visit her shop here to see their work.     While wandering through the French Quarter one day,  I stumbled upon the coolest little shop,  (The Bevolo Gas & Electric Light Museum) where they hand make old fashion style gas lanterns.    I talked to two of the craftsmen as they were building their lamps and ended up shooting them for my project as well.

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I also shot a ton of the local street musicians and in a few of the bars.   That is one thing that really stands out about New Orleans to me is the amount of musical talent that is everywhere.IMG_0802 copy2

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We wrapped up our Louisiana leg with a quick trip to Oak Alley Plantation.   Oak Alley is an old cotton plantation rich with history.    Once run completely by slave labor,  Oak Alley is still a working farm today but the home is historical landmark and run as a museum.  You may have seen it in several movies.

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From here we set out through Texas, New Mexico,  into Arizona and then on to Utah.   But that is a story for another evening….    Stay tuned for Part 2 of my Winter/Spring update from the road coming in a few days!!

Bayou Fishing Guide – The American Worker Project #7

BillyCarter0993Our 7th installment into The American Worker Project found me shooting in a very cool place named “Uncertain” Texas.     The subject of this particular shoot was a man named Billy Carter.    Billy is a backwoods bayou fishing guide and owner of Johnson’s Ranch Marina on Caddo Lake in Uncertain TX.

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Billy was really great to work with and totally into the project from the moment I called him.   We met at Johnson’s Ranch Marina predawn one chilly morning in early February and loaded our gear into Billy’s Go Devil fishing guide boat and set out deep into the bayou to catch the sunrise and shoot out and around beautiful Caddo Lake.

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Billy has lived on Caddo Lake his entire life and has been a fishing guide for at least 35 of those years.    As Billy will tell you,   we don’t go fishing,  we go out “catching”.     He certainly seems to know his stuff.    He knows where all the good fishing holes are and has the knowledge on how to catch them once you are there.    This is a totally different kind of fishing than I am used to being a Yankee fisherman myself used to clear water.   In the murky bayou waters you have much better luck running your bait on the bottom.

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Riding around with Billy was awesome as he recounted all his knowledge of an area steeped in history.     Caddo Lake was originally created when an earthquake opened up a hole in the earth.    It caused a wave that rose upstream causing the Mississippi River to run backwards for a couple days.   The lake was actually the first natural lake in Texas prior to the days of dam created lakes and as such quickly became a sportsman’s paradise.

Billy told countless more tales about the lake’s history…Back in the 1800’s large steamboats used to ply the tannic waters of Caddo Lake taking travelers to the then bustling town of Jefferson and return with loads of cotton.     Oil was discovered under the lake bottom and was the first over water or offshore drilling operation in history.   There are still hints of the old rigs found on parts of the lake today.   For more info on the history or Billy and his guide services click here.

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Winterberry Farm – American Worker Project #6

Earlier this fall,   I had the opportunity to shoot at Winterberry Farm as part of my American Worker Project.

WinterberryBlog02WinterberryBlog01Located in the heart of the Belgrade Lakes Region in Belgrade, Maine, Winterberry Farm is a small, diversified certified organic farm set on forty acres of open fields, pastures and woodland.      It is owned by a very nice and hard working family.    Mary Perry is the owner, and she along with her 3 kids, (Kenya,  Gil and Sage) run the farm.    As anyone can imagine,  running a farm is hard work but doing it on your own with just your 3 kids (Kenya is actually off to college now) is very hard work.  Did I mention that they don’t use machinery to tend the fields?    Instead they have 2 very stout oxen that do the heavy lifting.   Regardless, hard or not,  to look at them you just know that they love it.           For more on the family and their farm, see their website here here.

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Only fifteen minutes from Augusta and Waterville, it boasts an 1870’s Victorian farmhouse, a shaker-built barn, lush gardens, and the Winterberry Farm Farmstore where they sell some of Maine’s finest all-natural and certified organic foods.

Their mission is to create a sense of community and belonging by offering wholesome food and flowers and to restore old-fashioned values by inviting people to come and experience life the way it used to be, on their animal powered farm.

Their commitment to sustainable agriculture allows us to produce abundant food and flowers without depleting resources or polluting the environment.

Their certified organic food is produced specifically with families in mind, to ensure the health of our children and the land on which they are raised.

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Surfing Pioneer & Surf Shop Owner – The American Worker Project #5

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Heading on down the coast to Newport,  Rhode Island I met up and photographed my next subject for The American Worker Project.   His name is Sid Abbruzzi.    Sid is one of the early pioneers of East Coast Surfing and has owned an operated Water Brothers Surfing Company since 1971 making it the longest operating Surf Shop in New England.     During my brief visit with Sid I was treated to a virtual history of New England East Coast Surfing as Sid shared story after story with me about his life.    He is a super cool guy and has a ton of stories to share.      It just so happens that this very weekend on January 16th Sid is being inducted into the East Coast Surfing Hall of Fame under the Pioneers of Surfing category.    Congrats to you Sid!!

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Sid is well known in the surf and skating world as one of the earliest pioneers of surfing.   He’s traveled the world surfing,  has rubbed elbows and is a friend with many surf and skating legends like Kelly Slater and Tony Hawk.     Starting back in the 6o’s he and a group of surfers travel far and wide looking for the perfect wave.   The late 60’s and early 70’s were a weird time in surfing.  After Vietnam many people had stopped surfing and the industry lacked direction as people tried to figure out if surfing was just a dying fad or was it something that could endure and evolve.

He ended up back in Newport and in 1971 he opened Water Brothers Surf Company in an old shack right on the beach in what was then, a derelict end of Newport Beach on a private beach called Seven Seas Beach.   Based on a handshake verbal agreement with the owner of the shack, he was able to lease the building for $300 a year until the land sold.   $300 a year!  for Newport Beach!     Well they had a pretty good run there until 1993 when someone bought the property and forced them to find a new location.   Sid describes those 21 years as “the wild west of east coast surfing”.   They were forced to find a direction and that they did…. They basically made up the rules as they went along,  did what ever they wanted and had a ball doing it.    In addition to surfing,  they also built large vert ramps for skating right next to the shop,   right on the beach.    During the 70’s & 80’s Water Brothers was THE place to be if you were a surfer or skater in the New England area.     SidAbbruzzi_07From there Sid moved his shop into a much larger space and opened was was to be the largest indoor skate park in the US.     This park is actually featured in one of Tony Hawk’s video games as a park you can skate within the game.     Over the years that location changed hands after a partnership turned sour and Sid eventually ended up in what is now his current location.   The shop as it stands now is a wonderful space and is like a museum of east coast surfing history.   The walls and ceilings are covered with memorabilia from a rich life in the surf industry and Sid is like a tour guide,  with a story to tell about each individual piece of history that surround his store.

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One story that stood out to me was how Sid actually saved one of Newport’s most coveted surf spots,  Ruggles Beach….  TWICE.      The first time was when he fought against city government officials who tried to outlaw surfing at the prime surfing spot.    He campaigned against the new law and won and was able to make a public park out of the area where everyone can enjoy it’s beauty and killer wave break.      The second time was when a developer had gotten approval to install a huge rock jetty at Ruggles that would have basically not only ruined the break but would have been an ecological disaster,  killing the ocean life and changing currents that could change the structure of the shore line forever.     Sid organized many people to campaign against this impending injustice and saved Ruggles Beach a second time.

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You can follow Sid on Instagram  @waterbrothers 

The Sheet Metal Man – The American Worker Installment #4

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For my 4th addition to The American Worker Project I decided to include a local icon in my home town of Belgrade Lakes Maine.    His name is John Gawler and he is another person that no matter when you see him,  he always greets you with a warm smile.    He is one of these guys who you’d be hard pressed to find someone who had something negative to say about him…  a genuinely good person.  

For most of his life John has made his living working in sheet metal which means he works a lot fabricating and installing people’s roofs, making metal chimneys, metal flashings and other things of that nature.   Over the years he has worked on pretty much everything from roofs for the locals to high profile jobs for people like Oscar De La Renta doing custom copper work on his New England home.   One might imagine that being a roofer in Maine can be tough especially in the winter months but you’d never know it talking to John…. he’s been doing it since he was 17 years old and seems to love every minute of it.   Ask him and he will tell you that he has always loved being outdoors and being up high, even as a kid he was always up high in a tree somewhere.

In addition to being a damn fine roofer,   John (and his whole immediate family) are extremely talented musicians and entertainers.    When I was a kid I remember they used to throw a folk festival called “The Buttermilk Hill Festival”  up on their farm every year. Today they regularly perform and play concerts for many of the local community events and elsewhere around the state.   They even have a few cd’s with their music on them.     But that is yet another story for another day….

 

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If you like what you see here,   please follow me on Instagram  @PeteBarrettPhoto to keep up with where we are in the world and what projects we are shooting.

Fishing Guide & Conservationist – The American Worker Project #3

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For my 3rd installment into The American Worker Project I chose to shoot long time Maine fishing guide Mike Guarino of Maine Wilderness Tours.  (Mike is the one in red)    I first met Mike back in 1998 on a stock photo shoot I did back in my Sharpshooters days.    I’ve seen him a bunch of times over the years and it occurs to me that I don’t think I’ve ever seen him without a smile on his face.    He one of those guys that not only loves what he does for a living but generally seems to really enjoy life itself.     He does have a pretty good gig though,  there are worse jobs than going out in the great outdoors and fishing everyday.  😉

When I approached Mike this time with the idea of including him in The American Worker Project he was instantly on board.     He even recruited fellow angler Dr Peter Kallin to join us on this chilly fall morning to go out and create some great fishing stills and video.

Peter is not only a great fisherman subject but is also an avid conservationist.     In addition to a long career,   Peter is the Executive Director of the Belgrade Regional Conservation Alliance where he works tirelessly to help monitor and control the quality of the watershed in Maine’s most important resource,  its lakes.

Enjoy the images below.   I will be posting some video as well at a later date.   Stay tuned!

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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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Earlybird Wake Skating Shoot! 5:00 a.m. 52 degrees

The earlybird catches the wake skater!         Got up early on this morning to shoot wake skaters at Camp Modin.    Nothing like waking up at 4:15 and on the water at 5:00 am on a crisp 52 degree summer morning in Maine.    These kids braved the cold and never once complained.    When it’s chilly like that the water actually seems really warm!

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Summertime Fun!

Well summer is finally here and let the fun begin!    Schools are out and it is time for kids everywhere to get out and enjoy all the things that kids get to do in the summer.    As many of you know every summer we move our base of operations to Maine to the quaint little town of Belgrade Lakes.      See the enclosed link to see some of the fun stuff we shot last summer and featured in a recent direct mail piece that went out to about 3,500 creatives at advertising agencies and client direct clients around the country.     Click here  or on the image below to see the mailer 

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This year we are looking forward to doing more great stuff.     Shooting several new projects both in video and stills of everything from a beverage project of teens enjoying a day of rope swinging at the lake, to a video project of a grandpa and grandson out fishing and other fun lifestyle scenarios.    I am also planning to start a personal series documenting real people such as river rafting guides, fishing guides,  boat builders,  commercial lobstermen and other local flavor.

I am looking to collaborate with as many people as I can on these projects so if you are a creative person or someone in the industry such as crew or talent or just want to come out and lend a hand and learn how we do what we do,  give me a call at 305/557-0694 or drop me an email at   barrett@petebarrett.com

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Color Vibe Coke

So my most recent lifestyle portfolio project is one that is all about color and energy.  Back about a year ago, I was shooting at the Color Vibe 5K run and got some good images but thought that it would be even better to come back, and this time bring a handful of young models along with me to recreate the scene, but with a bit more control. This way I could provide them with direction and guide the energy the way I truly wanted it. It also gave me an opportunity to throw in some products and skew it a little more toward the commercial side so that it’s appropriate for my potential clients.  This one ended up targeted toward Coke, as I and my reps have had several RFP’s and estimates this year for several large Coke projects, both for national and international campaigns. We’re actually up for two more as we speak.  (fingers crossed!)   The idea for this latest project was inspired by the traditional spring Holi festival.   See below and more images to follow:ColorVibe2015_018

The inspiration for this event was of course the Holi Festival.   It started as a celebration of the victory of the good over the bad and the beginning of the spring in India. It also happens to be super fun and has evolved into events ranging from private parties to festivals. People have just taken the idea and run with it, which has turned into a fun thing to do.
In this case, we used a Color Vibe 5K Run as our backdrop so that we could get the depth and volume of people to add to our background. Having shot the event last year, I knew there were going to be thousands of people there covered in color and getting crazy in the after-party of the run.  I just brought in seven of my own millennial, ‘twenty-something’ models, our own giant box of multicolored powder and put them in the middle of the masses and directed them to have a great time. They kept throwing color and dancing to the music of the DJ that the venue had on the main stage. The models were awesome and really had a fun time with it.
I am planning a follow up to take this project one step further, shooting a motion version, all in variable speeds ramping from normal speed to extreme slow mo. The inspiration for this (more for the effect of the powder not the actual subject) is a great video on Vimeo that the folks at Variable did http://vimeo.com/40123818   I’ll be sure to share the results once we shoot it!”ColorVibe2015_148vFINALvertColorVibe2015_153ColorVibe2015_159v1ColorVibe2015_198

Marlins Spring Training

Got a chance to shoot a little of the Marlins Spring Training this year.  Mostly just their new recruits and prospects doing drills.  Little known fact that the Marlins and Cardinals train just a mile away from where I live here in Jupiter.   Looking forward to doing more with them in the future.

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