Category Archives: News

Hotel Emery

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Excited to share a recent creative & collaborative partnership effort for The Hotel Emery from Pete Barrett and Sammy Todd Dyess . – Minneapolis, Minnesota.


Client: @HotelEmery @Davidsonhospitality
Co-Director & Still Photos: @SammyToddDyess
Co-Director & DP: @PeteBarrettPhotos
Production Coordination @Maddie_Flom
1st AC & Movi Operator: @AleutianCalabay
2nd AC & Grip/Gaff: @ChrisSpraungel
Hair & MakeUp: @MikiMori2
Wardrobe: @KateMoroneyStylist
Talent: @CDoty
Talent Agency: @CarynModels

Dish Network – Below Deck with Captain Lee

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I’m happy to be able to share with you a recent shoot we did for Dish Network shooting celebrity portraits onboard a yacht in Miami of Captain Lee from the show “Below Deck with Captain Lee”. This was my 2nd time shooting for Dish Network with Captain Lee and this shoot was even better than the first one. The Captain is just a great person to work with as he is super approachable, extremely engaging and and generous with his time.

I also had the privilege of working alongside a fantastic film crew, (which I do quite often) who were shooting a commercial spot promoting the show. It is always a pleasure to work alongside such talented and hard working professionals in creative collaboration to make great work. Looking forward to the next one!!

Pennsylvania Dutch Country

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Here’s a fun post for TBT… I spent some time exploring and shooting new personal work in the Pennsylvania Dutch Country a few years back while we were traveling the country shooting new photos and video work. Such a beautiful and unique area. Seeing the way the Amish farmers work and live their lives is always a great experience. In a way it feels like you have gone back in time.

Settling in Lancaster County in western Pennsylvania The Amish people are a group of traditional Christian church fellowships with Swiss German origins. This area is mostly farmland and you will frequently see The Amish farmers out tending their fields using teams of oxen or traveling the scenic roads in their traditional horse and buggies.

If you ever have the chance to go, I highly recommend it. It was so peaceful shooting in the silence and hearing the click clop in the distance of approaching buggies off in the distance. A little known fact… The reason you rarely if ever see photos of The Amish people in person stems from their beliefs. The Amish hold humility as a cherished trait. To pose for photos can be viewed as calling attention to one’s self and as such most would prefer not to be photographed. I always try to respect this and go out of my way to not show them or be too blatant in the way I photograph. In most cases I actually avoid showing people in these photos in a way that they can be directly seen or recognized unless I specifically ask them and are given permission to do so.

Florida Blue Insurance

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It’s my pleasure to be able to share with you a two part assignment that I shot (pre-Covid) right here in South Florida for Florida Blue Insurance. It was a great project that required all sorts of problem solving.

For the first part I worked in tandem alongside a great motion team shooting the stills version of a TV spot of a woman jogging and thinking of affordable ways she could insure her employees for her business… a problem that many small businesses face. You see her jogging and being followed by a seemily endless group of other small business owners who also have similar insurance needs as she does. Florida Blue has programs that fit all sorts of businesses. To produce this we shot on a camera car with our hero talent and a good size group of various workers jogging behind us. We then shuffled the group and reshot them at various distances so we could composite the final shot you see here with people running all the way into the distance. 

The following day was raining so we moved the stills production in studio to shoot a bunch of our various small business owners individually. These images were lit so that they could be retouched by me later in post into various job specific backgrounds, (some backgrounds shot by me and others were stock backgrounds). 

All in all it was a great shoot! Many thanks to my amazing crew, without which none of these shoots would happen. Also to Mutt Films for working me seamlessly into their TV production. Always enjoy the opportunity to collaborate with film crews and directors to make the magic happen. Last but not least, thanks to Philipe and Rafael from Alma Advertising. Always great working with the folks at Alma as they are one of the top shops around!

See below a few of the shot laid into their final ad format:

The Race Of Gentlemen.

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Attention all race fans and motorheads!  Check out Pete Barrett’s latest images from The Race of Gentlemen!  

Pete’s continued interest in racing has been evident with his past shoots ranging from The Bonneville Salt Flats to the explosive fast paced IHRA Dragster Racing.  Continuing on in this vein,  Pete recently had the opportunity to shoot at this year’s  “The Race Of Gentlemen” (TROG) in Wildwood NJ.    

The Race of Gentlemen is a vintage hotrod and motorcycle racing event started by the historic Oilers motorcycle club, where they race right on the beach for the glory of seeing who is the fastest on the sand.  Racers and their vehicles are hand picked and must meet certain criteria… To race, vehicles must be American made and have been produced prior to 1935 for the hot rods & motorcycles dating back to pre 1947 complete with a side mounted “Suicide Clutch” on the gas tank for shifting.   

It’s an exciting annual event that looks like it was plucked from the pages of time where you will find bearded/tattooed characters and motorheads of all shapes and sizes dressed in period appropriate clothing such as old leather riding pants & boots and (until this year), old style helmets and goggles.  As an added bonus, the race would not be complete without a sexy, high jumping flag girl to start them off as they go roaring down the beach toward the finish line.

It’s a rip roaring good time full of friendly folks who seem like they are family.  If you ever get the chance, be sure to check it out!    

When creating these images,  Pete chose an equally vintage look which is reminiscent of what you might expect to see from old large format cameras complete with very shallow depth of field and a Petzvall style falloff and distortion on the edges.   To see more work from this collection please click here to go to the TROG section of Pete’s website.    

Additionally, if you are interested in custom prints,  please click here to go to our print store where you’ll have a choice of having custom fine art prints made archival photo paper, stretched canvas or even printed directly onto aluminum.

A Life In Pictures- The Herd of Turtles Podcast Interview #1…

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I recently had the pleasure of being interviewed by Brent Krizo of The Herd of Turtles Podcast. Brent started this Podcast as a way to share stories of people who dare to dream of living a life less ordinary. People who have challenged the status quo and are living life on their own terms. This is a two part interview where he interviewed me in this first installment to talk about my life as an advertising photographer. In Part 2, which I will share next week, he interviewed me about our family’s adventure and life on the road for the last 3 & 1/2 years in an RV. Click this link or the image below to listen to Part 1! & Please stay tuned to listen to part 2 next week!


Garden & Gun Magazine – Captains For Clean Water

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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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Winter’s Here… Time to go Ice Fishing!

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Winter is finally upon us!  Winter is finally here which brings with it all sorts of fun stuff…Things like heading to New Hampshire with friends to take in the annual ice fishing derby!   These folks are serious about their ice fishing.   What a great excuse to head out on the snow and frozen lakes to drink beer,  ride snowmobiles and have fun!

Miami Cancer Institute Campaign Rolls Out first 2 of 8 Executions.

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Well after a long wait and much anticipation the Miami Cancer Institute has finally begun to roll out it’s ad campaign shot by Pete Barrett last summer.   Shown here are the first two in a series of eight ads which Pete and his team created for MCI working in close collaboration with Republica Advertising and Cortez Brothers Productions.  All post production and retouching of the images was done by Pete Barrett.  Pete also worked closely in collaboration with Saddington & Baynes out of London to create and later incorporate the CGI letter “C” element that is a recurring prop in all of the ads.  

This was a great shoot that involved a fairly complex production, something that Pete is very well versed in.  Working closely with Cortez Brothers Productions (who was also producing a series of TV spots for the client),   Pete and his team of roughly 25-30 people shot 8 different executions of final images that involved combining lifestyle shots of people in an environment with a large 3 dimensional letter “C” also in the shot which would be created digitally in a CGI environment.  This required shooting many elements to be layered and retouched into the image in post as well as capturing lighting, shadowing and size & dimension measurement info that would later be used in the creation of the 3D – CGI letter “C” element made by Saddington and Baynes ensuring that it would look like it was actually physically there in the space.   Still to come are 6 more ads which we cannot disclose at this time as they have yet to be released to the public but as soon as they hit the streets we will post an update.   Stay tuned!!

Fly Fishing on the Snake River – Jackson Wyoming.

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So this spring we found ourselves all over the upper MidWest exploring the Yellowstone National Park region down on through Jackson, Wyoming and the Teton National Forest.   While we were there I had the opportunity to shoot several different fly fishing shoots both still and video on the Snake River.

The first shoot I connected with Reel Deal Anglers owner Rhett Bain who connected me with his head angler Brian Chamberland.  We were here during the spring time which presents several challenges.    The first is there is heavy snow melt pouring down the mountains so many of the rivers tend to be washed out,  running heavy and brown.   The second,  more dangerous challenge is this is the time of year when all the Momma grizzly bears are coming out of their winter slumbers with their new bear cubs and sightings are frequent.   These bears are quite beautiful when viewed from a safe distance but to  surprise them and wander between mom and her cubs could be a deadly mistake.

Given these factors we chose to do a float down the river in an area that was less blown out than other areas around.   We launched on the Snake just below the spillway from the  Jackson Lake dam one crisp May morning just before dawn and headed out to make some great images and video.    Unfortunately while the early morning light is great for photos it is not necessarily great for fishing here on the Snake as they have better luck later in the day when the light is directly overhead.    I opted for the better light for this shoot in lieu of actually catching fish in harsh mid-day light.

In the end while we didn’t actually have much luck bringing in the big one,  we did manage to get some really great images and footage.     Thanks to Rhett and Brian and our angler that Brian brought along as well!   If you are ever in the Jackson area and want to go out for a great fishing experience make sure to give them a call.  (just let them pick the time if you actually want to catch fish and not just make pretty pictures)  😉

 

When Life Gives You Lemons….

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There is the old adage,   “When life gives you lemons,  make lemonade”     I find this is something that I have to put into play quite a lot in my life,  even more so now that we find ourselves on our ongoing “adventure of a lifetime” roadtrip across this great country of ours.    Traveling across the land hauling your life along with you is exciting but as you can imagine, it presents some challenges.

For all the prep and planning we do, life on the road can throw you curve balls when you least expect them and you have to just roll with the punches and see where it takes you.   Often times if you look for the positive you will find opportunities will present themselves….   There is nothing I like more than times when you find that you have mistakenly taken a turn down the “wrong road” or had a issue that waylays you, rather than becoming a problem… it puts you in a place you never expected, which turns out to be exactly where you were supposed to be.     What I mean by this, is an opportunity or an experience presents itself that you never would have had, if it had not been for that problem or mistake that got you there.   Some call it Kismet or even Destiny.    Whatever you call it,  if you keep your eyes open you find some pretty cool experiences and photos to be made.  See the photo below which I created on the one such incident…

Earlier this fall we were just wrapping up spending the last 6 months bouncing around the Pacific Northwest, up and down the coast from Northern California to Canada.   Now setting our sights on Utah,  I had mistakenly turned East too early, and instead of taking an easy cut across the mountains in a valley,  we ended up on a very narrow, twisty & windy road through the Shasta Trinity Mountain range.     This makes for a white knuckle ride when you are pulling a 42 foot rig….   31,000 lbs of fun as you make your way over hills and around narrow passages.  Not only was it a scary drive on it’s own, but the skies were jet black as an impending storm was about to hit.  Just when I began to really curse myself, trying to decide if I should turn back or press on through, I decided to pull over next to the river that was following my path just before the skies opened up to dump rain on us.

What I saw when I got out (that I could not see while driving) was the view down river to our rear.     Here was this AMAZING mountain river location with the most incredible light shining through the oncoming rain that was falling.   I am lucky that I always try to have my camera ready and I was able to capture this amazing scene as it unfolded before me.     The only thing missing in my opinion was a fly fishermen to complete the scene…  I decided to add one in later in post with Photoshop on a later date which completed the photo you see above.   It made for a killer book shot and will also no doubt bring in some decent stock sales opportunities down the line.     I call this shot,   “When a wrong turn puts you exactly where you are  supposed to be.”

Update:   This shot led to inquiries in the coming year from Orvis Fishing Rods and for a Pharmaceutical campaign.   Nice!!

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Another amazing opportunity that came from a bit of misfortune was when we were on our way from Park City Utah, to our March/April homebase of Breckenridge Colorado.  About 1/2 way there, in a little nothing town called Meeker CO, we had a mechanical issue with our tow vehicle which forced us to stop.   As luck would have it, there was a nice little RV Park just opening for the fishing season right on the river about a mile from where we broke down.       After checking in and getting the RV set up we set out to investigate our surroundings.   What we found was the deserted little town of Meeker that resembled more of a ghost town than anything.     It was during dinner at a local diner that we asked the proprietor what there was to do in this town, as we were going to be here a few days…  It was then that he mentioned that “every one is out at the dog races” for the weekend.

Turns out he was right because by the time we had finished with our dinner,  the little town was suddenly bustling with activity… being overtaken by teams of people returning from the event with their dogs.    After talking with some of them, I learned that this was the weekend the final races for the season where taking place about 40 miles away in the White River National Forest.   My first thought was “this could make for some interesting photos” and decided to ask how to get there.   The exact directions I got from 3 different people were,   “Just drive down this road a mile and turn right at ‘the sign’ and follow that road 39 miles until it ends”   I thought to myself,    “Umm…. Ok.   That doesn’t sound weird at all” as I looked on the map at the tiny road to nowhere.   So the very next morning despite any reservations,   I set off by myself in good faith, driving the 40 some miles down this tiny road taking me farther and farther from the tiny town of Meeker into the wilderness….  all the while thinking, “this must be some kind of joke”.    After about an hour,  low and behold the road ended as I had been told it would and there in the middle of the woods was this mini winter festival of dog sled enthusiasts and about 100 dogs.   You knew you were here as you pulled up because of the sound… ALL the dogs are barking!   It’s quite exciting walking around and seeing everyone getting ready for the races.    I have never seen dogs so excited about getting ready to run.   As their handlers get them harnessed up and hitched onto one another they are loosing their minds, barking and tugging at their leashes.     They actually have to tie them off to their cars or they would just take off without them. All in all it was quite a cool experience & you won’t find a nicer group of people.   Everyone was interested why I was there and who I was shooting for.     I got a quick lesson on the happenings of the day and intros to the folks running the show from the Rocky Mountain Dog Sled club.   I even met a nice older gentleman named Mike who was having his 70-something birthday that day and heading out on the course racing his dogs.   He’d been racing for over 35 years and not about to slow down now.

As I clicked away watching group after group of dogs heading out onto the trail towing their various handlers on sleds and skis, (Skijouring) it struck me yet again how cool this is…   here I am stuck in the middle of nowhere with no-one who can even look at my truck until Monday and I find myself with this opportunity to shoot some amazing sled dog races, continue building my book and meeting some really great people in the process.  Turned out to be a great weekend!    I love my job!