Out with the old, In with the new!

Well as we progress so must the blog. So we are retiring this Blogspot Blogger Blog and moving to a shiny new WordPress Blog to go with our new website. We will keep this blog link live so you can look through the archives and see into our past.

For the new blog go to www.petebarrett.com/blog

New Website Launched!

In the words of the intro to the 6 million $ Man - "We can rebuild it, better... stronger.... faster! Duh nuh na nuh nah.... Duh nuh na nuh nah....."

After tons of work and editing, we finally have our new website online!
Check it out at http://www.petebarrett.com

Little Debbie!

We just landed a job for Little Debbie Snacks with our friends over at Luckie. Very excited to be working with them again. Not just because they are great to work with but who doesn't love those Little Debbie Snacks? I used to live on them as a kid. My son who is 4 and usually can't be torn away from his playing to come see me work has been begging me all day to come on our shoot so he can eat the goodies! Will post the work as soon as it hits the streets.

Suffolk Construction

Pete was hired recently by BlueFish to shoot a series of shots for Suffolk. If you're not familiar with Suffolk, they are the ones who build many of today's giant skyscrapers in some of our largest cities. Shot last week in Miami, with 3 more shoots in Palm Beach, Boston and out in LA yet to come!

Traveler's Takes the Scary Out of Life.

So we recently had the opportunity to work with SapientNitro on a great job for Traveler's Insurance. The job required shooting a guy from "the other team" pulling into a parking lot full of a sea of "home team" cars. Being the only person from "the other team" can be somewhat disconcerting to say the least. This tied in perfectly with Traveler's tag line which is "Travelers takes the scary out of Life".

Logistically this job was very complex. How do you get control and ability to prop an entire parking lot full of cars, fill it with fans and shoot a generic large stadium?

We started with an empty parking lot and added 16 crew and client cars, rented 10 more cars, one Airstream trailer, our RV, and added in 40 or so employee cars sprinkled about the background, then filled in all the gaps by rotating and reshooting for the HUGE composite. We shot all morning with cloudy flat light, moving all our crew and rented cars all over the background to turn an empty lot into a lot with well over 1000 cars. Then in the afternoon the good weather finally arrived and we reversed the process and shot it all again with good light. In the end we opted for the nice side light as it seems more realistic to a Saturday afternoon light.

The original idea was to have not only cars, but a ton of people tailgating as well. However because of budget restraints it looked as though we were only going to be able to produce the parking lot devoid of any people other than the "other team" guy pulling into the one remaining empty spot. Still nice but so much better if we could have all the people.

I gave this a great deal of thought as the concept was so much stronger with many home team tailgaters. The solution I ended up coming up with was to use my crew of 12 as tailgate talent... shoot then rotate and re-wardrobe to create a large crowd and also populate the background. Given the budget restraints I think (and the client agreed) that this was a great solution and really made the shot. For minimal extra money we were able to really spice up the image. If you look really closely there are people everywhere, even in the stadium way in the background and the parking lots surrounding the stadium as well.

The stadium also posed challenges of it's own. It had to look like a large stadium but could not look like any specific stadium. We shot a local pro football stadium here in Miami and then shot many other smaller local stadiums for parts so we could make a composite generic "Frankenstadium" In the end we altered the structure of the stadium, added windows removed trees and added a hand illustrated dome.

On the prop and wardrobe side, the team themes for the prop and wardrobe styling had to be generic college football team fans. We opted for "State" as the home team and "Tech" as the lone away team guy.

Special thanks go out to my amazing crew for putting in 110% and also going above and beyond even ending up in the shot as my sea of "Go State" minions. Also props go out to my production team Margaret Alonso and the folks at HG Producers www.hgproducers.com and of coarse Scott Dorman from Smalldog imageworks www.smalldoggin.com for spending many, many long hours teaming up with me on the composite and retouching.

The final composite ended up using 127 different images and took 5 days to complete, winding up at around 5 gigs in it's final layered state. The image hit the newstands on Dec. 17th in ESPN the Magazine. Check it out!

To see more work go to www.petebarrett.com

Click the image below to see it larger to see the detail of the composite. Go State!

It's Christmas at Casa De Barrett!

Hard to believe another year is coming to an end so soon. Time seems to be flying by. Thanks to everyone for a great year. Here's to an even better 2011!

From Pete Barrett and family, (Pick your favorite...) Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Quansa, and for you Seinfeld fans... Happy Festivus..... A Festivus for the rest of us! :-)

The World Without Photoshop -iPad App UPDATE

I wanted to give you an up date on
"The World Without Photoshop" iPad App that I was recently featured in...

So in little over 3 weeks we have had about 15,000 downloads on the book!

It made the new and notable list in iTunes when it came out
and was in the top 10 downloads for the first 10 days getting as high as number 3.
and it is still in the top 25.... no other "book" comes close....

Considering there are 50000 iPad apps thats pretty good.

New VISU Campaign Out Now in Lürzer’s Archive Vol. 5

Our new campaign with my rep VISU artists has launched in Lurzers Archive Vol. 5

Here's my ad.

LeBron James- Home Court

So what does LeBron do when he is not on the basketball court or creating a media frenzy? He sells children's furniture! We recently teamed up with Mullen to produce a series of ads for Home Court by LeBron James. Here are the first two ads from the LeBron James Home Court shoot we did.

They also shot a great commercial to go along with the campaign. Check it out here on Brad Stephens' website (Brad is the incredibly talented Art Director who hired us) http://www.iambrad.com/HC_1.html

UW Sequence

Another sequence for the portfolio.

King James!

Here's my favorite from the recent LeBron James shoot we did for Mullen. Looks better BIG, click the image to see it larger.

The World Without Photoshop -iPad App

I was recently honored to be included as one of the 1st Photographers in the new iPad Application "The World Without Photoshop". It is a cool new interactive iPad book that features the work of a dozen artists and is also celebrating the 20th year anniversary of Adobe Photoshop.

There has been a great response, so far the app has been downloaded over 1,700 times since releasing 2 days ago. You can mouse over transitions to see the progression of an image build and also see little video interviews. It's pretty cool. (See Description Below)

You can download the app for free on Itunes @ http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/world-without-photoshop/id401892897?mt=8#

Description

UNIQUE INTERACTIVE IPAD BOOK Featuring a dozen Photoshop Masters.

Immerse yourself into the artists process and experience how their work evolves from a world without Photoshop to a world with Photoshop!

------------------------------------------
OVERVIEW: Now 20 years old, Adobe® Photoshop® software has changed image editing forever. Can you imagine a world without Photoshop? Over the next twelve chapters you can see for yourself what some of the best digital artists work looks like without the software. Then with the touch of your finger The World Without Photoshop is transformed and you can see and hear the imaginations of these artists come to life in their work. Pinch and zoom into over 48 works by artists, illustrators, designers, and photographers and get their insights into how twenty years of Photoshop innovation have changed their world.

FEATURES
-See and hear the artists talk about their work
-Touch their work and slide your finger to experience the artists process
-Pinch and zoom to view the fine details of the work
-Over 50 Images with artist descriptions to delve into
-Get personal insights from Fine Artists, designers, illustrators, and photographers
-Visit artists' websites and social media pages

PDN - "CREATE Behind the Lens"

Here is a small article on me that was in PDN a while back. Click the image to read the copy.

Picture Magazine Feature

A while back we were featured in Picture Magazine for the work we did with BBDO for AT&T. Click on the images to make it larger so you can read.

Hey mom, watch this!!

We teamed up again with Smalldog Imageworks (www.smalldoggin.com) to do this new image for the portfolios. That is actually my son Jordan jumping his little Huffy Rocket bike with the big training wheels. We also recruited some of the neighborhood folks to be his audience.
Click the image to see it bigger.

Lebron James!

Just booked a gig shooting a national ad campaign with Lebron James. Doing 7 shots with him doing various things. Can't say much more at this point due to nondisclosure issues. Production starts next week, shooting the week of the 14th. Will post images as soon as I can!

Pete Featured in After Capture Magazine

I was recently featured in AfterCapture Magazine. They asked a ton of questions.... made for a nice article. Click the images to see them larger.

Regions Bank Finals

Here is the final work from the gig we did recently for Regions Bank. Fun shoot. Everyone was happy and we look forward to working with them again soon!

Thanks again to HG Producers for a great production and Scott Dorman of SmallDog Imageworks for doing a great job on retouching!

Production by HG Producers: www.hgproducers.com

Retouching by SmallDog Imageworks: www.smalldoggin.com

Little Grommits

Shot some new stuff with some little skater grommits at the skate park recently.

Regions Bank

Just booked and shot an assignment for Regions Bank with agency Luckie and Company. Shot 3 ads for their new print campaign. Fun stuff. Will show them as soon as they are released to the public.

Hornit Portraits

Here are 4 individual portraits we did of the band for their website and other marketing materials.

Huffy Ads

Here are a few of the final Huffy ads we shot recently for their current National Ad campaign.

Hornit #2

Here is the 2nd shot from the Hornit shoot.

PGR Spring 2010 Book

My New York & Boston rep, (Paula Gren Reps) has just put out the Spring 2010 PGR booklet. Looks really great. Here is my spread. To see the whole thing or download a PDF, go to http://www.paulagrenreps.com and click on "Spring '10 Promo Book"

Hornit #1

Here is the first in a series of 3 images we recently made for the marketing efforts of a band known as Hornit. These guys rock out. Listen to their music here at http://www.facebook.com/pages/HORNIT/323268039542

Sequences

Working on some sequences for my book.

6 Flags Final Hero Shot

Well as promised here is the final hero shot from the 6 Flags shoot. Thanks again to a great crew. Worked with Producer Jess Dudley from Wonderful Machine in Philly running our production on this one. Thanks again Jess! Also big thanks go out to Scott Dorman from SmallDog Imageworks for going above and beyond the call of duty! Always a pleasure working with Scott. I recommend the experience if you have not yet had the pleasure!

Seminole Motocross

Spent some time shooting out at the Seminole Motocross track recently. These guys were awesome. Super hot day the day we shot there and they were not holding back in the least. Thanks to everyone for helping to make this shoot happen. We got some great stuff.

Breakin' B-Boy

Shot some cool stuff off 6th Street with this rad breakin' b-boy. Funny back story, this is actually Jeff my intern. I caught him doing a little breakdancing about a week ago while setting up some book shots and we decided that we should find a more appropriate location and get it on film!

Lions & Tigers & Bears... Oh My!!!

Just Completed another great shoot for Six Flags! Shot 6 Flags Wild Safari in NJ. Spent 3 days shooting animals of all types for their outdoor and print campaign. Putting it all together in post, working again with Scott Dorman from Smalldog Imageworks. Going to be very cool. Will post images as soon as we can.