Pete Mellows is a landscape, sports, and commercial photographer based in Hobart (Tasmania, Australia). Throughout his varied careers and as a small business operator, Pete has found opportunities to pack a camera and document everything from remote Tasmanian landscapes to kids' sporting events and more.
Pete can trace his earliest creative influences back to his dad, who was an avid bird watcher and photographer. Pete’s dad would take his camera on family vacations, camping trips, and outings. Later, he would put on slide shows to entertain the family and showcase his latest birding captures. While Pete never saw his grandfather use a camera, he has discovered and scanned countless images from his collection. In 1979, Pete was given a compact Kodak Instamatic and took pictures of anything and everything, including rides into the Tasmanian bush with mates. It was a humble beginning resulting in a lifelong interest in photography and capturing the Tasmanian landscape.
Pete has always loved live music and chose to complete a Diploma of Audio Engineering during his tertiary years. Once working in the music industry, he carried a compact camera and photographed gigs, bands, and events. During those events, Pete learned much about composition, lighting, and exposure, and used the dynamic stage lights to master images. The opportunity to combine his love of music, his newly acquired audio skills, and his growing interest in photography was remarkable - it spoke to him in many ways. As is often the case, Pete’s interest changed, and he took up cycling both as a means to get fit and to commute to work.
While riding road bikes allowed Pete to improve his fitness, he wanted to go off-road and explore the landscape more. He picked up a mountain bike to explore off-road and, before long, fell in love with the landscapes and riding remote trails. Pete wanted to share this experience with others and began taking small groups on tours to otherwise unreachable locations across Tasmania. The tours morphed into a business, and after advertising online, Pete started to book tours for larger groups, including international visitors. The mountain bike tours would last a full day and focus more on exploring the landscapes than on mountain biking experiences. Pete discovered the joy of being out in the wilderness exploring his home state. In fact, the only way to visit some remote locations and hidden destinations was to work with local farm owners to gain track access. Given his lifelong interest in photography, Pete would attach a GoPro to his bike to capture images and video for advertising and promoting his business.
While shooting with a GoPro or a smartphone is a great way to document content for social media quickly, Pete soon realised he needed more. Pete turned to Pentax and picked up a K-S1 DSLR - he much prefers the shooting style of a DSLR over mirrorless options. When the mountain biking tour business closed in 2015, Pete needed something new to tackle, so he took up hiking to expand his exploration of Tasmania’s wilderness. Pete would take his camera with him to capture the awe-inspiring scenes of the Tasmanian landscape. With a background in design, Pete had a good eye for composition but found that his images weren’t up to a standard he was happy with. At this stage, Pete shifted gear to understand further and master his landscape photography. He also looked for better quality camera gear, and while sticking with Pentax, he picked up the K1 Mark II. Pete learns best through trial and error and took the time to understand core camera settings to gain perfect exposures with the correct depth of field.
Landscape photography isn’t Pete’s only creative genre. His love of photography has grown, and he now photographs portraits and sports. Pete’s kids were involved in sports and gymnastics, and he would take his camera to various games and events. Before long, he was picked to photograph club events, award ceremonies, and more. Pete found the move to sports a huge challenge compared to landscape. But it trained him to think fast and quickly adapt settings to match the changing pace of the action before him. Pete loves photographing the kids and seeing the pure joy on their faces, and shares those moments with the other families. Despite Pete’s kids no longer doing sports, he still shoots for local clubs.
With increased opportunities to test his skills, knowledge, and gear against new and varied genres, Pete has continued to expand his output. He has created a YouTube channel to showcase his images, process, and approach to different genres and to provide guidance and support to others. Pete’s channel is his current focus, and he enjoys interviewing other local photographers about their craft and creative outcomes. The channel also allows Pete to showcase the natural beauty of Tasmania and its remote hidden gems. Throughout Pete’s journey, he has found that he enjoys other pursuits, and photography is second. He has realised it’s now time to focus purely on his photography as his core interest and push his creativity into new realms.
It was an absolute treat to chat with Pete during our live podcast. If you’re unfamiliar with The Camera Life Podcast, be sure to take a look at our YouTube channel for the latest episodes and, of course, our back catalogue of weekly shows. Our shows are also available on popular audio podcast platforms. If you like what you see, please give us a thumbs up, subscribe to The Camera Life, and click on the bell icon to receive notifications of upcoming shows. We host two shows weekly, the first being every Thursday at 9am AEDT (Australia), where we interview amazing guests. The second show, The Random Photography Show, airs every Monday at 7:30 pm AEDT. The Random Photography show is a little random, a little loose, and a lot of fun! Be sure to check them out.
Find Pete:
- Website: https://www.petemellows.au/
- Instagram: @petemellowsphotographer
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@petemellows
