Interview with Barry Sweet

March 7, 2018

Welcome to episode 046 of the F-Stop Collaborate and Listen podcast with Barry Sweet! Barry is the Wilderness Office Manager for the National Park Service (NPS) at Rocky Mountain National Park in Estes Park, Colorado. My friend and fellow landscape photographer Erik Stensland suggested that Barry come on the podcast to share his perspective and intertwined issues that we face as landscape photographers, including:

  • Why he has given his life for the protection of public lands.
  • How the NPS tries to fulfill the two-pronged mission of preserving these special places while also helping people to engage and enjoy these places.
  • The different roles of NPS, BLM, and the National Forest and how each of these different departments relate and how photographers might relate differently with each of these areas.
  • What the Wilderness Office actually does.
  • What philosophy and ideals he and his team try to instill in visitors to wilderness.
  • How photographers are typically viewed by the Park Service.
  • How we can use our photography to promote the preservation of wild lands.

Special announcements: 

Please consider supporting the podcast on Patreon! There's a ton of bonus content over there for subscribers! We are 1/4 of the way to our goal of being able to award a $1,000 prize to a photographer dedicated to conservation.

I love hearing from the podcast listeners! Reach out to me via Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter if you'd like to be on the podcast or if you have an idea of a topic we can talk about. You can also join the conversation on our Facebook Group.Over on the Facebook Group we have amazing critiques of photographs from the podcast's guests and fans.

Barry Sweet from the National Park Service
Barry Sweet from the National Park Service

The tundra explodes with wildflowers in mid-summer in Rocky Mountain National Park as the Never Summer Mountains try to hold on to their remaining snow. This dynamic scene that reoccurs ever summer is nothing short of glorious as the world seems for a short while to overflow with music.

Posted in Photography Podcast and tagged Podcast.