Meet Yanic Barrett | Cinematograher & Photographer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Yanic Barrett and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Yanic, what makes you happy? Why?
Creating content and earning a living from it. Normally earning a living means being in a 9-5 tradional job and to create content (whether photography or videography) isn’t seen right away as a viable way of earning sustainable income. Growing up my family forced me into doing business or medicine geared education and the thought was that art based skills were not viable. However with the world changing and marketing being at the core of everything photography and videography are being more valued and they are great opportunities where you can be super weird and creative and successful. I love being being able to earn a living by doing something I love and that I’m highly passionate about.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
Currently I am a Cinematographer/photographer, previously for the 13 years I worked at Vistaprint in Montego Bay Jamaica as a product designer then a Design supervisor and lastly a Creative lead. It was through my love for traveling to different countries that I got into photography, I remember traveling to Europe and wished I had a decent camera to capture the sights and moments I was experiencing. My little cellphone was not doing what I saw any justice. I followed this Jamaican creator Corey Hamilton aka Coreymus and loved the drone shots he would post and I messaged him about drone recommendations, he suggested the DJI Spark and since getting that drone I fell in love with aerial photography. I would take videos and pics of my travels around the island or other countries and use the Gopro app Quik to make these lil videos that I look back on and laugh at now. People on my instagram seemed to love them though and I would get asked by people to come and shoot Aerial stuff for them. Soon I found myself shooting on my weekends on after work. I then decided to get a camera to capture shots to go along with my drone footage. I started off with a Samsung NEX then upgraded to a Canon SL1. I shot my first wedding with that camera. I learnt so much from that experience. Theres a saying that gear doesn’t matter, this is both true and not true. 1. it does not matter in the sense of use what you have it definitely helps you in pushing yourself and finding work arounds and focus on storytelling to grab your audience, and it makes you appreciate when you get more capable gear. It matters in when you see the quality jump leaps and bounds from what you were doing before. Also your capabilities open you up to more job opportunities. whether its better low light capabilities. better audio recording, etc. ability to shoot in more formats. I started to get more jobs and this started to put a strain on my 9-5 (day job) as I would have to be balancing between the two. Then the world changed again when Covid hit and we had to work from home, this opened the door for me in so many ways. I could be in meetings and flying my drone or I’ve been in different countries for a shoot and still manage to complete my tasks that my 9-5 required of me. I got more time and space to pursue my passions. I then started to realize that my mood would fall each time I had to log into a meeting and then lift when I had to go on a shoot. This told me I was heading in the right direction. I got lucky when my Job decided to make my role redundant and I took the opportunity to go full force into photography and videography. Story telling is very important for me I want when someone looks at my work that they can get feeling of being there or feeling the emotion of the characters in the shot or scene. I do a lot of wedding videos and I am always getting feedback from people around me to see if they laugh or cry after watching a video. Emotion is everything, One thing I’ve always tried to do is be different, I try my best to have my work not look like anyone else’s, that is very important to me .

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
so definitely head to Portland, my favorite spot on the island, we would stay at sea cliff hotel which has an amazing view of the ocean, then checkout Boston jerk, for some real authentic Jamaican jerk chicken and pork. Visit the Blue lagoon to swim/raft the lagoon and maybe spot turtles. Also check out Boston Beach for some surfing lessons.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
My Grandmother Cynthia Finzismith, she always supported my artistic side as a child growing up. Growing up I was always interested in art, drawing /painting and new from age 5 that I wanted to do something in the creative field, however my aunt and uncle who I grew up with (my mum died when I was 4) saw the creative field as a poor mans game. My grandmother though always pushed me towards art and encourage me to pursue my passions. I owe so much to her love and support. Also much thanks to Coreymus for always being open to answer my pestering questions and always offering advice and still does to this day, much appreciated!

Instagram: @yanicmb

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yanic-barrett-720aa971/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Yanicmb/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/yanic.barrett

Youtube: https://youtube.com/c/yanicbarrett