I'm Peter Lyons and I'm an architectural and maritime photographer. I feel incredibly fortunate to make my living as a visual creative, doing something I truly love to do.

My day-to-day happily includes quite a bit of variety. Sometimes I'm on-location photographing a home or business with an interior designer, architect, builder, or real estate broker. Other times I'm at a seaport or on a shoreline somewhere shooting a tanker for a ship’s agent or a container ship for a cargo handler or shipping line. A few times a year I shoot sailing regattas. I shoot from the ground, from boats, helicopters, planes, and drones. And yeah, plenty of days and nights I'm in front of my computer like everyone else, editing (lots of editing) or emailing or Zooming, trying to behave like a responsible adult.

I love the “people” part of my work. One of the greatest serendipities of this gig is all the cool, amazing, talented, kind people I get to work with. Sometimes it’s someone I work with again and again. Other times it’s someone I’ll meet once and perhaps never see again. But I love it all. I feel like my best work is collaborative. I’m not the prima-donna photographer who needs every detail and every decision on a shoot to go my way. I welcome the push and pull of differing creative ideas, compromise, and brainstorming. Whenever possible, the camera is tethered to one or two external monitors that let anyone on-set see what the camera is seeing, so everyone can contribute their thoughts and ideas to the work that we’re creating. I’m of the opinion that having a few people all mutually creatively invested, working hard on a project together will always yield something even better than what could be achieved by one person alone.

I’m currently serving as Board Chairman of SFBA NARI (San Francisco Bay Area National Association of the Remodeling Industry). I love working with my friends and colleagues there and really believe in our purpose: to advance and promote the remodeling industry's professionalism, product and vital public purpose. I’m also a member of the San Francisco Marine Exchange, a non-profit which helps facilitate maritime commerce in the San Francisco Bay and Delta. The maritime industry is incredibly diverse and is endlessly fascinating to me. It’s great meeting so many people doing so many interesting jobs, and I’m excited to get to be a small part of it all.

On the home front, I live in Petaluma, California with my wife Caroline, a school administrator. We have a big, blended family including eight adult kids, and even a couple of grandkids. We’re scattered here and there, but we try and spend as much time together as possible. Life is good!