{"id":22408,"date":"2025-12-25T10:02:13","date_gmt":"2025-12-25T10:02:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/krogragg.com\/?p=22408"},"modified":"2025-12-25T10:02:13","modified_gmt":"2025-12-25T10:02:13","slug":"on-board-with-paul-barth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/krogragg.com\/?p=22408","title":{"rendered":"On Board With: Paul Barth"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>    On Board With: Paul Barth<br \/>\n \t<BR><br \/>\n<BR><\/BR><br \/>\n    <!-- no image --><br \/>\n \t<BR><br \/>\n<BR><\/BR><\/p>\n<div>\n<section class=\"hydra-container\">\n<div class=\"hydra-canvas\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/boatingmag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/BTG1225-OBW-Paul-Barth-1024x768.jpg?resize=800%2C600&#038;ssl=1\" class=\"hydra-image disable-lazyload\" alt=\"Paul Barth piloting a helicopter\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1400px) 100vw, 1400px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/boatingmag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/BTG1225-OBW-Paul-Barth-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/boatingmag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/BTG1225-OBW-Paul-Barth-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/boatingmag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/BTG1225-OBW-Paul-Barth-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/boatingmag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/BTG1225-OBW-Paul-Barth-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/boatingmag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/BTG1225-OBW-Paul-Barth.jpg 2000w\">                <\/div><figcaption class=\"caption margin_top_xs full border_1 hydra-figcaption\">\n                <span class=\"hydra-image-caption\">Barth has been flying professionally for over 40 years, logging over 17,000 hours of flight time and participating in thousands of boat photo shoots.<\/span><br \/>\n                <span class=\"article_image_credit italic margin_right_xs\">Garrett Cortese<\/span><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/section>\n<p><iframe id=\"wxuzj5efbz\" src=\"https:\/\/boatingmag.dragonforms.com\/wxuzj5efbz\" scrolling=\"no\" style=\"width:100%;height:165px;border:none;overflow:hidden;\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>If you\u2019ve enjoyed the stunning aerial photography seen on most of our covers for the last 30 years, odds are that Paul Barth flew the photographer who shot it for us. Barth has been flying professionally for over 40 years, logging over 17,000 hours of flight time and participating in thousands of boat photo shoots, including the one for the Tiara 39 LS that graces our cover. We caught up with Paul to learn more about his boating life in the skies.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How long have you been flying for boating photography shoots?<\/h2>\n<p>I\u2019ve been chasing boats for over 40 years. I started with offshore races in South Florida in the early 1980s, chasing all those guys who were smugglers who turned into powerboat racers. I was one of the few pilots who knew how to get the photographer in there real close. Once a cameraman gets a pilot they like, they stick with them.<\/p>\n<p>In the 1990s, I started working with Forest Johnson (who has shot over 1,700 <em>Boating<\/em> covers) and we worked together for decades. I love flying and helping photographers get cool shots.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What is your rig?<\/h2>\n<p>I used to fly all different types of helicopters, but Forest really loved shooting from a Hughes 500, which people will know as the Magnum P.I. helicopter, so I bought one. Now it\u2019s an MD 500D. It\u2019s the best tool for this job. It\u2019s the only single-engine light helicopter that you can fly backwards at high speeds.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ve been doing it in a 500 for so long, I feel like I\u2019m wearing the helicopter. I know what the photographers like and I know right where to go for them to get the shot. I can put you so you could step down onto the bow of the boat or fly you right between a boat\u2019s outriggers.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">When did you start flying?<\/h2>\n<p>I\u2019ve always been a mechanic and a gear head. In high school, I actually worked at a boat and motorcycle repair shop, rebuilding outboard powerheads as well as personal watercraft. At some point I decided I wanted to be a pilot and started flying small planes out of Tamiami Airport. I wanted to fly in the military but I didn\u2019t have perfect 20\/20 vision so I couldn\u2019t pass the eye test. I got a job at Tamiami and worked my way into being a mechanic, and eventually a helicopter mechanic.\u00a0 I got my AMP (mechanics license) first and eventually earned both a helicopter and sea-plane license.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Read Next:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/boatingmag.com\/how-to\/on-board-with-david-williams\/\">On Board With: David Williams<\/a><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Do you boat for fun?<\/h2>\n<p>I was born and raised in Miami, so I grew up loving the water\u2014water-skiing, scuba diving, fishing. Now I still love to boat but I live by the old saying, the best boat is your friend\u2019s boat. I actually get to go out on a lot of the boats we shoot during the down time.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How many boats shoots have you done over the years?<\/h2>\n<p>It has to be in the thousands now. I\u2019ve worked with so many great photographers such as Forest, Tom King and Bill Doster. I\u2019ve been working with Formula Boats for over 30 years, and have great relationships with a lot of the companies such as Tiara and Grady-White, among others. Every shoot is an adventure and some of the boat company people are like family.<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"_msocom_1\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The post <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/boatingmag.com\/how-to\/on-board-with-paul-barth\/\">On Board With: Paul Barth<\/a> appeared first on <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/boatingmag.com\/\">Boating Mag<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p> \t<BR><br \/>\n <BR><\/BR><br \/>\n    Pete McDonald<br \/>\n \t<BR><br \/>\n<BR><\/BR><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/boatingmag.com\/how-to\/on-board-with-paul-barth\/\">Go to boatingmag<\/a><br \/>\n \t<BR><br \/>\n <BR><\/BR><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On Board With: Paul Barth Barth has been flying professionally for over 40 years, logging over 17,000 hours of flight time and participating in thousands of boat photo shoots. Garrett Cortese If you\u2019ve enjoyed the stunning aerial photography seen on most of our covers for the last 30 years, odds are that Paul Barth flew [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[126,7299,175,1791],"tags":[127],"class_list":["post-22408","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-boatingmag","category-february-2026","category-how-to","category-on-board-with","tag-boatingmag"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/krogragg.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22408"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/krogragg.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/krogragg.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/krogragg.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/krogragg.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22408"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/krogragg.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22408\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/krogragg.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/krogragg.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/krogragg.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}