Meet Gaby Abboud of Gabmaster Photography in Downtown and River North

Today we’d like to introduce you to Gaby Abboud.

Gaby, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
It all started 8 years ago, I was at my lunch break browsing the internet and I came across a photo of a person with a very nice blurry background, my coworker walks into my office and says “that’s a great shot!” and I responded “Well, Photoshop does make everything amazing nowadays my friend, and yes that came out fantastic” Then my coworker responded: “that’s not Photoshop, you know you can achieve these kind of results in the camera itself!” then I proceeded to say: “Well, I have a DSLR and I cannot get these kinds of results” so his response was: “ I have owned a camera store for over 15 years, I have seen things like that from all the photographers that come over and print, go buy a lens with a wide aperture, try the 50mm F1.4”

Needless to say, I did go get a lens that evening and mounted it on my camera. The settings were all manual so I started changing values and dials to figure out what button does what eventually, I focused on a plant in front of me and was able to blur the background behind it. Excitement fueled me and when I returned to work after that weekend, I was ready to talk about photography and learn more about it from my coworker. Long story short, a week later, I bought a new camera body and a lens. The addiction didn’t stop until I owned every popular lens out there, flashes, and modifiers. I spent all my free time playing around with lights and technical articles to learn all about this new expensive hobby of mine.

Working as an engineer for many years allowed me to save up and invest into buying my gear and learning how to use it easily. I did the portfolio building stage for a few years and conducted a side photography business until I decided to register it as a business in 2013, so I started thinking about a name and was overwhelmed with ideas but again another coworker came up to me and we started discussing it so he suggested: “The team calls you Gabmaster at work so why not take that and add Photography to it then run with it?”

Fast forward to the beginning of 2016, I have found myself lacking joy in doing the engineering daily work and the weekly travel that my job required, all I cared about was photography and how to focus on building my company up to the point of having it as the only source of income. A dream come true. Suddenly I met up with my boss and decided to leave everything behind and pursue photography, I figured, I have to jump, give it my fulltime attention and live off my savings for a bit then check to see how far I can go with it.. Almost half a year later I started operating in my current location out of downtown Chicago and things have started getting busier, referrals were coming through and business started rolling in at a faster pace. I never regret making the choice of buying that initial lens that made my eyes see the world through it let alone my new career. If I were to do it all over again, I wouldn’t hesitate! It was a hard journey but definitely worth it, I wake up daily thankful and very happy doing what I love.

Has it been a smooth road?
It was never smooth, trying to build a business involves learning everything from marketing and sales to everything in-between. You quickly learn that your skills are not as important as your network and who you know. So far I have built a nice network and that took many years in the making, also keep in mind that while you have to continually grow your network and you have to maintain your quality / delivery to your clients.

We’d love to hear more about your business.
Professionally talented on many levels, Gaby Abboud not only takes photographs he takes you being a canvas and creates art. He enjoys capturing life’s special moments and sharing them with others.

As a resident of Chicago for the past 10 years, Gaby enjoys photographing the heart-beat of life and its multi-ethnic community. With his degrees in Engineering Technology, Arts, and Management, Gaby integrates the latest technology with top of the line equipment into all of his shoots which separates him from the other professional photographers. He prides himself on the infinite detail captured in each photograph.

Gaby is very accommodating to everyone’s artistic needs, which is why all of his clients have given him exceptional rave reviews while deeming him “The Gabmaster of Photography”.

Photos that speak a 1000 words, “Gabmaster Photography!!!”

Is our city a good place to do what you do?
Chicago is so diverse, anything goes, you just have to find your niche and follow that market, if you are starting out, I would say start building your client list before you take the leap towards doing it full-time. It is not easy. Too many photographers claim that they are professional and they give away photoshoots left and right, that drives models and business owners to take their chances and skip out on your packages due to pricing at that moment. Good news though, they usually call you back after their time gets wasted working with artists that are starting out.

Contact Info:

• Address: Gabmaster Photography Studio
  226 W Ontario St. 400B
  Chicago, IL 60654
• Website: www.gabmaster.com
• Phone: 872-356-6335
• Email: gaby@gabmaster.com
• Instagram: gabmasterphotography
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/gabmasterphotography
• Yelp: Gabmaster Photography

Image Credit:
Leo Shalman “Rainz” (walking ghost), Tia Bat (Candy), Cali Sefora (Flipping hair), Abigail Simon (Ballerina in the streets) , Patrycja Andruszewski and Adam Miguest (Pilot), Food (Eastgate Cafe Oak Park), Said Hatim (Mission MMA), Victoria Dior (Pianist), Liliya Donnelly (Leather and Sunset), Constantine Yaremtso, Anna Sobyanina, Gaby Abboud, and Liliya Donnelly (Behind the scenes cover Photo) .

Getting in touch: VoyageChicago is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.