Making Sense Of Technology in Multimedia

Photographers Notebook Series: Shooter on a Mission

• Daniel Douglas • Episode 5

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About This Episode

We all had to start somewhere. Gaby Deimeke is an adventurous, energetic photographer who has a wide range of hands-on professional photography experience through freelance projects and assignments in over 26 countries and 140 cities.  

 What to Listen For

  • Gaby's Background in Photography - How She Got Started
  • Bridal/Street/Gallery/Freelance Work - She Covered Them All
  • A Cool Project - Badass Women of New York

Check-in with Gaby

She's SO social, check out her social presence.

Other Resources Mentioned in the Episode

  • Listen to the first show on concert photography.

Shoutout To The Show

Please enjoy the transcript of my interview with Gaby Deimeke (gabydeimekephoto.com) a real go getter photographer now living in Austin, TX.  Transcripts may contain a few typos, I tried to catch them all.

You can listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast application.

Enjoy the show.

Daniel Douglas  0:09 
Welcome to the making sense of podcast. This is Daniel Douglas, your host bringing strategies, tips and interviews covering technology, photography, video, and all things multimedia. It starts right now.

We all had to start somewhere.

My next guest did just that, and is now doing her thing in photography. On the show today we're talking with Gabby Deimeke an adventurous, energetic photographer who has a wide range of hands on professional photography experience through freelance projects, and assignments. Gabby's work has taken her to 26 countries, and 140 cities, including her favorite London.  Welcome to the show, Gaby.

Gaby Deimeke  1:02 
Hey there. Thanks so much for having me today.

Daniel Douglas  1:04 
And it's really great having you on the show. I hope you're doing well during the pandemic. had a little bit of a problem in the Washington DC metro area, but I think we'll all get through it.

Gaby Deimeke  1:19 
Yeah, it's definitely been interesting to figure out how to be a photographer in this time, you know, thinking about doing shoots remotely or doing socially distance photo shoots. So I think a lot of people are kind of thinking, Okay, how can I shift my business a little bit for what's going on right now?

Daniel Douglas  1:36 
Right. And the last time we spoke, I think you had a wedding that was planned.

Gaby Deimeke  1:42 
Yep. So it's, it's definitely been kind of a weekly thing. I had about six weddings that got cancelled during this whole quarantine thing, but then I did have two weddings that were on and I actually have to fly to New York this weekend and shoot my first wedding there. So I'm a little nervous, but mostly excited. They have a lot of precautions in place. So I think it will go well, but I'm definitely excited to be back.

Daniel Douglas  2:11 
Fingers crossed for you.

Gaby Deimeke  2:12 
Yes, for sure.

Daniel Douglas  2:14 
So let's talk a little bit about your background. I did read your bio, and you have a lot of stuff on on the web. And I poured through it. And I started making notes on it that said, You know what, I'm just gonna talk to her about it, because she's got a lot of stuff up there. So let's start with how did you get started in photography? I know you studied abroad and a few other places. Talk about that real quick.

Gaby Deimeke  2:42 
Yes, so I actually got started in photography when I was like 12 or 13. My mom gave me a camera to take to a concert to just take pictures of the band on stage, but I came home and I had taken photos of like portraits of people in the audience. And I showed it to my mom and she was like, Gabby, you can't take pictures of strangers.

But I kept taking pictures of people doing portraits. During college I studied photography in St. Louis, Missouri. That's when I got into weddings and that kind of like commercial communications type photography. And then you're right, I studied, I studied abroad in London in college, I fell in love with London and then I decided I needed an excuse to go back for two more years. So then I did my masters in fashion photography in London. And then after that, I've been in New York for two years. So kind of bounced around use photography as an excuse to travel but I'm so glad I got to do it.

Daniel Douglas  3:36 
That's why I named this this episode shooter on a mission because you just seem to be on a mission. New York, Austin. I don't know where you are now. I mean, you could be anywhere.

Gaby Deimeke  3:50 
Yeah, I think that's kind of my goal is, you know, I like to live in a place where a few years learn about it, meet new people, you know, learn about the culture and then go explore something else.

So anytime I can use shooting as a way to go visit a new place, I always take advantage of that.

Daniel Douglas  4:07 
What's your favorite genre of photography if you have one?

Gaby Deimeke  4:13 
Yeah, this is something I've been trying to figure out over the past few years, but I think that I've kind of decided on broadening it to portraiture, because I really like when I shoot weddings, I like shooting the couple and I like doing a couple portraits as in a more fashion spin and I like shooting fashion. But I think it's like those put together that makes it you know portraiture for me. I like having a person in front of the lens and trying to capture their personality, whether it be you know, a band, I'm shooting on stage or senior picture of someone or you know, a like one of the women from my badass woman series in more of a documentary sense. So really just people in any kind of portrait I'm down to shoot.

Daniel Douglas  4:58 
That's interesting because I have another podcast show coming up. She bills herself as a relationship photographer.

And I didn't know what that was. So when I talked to us, you have to really tell me what that means. So I'm not going to go into it in detail because I want people to come back to the show and listen to it. But I think it's going to be very interesting. And and you hit something that is near to me. I said, What, what do I really want to shoot? What am I doing now? So the pandemic has everything shut down.

How do you keep yourself busy when you don't have shoots and seems as though you do have a few assignments coming up? But other than that, what advice would you have for folks who just don't have any work going right now?

Gaby Deimeke  5:58 
Yeah, I think that's a great question because we're all not just photographers, but creatives in general are trying to figure out and navigate like, how can I keep my creative inspiration going? How can I shoot and build a body of work during quarantine where I maybe can't leave my house. So one thing I did in May I had been quarantined for about a month had zero photoshoots. And that was really shocking to me because I had gone from being in New York in March and doing one or maybe even two shoots a day every day for like a month straight. So I was like really on a roll of shooting and then it went to absolutely no shoots for a whole month. So that was really startling. And I was trying to think like, what can I do, and I decided to do a self portrait series for the month of May. So every day in May, I did one self portrait of myself and I tried to make it look like unique or different than all the other portraits. So that was really fun to kind of just get get me shooting again, even if I was just shooting myself. But I think anything that you can shoot at all if you can go to your backyard and take pictures of your pet or your family or whoever you're quarantining with. That, for me was a really good way to just kind of get my feet wet. Again, get shooting, get my hands on the camera, and start building that creativity back.

Daniel Douglas  7:11 
I want to talk a little bit about some of the other types of work that you're doing. As I mentioned at the top of the show, I looking at your bio and all of the social presence that you have on the web.

You had yourself as a freelancer, bridal photography Street, you've done some gallery work. So let's talk about all of those. You know, why you do it, how you do it, what you're doing. Just give us a little insight on what Gaby does.

Gaby Deimeke  7:48 
Yeah, so it kind of ended up laying out in the way that I do weddings and that kind of commercial work mainly as a my primary source of income. So I prioritize those so I can make sure that I can like pay all my bills. And then after that, it really kind of ends up just being whatever project happens to land in my email that month. So it can be anything from portrait work, shooting influencers, I did that a lot in New York, which was super fun, just like going out on the street and like taking like fashion photos of them. And then yes, you're right that I have done some gallery stuff lately. I, as a personal project, like on the side of my paid work, I started a series of women entrepreneurs, photographing them and kind of documenting their stories in New York. So that was kind of a thing I just did for fun over like two years when I had time I would you know, reach out to women asked if I could hear their story about how they founded their business, you know, successes they had and stuff like that, and I would photograph them in their spaces. And then most recently, I have gotten into concert and music festival photography. So that one was I had no idea I would ever get into that. But I've always really loved going to concerts. I've been really into music festivals. And one of my friends got a photopass she got approved to bring her camera into a festival and take pictures. So I was like, wait, I want to try that.

Daniel Douglas  9:14  
And let's, let's jump into that real fast concert photography, because I is really good friend of mine and I met him through a photography workshop in the local area. And he is an awesome concert photographer. He's photograph Smash Mouth, Bruce Hornsby.

Gaby Deimeke  9:35 
Wow.

Daniel Douglas  9:36 
A lot of top performers. And so I threw my hat in the ring. And just to see if I could do it. And at first I stunk, you know, because it's really different. Let's talk about that a little bit because that that I do have that podcast up. So that's kind of interesting to me. And I think it might be interesting to other people because that podcast is still that episode is still getting hits.

Gaby Deimeke  10:02 
Oh, cool. Yeah. So concert photography, like you mentioned is totally different than most of the other ones that I do. You have maybe between eight to 15 minutes in the pit, if you're even allowed in the pit. It all depends on the artist and the venue and what they've decided the regulations are for that specific show. So the first thing you have to do is get approved for a photo pass. So you're allowed to bring your gear in. And then like I said, you have, you know, maybe 10 minutes in front of the artists to shoot their portrait, shoot the stage, shoot the crowd. And then depending on the rules, you might be able to go to the back of the venue and take some more photos from the back but sometimes they make you check your camera gear so you're not allowed to have it the rest of the show. So it's very fast pace. You there's people yelling behind you, there's it's dark, you know lights are flaring and changing very quickly people are running around stage typically. So you have to be really focused and really have your camera settings right, or you're not going to get the shots in such a short amount of time.

Daniel Douglas  11:07 
Yeah, you can't use flash either.

Gaby Deimeke  11:09 
No. So it's definitely a challenge. But I think that's one of the reasons that I was so intrigued by it because, you know, I typically shoot relaxed portraits outdoor and natural light, like it's not, it's very technically easy quote, unquote, because you have lighting there that is going to help you with your shots. But when you're in such a dark atmosphere, typically, and the lighting is changing so quickly and rapidly. It's a really fun challenge. Like how can I get a really cool shot under these like crazy circumstances?

Daniel Douglas  11:42 
Anybody? We know that you photographed or was it just that one concert?

Gaby Deimeke  11:47 
Oh my gosh, I think I did. from last year till this year in New York, I think I shot like 50 concerts in New York. So that was crazy. My favorite artists that I photographed was in New Orleans actually, last fall, it was Post Malone. He headlined Voodoo Fest, which is Music Festival in New Orleans. And that was just really exciting because he's like, super famous, so I felt really cool about it.

Daniel Douglas  12:15 
You know, I was gonna throw my hat in the ring again. I wanted to go to South by Southwest, but that was canceled.

Gaby Deimeke  12:21 
Yeah. I know. I was so bummed. So I'm actually moving to Austin, like next week, crazily enough and

Daniel Douglas  12:29 
Shooter on a mission.

Gaby Deimeke  12:31 
Yeah. Absolutely. And one of the reasons that we picked Austin is because I am hoping that once you know there's a vaccine and COVID kind of dies down. Once festivals and concerts come back. That's a huge city for concerts. And so I'm hoping to shoot south by I'm hoping to shoot Austin City Limits. So fingers crossed on those.

Daniel Douglas  12:53 
So it sounds like Gabby really, really loves concert photography and you want to kind of jump into that a little more.

Gaby Deimeke  13:02 
Definitely. And so that's kind of another reason that I am doing weddings in Austin as well, because I want to, you know, if I can do two weddings a month, and that covers my expenses, and I can spend the rest of the month shooting shows to build my portfolio. Like, I think that's going to be a good strategy to kind of dive into the scene. So I'm excited, but it's definitely something that I don't have as much experience in as the other areas. So I'm kind of like, it's a new challenge, but I think I'm ready to to bring it.

FREELANCING - Getting Work

Daniel Douglas  13:32 
I hear that I hear that. I have a few challenges that I'm faced with too, but it's not about me today. It's about Gabby.

Back to freelance work. You didn't touch on that at all. I think you've done probably the least amount of freelance work.

Gaby Deimeke  13:52 
Yeah, so freelancing for me mostly looks like when I was in college in St. Louis, it would be like family pictures, senior pictures, that kind of stuff. And then when I went to New York, I actually totally random side story. I shot food photography for a year. So I freelanced for a company that I would go to a restaurant every day and shoot the menu, like they would have the dishes prepared, and I would photograph the dishes for the online website. So that was a fun project I did for about a year. And then as I kind of briefly touched on, I would shoot influencers. So you know, they would hire me to do a one hour street style photo shoot. But now during quarantine, I've been doing a lot of product stuff. So I'll have companies send me product to my house and I have a little makeshift studio just like a white seamless and some lights setup and then you know, I'll shoot the product for them for their website or social media or that kind of stuff. So that's been one thing that's actually worked out about quarantine is I had more time at home and so some of the companies that wanted to work with me that I do  just didn't have time to shoot before I was like, yeah, just send me your product and I'll photograph it at home.

Daniel Douglas  15:05 
How do you do come about getting in touch with these people? Did they get in touch with you? What was your strategy behind that?

Gaby Deimeke  15:13 
Yeah, so pretty much for probably like 80 to 90% of the clients that I've gotten. It was because I reached out to them. So I either emailed them had a friend who like worked in the company, and I would ask for a referral from there. Or in the case of some of the influencers, I would just message them on social media. And at first, I would say when I first moved in New York, and I had literally no clients or jobs at all, I would say, Hey, I'm a photographer. I'll give you a free 15 minute photo shoot out in New York City, if you promise to tag me and one of the photos on Instagram as your photographer, and a couple of them took me up on the offer and then ended up loving the photos and then later hired me to do different different projects with them. So yeah, for the especially for the company companies that I'm shooting now during quarantine, I just emailed them or messaged them and said, like, Hey, I'm a photographer, here's my stuff, check it out. And then some of them just kind of gave me a shot. And there's one company now that I've done like four big shoots for them. And it all just happened because I randomly reached out to them. And it was like, hey, do you need to need a photographer? And they're like, actually, yeah, we need one for this upcoming project. So definitely not just for photography, but any kind of entrepreneurial thing you have going on. I think you have to be willing to put yourself out there all the time so that opportunities can come your way.

Daniel Douglas  16:35  
This is really good because on another show, I have two entrepreneurs in Atlanta, that's doing exactly what you're saying their business. Like everyone else's. It just stopped doing COVID-19.  And now, their business has picked back up because, of course, no one was advertising all brick and mortars and things will close. But now they're getting a ton of work and they're doing a lot of microbreweries.

Gaby Deimeke  17:06 
Hmm. That's awesome.

PERSONAL PROJECTS - Why You Should Be Doing Them

Daniel Douglas  17:08 
It really is. So this is timely. I'm happy that I'm ad libbing some of this stuff with you. But I want to last but definitely not least, on your personal project. And here's what intrigued me with that. And that was the badass women. I said to you that I have five sisters, five, count them five sisters. A few of my sisters really are out there doing their thing and all of that. So I'm intrigued when, especially when women are doing things like you're doing and I'm reaching out to other ones to find out what they're doing. So I looked at the badass women project. And I said, okay, let me see what this is about. You sent the link to the gallery, and we'll have those in the show notes. And I look ed and I looked at those and said Wow.  I said she really did do this talk. I want you to talk about that. What how Why did you choose that as a personal project? Also, why are personal projects important? I know why they are. But let's tell the folks out there that's listening that may need some guidance with that. And what did you get out of the badass women project? Because I like looking at it and looking at their stories as well.

Gaby Deimeke  18:32 
Yes, so the badass woman project it came from I had just moved to New York from London. And keep in mind that when I was in London, this is kind of when this big movement was happening of like, women kind of doing like the Women's March and all these kind of like, feminist ideas are like starting to like float around. I'm learning about this in school and I'm like, okay, yeah, like I really want to make sure that I'm doing stuff in my life to support women and empower women that's really important to me in my life. So I moved to New York, I don't really have any photography jobs yet. And I'm like, Okay, what am I going to do? I need to figure this out. And I start seeing all these women around me who have founded their own businesses, they're entrepreneurs. And they're just kind of courageous enough to be like, hey, this was something that was important to me. So I just figured out how to do it. And that was really inspiring to me as this kind of like young woman moving to this, you know, huge city, that you know, so many people are intimidated by and then there are these strong women who are just absolutely killing it. And so, on the side of my page shoots, I was like, I want to talk to these women and learn like, what did they do? How did they get into successful? What things if they you know, one question I asked a lot of them is like, you know, if you could tell your younger self who just started this business, something like what would you tell her? And so it's just really cool to hear what they had to say. I reached out to like, probably like 200 women by ended up photographing 55 for the series.

I would just say, Hey, can I come like steal 30 minutes of your time? Take your portrait and ask you a couple questions about what made your business successful. And almost all of them were like absolutely, like come whenever it was a little bit tricky to schedule with some of them just because they're so busy and busy schedules on their own that I was like I can make any time work. But so yeah, that that project was really cool to me just to be inspired by other women and kind of empower them because we had the gallery show in New York in March, actually, the week before New York shut down. So I was so grateful that the show ended up happening because I planned the whole show by myself. And it was just 55 portraits hanging on the wall. And this huge, you know, these two walls with all these portraits, and the women came to the show, and it was this crazy feeling because it was like women supporting women and, you know, individually all their stories were really inspiring to me, but when you saw like all of them hanging up together, it really illustrated the power that we can have when we when we support each other and band together.

So, that was so cool for me. And yeah, it was a personal project. So to your point about why personal projects are super important, I think that you need something besides just, you know, your paid work. So, obviously, you know, I'll pretty much accept any paid work as long as I feel like I'm qualified to do it with photography. But this is something that you can have on your own, that you can be inspired by that you can challenge yourself. So, you know, some of them I brought lights, and I maybe tried to shoot it in a different way that I hadn't before, or I tried to mix it up. Whereas sometimes, you know, if you're on a paid shoot, you don't really have a lot of leeway all the time to experiment or play. And so that's why you really should have a personal project or even just be doing test shoots and stuff like that. So you can keep building your creativity, build your skill set, and just have something you're passionate about on the side that you can work on.

Daniel Douglas  21:51 
What personal projects are you working on now? Do you have any.

Gaby Deimeke  21:55  
So I so as I mentioned in May I did that kind of self portrait series. So I have Like 33 portraits from that, that was kind of a fun mini project that I did. And then now that I'm moving to Austin, I've been brainstorming what I'm going to do. I've gotten some requests to continue the badass woman series in various cities, which is really intriguing to me. If I like it just imagining myself in like 10 years if I have like, badass women of New York, baddest woman of London, badass women of you know, San Diego,

Daniel Douglas  22:25 
I think you should do that.

Gaby Deimeke  22:27 
I think so.

Daniel Douglas  22:27 
I really think you should do that because the women's movement is not over. I think, I think more so it's accelerated now, given the times that we're living in and, and things that's going on. And for the folks listening, this is not a political podcast at all, but just the climate that that's out there now.

Having grown up in that environment, with five sisters and my mother, No brother, my father passed away when I was very young. I saw, you know, the struggles and all of that. So that's something that I do embrace. And I said it many times before that we have to pay more attention to what women are doing. And everything should be equal, and not not separate. So I really do think you should, if you have the time to continue that project, because I thought it was a badass project.

Gaby Deimeke  23:36 
Oh, thank you. Yeah, I definitely think moving forward, especially as I'm getting a little bit older now. Like I think maybe back in college, I was like, Oh, you know, I just want to take pretty pictures. But as I get older, especially as I see more of the world and learn more about other people, I really want to make sure that my photographs you know, have a bigger statement and are making an impact and making the world a better place. So anytime I can support things about equality, you know, those kinds values. That's something I definitely want to prioritize with my work.

Daniel Douglas  24:03 
One other thing I want to talk about, you mentioned the gallery in New York. How did that come about? Because it's not typical to be in a gallery.

Gaby Deimeke  24:17 
Right? So yes, I had been thinking about how to show the culmination of the project because my goal was to do 50 portraits. And when I was about, like, it was at like, 35 in January, so I was like, okay, and I had a bunch of plans. I was like, I think I'm gonna hit 50 by March.

What What do I want to do to kind of celebrate it and, and have a space where women can come and look at all the portraits because a lot of people, you know, I had been telling, like, 50 women up to this point, like, oh, here, your photos, but this is going to be, you know, I'm going to do something I'm either going to do a gallery show or some kind of, you know, public display. So people were like, what are you going to do, when are you gonna do it? And so I just kind of decided instead of waiting, you know, to be accepted in a gallery show in New York, which is like few and far between, you typically have to be very, you know, successful and famous to be to be in a gallery and, you know, Chelsea, I was like, You know what, I'm just gonna rent a space on my own, raise a little money to rent the venue, and do the show myself. Because, you know, if I just wait around, it's not gonna happen. I'm just gonna make it happen. So I reached out to a bunch of women actually from the series, and I was like, hey, all of you guys live in New York. Do you guys know any connections to gallery spaces? Do you know any, you know, companies or organizations that would want to partner with me for this event, because I had never really done event planning before. I had done one gallery show in London that was just for my It was like a culmination of my grad school like thesis photography project. So that was kind of more like sponsored by the school. So I had never really done one on my own. And, you know, a bunch of women reached out they were like, here are my contacts, like, check out these people.

We'll check out these venues. And there was an awesome woman in Brooklyn. She had an art gallery space. And she was like, yeah, I'll give you a huge discount because I know you're just like a young broke kid in New York, and can't really afford it. So I was like, perfect. So yeah, she left us the space. I bought like 60 frames in bulk to get a discount. And yeah, just printed printed the things I got a couple venue or vendors that donated like food and drinks and stuff like that. And I just kind of shifted it but it turned out so so well, like, my dad actually flew in from St. Louis to New York to help me hang up all the frames because there's no way I would have figured out how to do it without his help. So he came in helped that my roommates like dealt with photos and frames in our tiny New York apartment for like two months while I was getting an organized, but over 200 people came to the show, so I was just like, so excited. And yeah, the women that were in the show just It was really cool to see them react to seeing themselves so empowered in, you know, in a frame like it was a really cool moment. And because of that, yeah,

Daniel Douglas  27:10 
That's awesome. I mean, I've lived and work in New York before moving down here in the Washington DC metro area. And that's not an easy thing to do in New York. Trust Yeah.

Gaby Deimeke  27:24 
Especially just because like, it's a lot more logistics involved in New York City, especially than maybe some people realize like, you, you know, some things I like transported on the subway to get there, which is like an hour from my house and I live in live in Harlem, and this show is in Brooklyn. So it's like an hour and a half, you know, travel time on the subway. So it's definitely it presented so many challenges, but I was just, like, thrilled to be being able to show my work that if that stuff was more of like, Okay, how can I solve this puzzle so I can get to the show, which is the thing I'm really sorry. excited about.

Daniel Douglas  28:01 
That's cool. So to end the show, because I can probably talk to you for another hour, so

Gaby Deimeke  28:09 
Let's do another one.

Daniel Douglas  28:11 
I'm gonna hold you to that.

Is there anything else that you want to say or things that we didn't cover on the show? Before we close out?

Gaby Deimeke  28:22 
I think my main kind of piece of advice that I love to tell other entrepreneurs creatives is that you really just have to kind of go for it. And that's one thing that a lot of women said when I interviewed them for the badass woman show. They were like, Look, I didn't have a ton of confidence when I started this business. I you know, I didn't have all the answers. It wasn't 100% for sure that it was gonna work. But I went for it anyway, and I just did it. Knowing that I would figure it out and figure out the obstacles that came and learn how to maneuver, whatever it is I was working on or create.

So that's one thing that really hearing so many women say that that really stuck with me of like, no matter what you're working on, you know, if there's something that you have some fear or doubt about, you're not sure how it's going to go. Sometimes you really do just have to kind of take that leap of faith and say, All right, I'm gonna go for this. And if something doesn't work, it'll be a learning lesson. And I can move forward with, you know, the new knowledge I've gained. So that's one thing from the show that like, it was really impactful for me.

Daniel Douglas  29:26 
Awesome. Gabby, I really do appreciate you coming on the show. tell the folks the best way of getting in touch with you or looking at your work. And we'll also have those links in the show notes.

Gaby Deimeke  29:39 
Yep. So you can go to my website, it's Gabby Deimeke photo.com. And I will let you go to the show notes for that because Deimeke is kind of hard to spell and it's no one ever gets it right. So that's totally fine. You did did and I would say maybe 10% of people pronounce it correctly. So you nailed that. That was great.

And then yeah for social media if you want to, you can follow me on Instagram Tick Tock Twitter. I'm on almost everything and that's just g dimes on all social media.

Daniel Douglas  30:09  
Gaby, thank you so much for being on the show. I really do appreciate it and we are going to look for you again. If you liked this show, please subscribe and leave us a message on Apple podcasts, Spotify, Google podcasts, or your favorite pod catcher. You can also leave us a message about this episode, or suggest new content, go to Speakpipe.com/makingsenseof and record your message. I'll catch you next time.

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