We were lucky to catch up with Gabby Torres recently and have shared our conversation below.

Gabby, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Owning a business isn’t always glamorous and so most business owners we’ve connected with have shared that on tough days they sometimes wonder what it would have been like to have just had a regular job instead of all the responsibility of running a business. Have you ever felt that way?

Before starting my business, I had never dreamt of being a business owner or even a photographer. It wasn’t even an idea in my head, so having a successful business and working full time as a photographer definitely feels surreal to me. My family and I came here from Brazil when I was still in elementary school for better opportunities. I was told I needed to go to college and get a good job, so that’s what I dreamt of. I fantasized about working at an office and wearing business attire and most importantly making my mom proud. I ended up going to college in the city (Boston), which was something else I dreamt about and graduating with a public relations degree. I soon started working at a marketing company and it seemed that everything I was fantasizing about came true. The only thing is I absolutely dreaded going to work. I’ve worked my whole life in restaurants and I’ve always been able to keep a job, so working hard has never been an issue. The problem was that I didn’t love what I was doing and I was honestly sick of working for someone else. So I quit.

This was in February of 2020, right before the pandemic. Although it was a weight lifted off my shoulders to not have to wake up with a pit in my stomach about going to work, I felt like a failure for having to go back to the service industry and work at a restaurant once again. While all this was going on, I had a friend who was starting a business and needed help with social media management. He came up with the idea of buying me a camera so that I could create content for his business. And then when everything got shut down because of COVID, he stopped operations for his business but let me keep the camera. At this point, being home and having nothing to do, I started trying to learn photography. At this point, I had only ever shot photography for restaurant clients but was shooting on “auto” and had no idea what I was doing. Along the way I started taking it more seriously and trying to figure out what kind of photography I wanted to do. My first paid client paid me $100 for a branding shoot. Since I was in the Public Relations world, I wanted to continue working with brands at first and eventually get into fashion photography. I had no intentions of going into weddings, until I started to fall in love with working with couples.

I officially quit my last restaurant job in February of this year, 3 years after I quit my Public Relations job, and have been full time ever since. I’m averaging about 20 weddings per year and a number of larger corporate events and I love what I do. I get to travel for weddings and I get to wake up on weekdays and not have a lump in my throat about having to get ready to drive into an office. I can take my time and edit my photos which I consider my art. I have the best clients. I’m really living my dream life, that I’ve never actually dreamt of.

If I was to give any advice for someone in high school trying to figure out what they want to do is, think about what kind of lifestyle you want to live when trying to figure out what you want your career to be. There is a phrase in Public relations that says “PR never sleeps” and I would joke around and say “but I do”. The kind of lifestyle I would’ve chosen for myself is a well balanced lifestyle where I didn’t have to lose sleep over work and could still enjoy my freedom and make my own hours. Another advice I’d give is, it’s never too late to change your mind about something you want to do. I remember loving the world of PR and I loved going into restaurants to create content and being creative when coming up with social media campaigns. It was the other stuff I didn’t like. So now I get to do all of the creative part full time and for myself.

I want to thank my mom and dad who are both business owners themselves for showing me through action that it’s possible to work for yourself. My wife, for always encouraging me and letting me use her as a model when I was first starting. To all of my mentors along the way who I learned so much for. And Maher, my friend who bought me my first camera. he was actually a regular at my restaurant job and that how we became friends. I have since paid him back for the camera (which was a Canon Rebel T7) and have graduated to 2 new cameras.

Gabby, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I started my business in 2020 when I first got into photography (thanks COVID) and have since decided to specialize in weddings and events. My style of photography is documentary with some fine art elements. I would describe my editing stye as warm and cinematic with a vintage flair. I love a good dramatic edit and to to edit my images like I’m editing a movie. My target audience for weddings are anyone who is in love and want to celebrate it. As a queer woman, I do also work with a lot of other queer couples, as I think that queer couples look for photographers who think outside of box when it comes to posing folks. My main goal is to make sure that my couples are having fun and in the moment during a session or their wedding. Having a stranger take your photo can be intimidating, so I try to keep my sessions light and to strive for mostly candid moments. Every time I book a client I do a little happy dance. Imposter syndrome is such a real thing and I still get so excited when people like my work and trust me to capture their important moments.

What’s been the best source of new clients for you?

Referrals, referrals, referrals. I pride myself in having repeat clients when it comes to events and photography sessions and I feel validated when I get clients who refer me to their friends and family.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

I had and am still unlearning that you don’t need to work 40 hours a week to be considered a full time worker. As a business owner, I will have weeks where I’ll have one shoot and a couple of galleries to edit – this may take me 20 hours or 60 hours. It’s all about how to manage your time and be officiant. I think we are seeing this more and more in the work force – companies are letting people work from home and are les strict about when they have to start and finish their work. I love having the freedom and flexibility to be able to get other things in life done other than things that are work related during the week.

Contact Info:

• Website: torresbroderick.com
• Instagram: Instagram.com/torresbroderickmedia
• Facebook: Torres Broderick Media

Image Credits
Torres Broderick Media