Seeing Into the Rabbit Hole

" The thought of modeling had never crossed my mind. I was a devout football player and college student in Tampa at the University of South Florida. I always worked hard in the weight room but it was for performance on the field. During the spring football game my freshman year, a photographer took a picture of me on the sideline. I was holding a football preparing to throw it back to my teammate; I had my jersey tucked up high under my shoulder pads, a determined stare in my eyes and perfect posture. That photograph became my FaceBook avatar and that is where Gabe discovered me.

When Gabe first contacted me, I didn't ever consider accepting his offer. I had a bright future in football and did not have time to pursue another endeavor. However, after sustaining my fourth ACL injury, Gabe asked me again if I was interested in pursuing modeling. My football career was over, I enjoyed keeping my body in good shape and it was possibly a new career direction. So I called Gabe and decided to take him up on his offer.

Gabe introduced me to another realm of possibilities that I could pursue with my life. We did our first shoot and he showed me areas that I needed to work on. Physically, I was used to carrying as much weight as possible in football for protection. Gabe explained that now I needed to be as lean as possible. I learned how to work out differently and eat differently. Mentally, he showed me how the things that I am thinking about while being photographed are being portrayed on my face. Gabe and I did several shoots and with his tutelage, I quickly became a commodity in the modeling network.

I thank Gabe for the time that he spent working with me. I was able to accomplish some things that without this advice and direction would not have been possible for me. I signed with 5 modeling agencies, modeled for Home Shopping Network, Bealls, travelled to L.A. to meet movie producers, was in commercials for resorts, auditioned for several television shows and movies, got to meet many fantastic people, as well as develop a new perspective on life. If my passion was not for my current career of coaching football, then the sky would have been the limit for my modeling/acting career...and I was able to see that thanks to Gabe."

~Colby, Football Coach, All American Guy Model~

      "I first meet Gabe through the "eye's" of the internet on Model Mayhem. He sent me a message saying "I like your look, would love to work with you, etc." I actually was a little skeptical at first... but I thought "what the heck, lets check out his web site and see what if I like his photography." It was in the first five minutes of looking through his web site that I knew I would also love to work with Gabe just as all his previous models had said.

        So what did I do?… you guessed it, jumped back on Model Mayhem's web site and messaged him back, telling him what I thought and gave him my number to call me so we could talk and meet up sometime in the near future. I think it was the very next day I received a phone call from him and we hit it off immediately. We must have talked for at least an hour and a half, mind you this was the very first time I have ever spoken with him, so that was quite interesting, need less to say I knew I was going to love working with Gabe.

        It was that same weekend that Gabe and I meet up to talk about the shoot and to know the voice on the phone, Gabe came right out with everything about his style of photography, why he loved it so much, he just laid everything on the table about himself as I did too. He treated me to some lunch where we continued to chat and have a good time getting to know each other. Gabe was the first photographer to actually do this but I enjoyed it very much, I believe that this meeting made our first shoot together much easier because I was already comfortable around him and I no longer had that weird feeling inside meeting someone for the first time.

        The very next Saturday, Gabe and I were to shoot together, and we got started early and we didn’t even think about stopping until about thirteen hours later. Him and I had a blast together we shot everywhere there was to shoot and in about every style of shooting there is. His professionalism was impeccable, I would recommend him to any model whether just starting off or if you’ve been modeling for a long time. He is an amazing photographer and a great friend too, I cannot wait until I get to work with him again!"

~Matt, USMC ~