Boback Photography

A short chat first always helps in setting expectations and properly defining goals.  I come from an IT world where successful companyes use work orders and strong descriptive documentation of what is to be done.  It works here also.

In some cases I like to use Pinterest to let the client gather their ideas and present them to me.  I will often do the same.  

A short well defined shoot is next after which we go over the shots to select those to use as final product.

This however changes for events, or special requirements.

I was taught originally by an old pro that I shadowed for a while learning techniques that are often now long forgotten.  More recently I spent much time self teaching and taking classes at the now sadly defunct New England School of Photography where I worked on skills in candid urban shooting, portraiture, architecture, and post shoot work

I try to be flexible with my customers, Most clients are not actually aware of the work that is required for a finished product.   The camera time is miniscule over all, and that drives the expected price, so when we add to a 30 minute shoot, maybe 20 minutes of pre-shoot prep, and 2 hours of post work, as well as paper, ink, and anything else they may want...

So when it comes to price I think it is something that has to be worked out after we are more comfortable with the definition of the shoot.

I have been actively involved in photography for many years, which increased when I met my wife and muse Jen who comes from an artistic background.  In 2015, while recovering from surgery I started to take it all much more seriously, but focused on charity events and causes or projects that I could fall in love with personally.  I also took that time to shore up my skills in certain areas such as architectural, candid, editorial portraits, etc. by attending multiple 40 to 60 hour workshops put that were available at the New England School of Photography.  I later shared studio space with one of the teachers that was there.

After being outsourced from my 18 year long job in IT in early 2019, I took advantage of the 10 months of severance to purchase some additioinal equipment I wanted to work with, and start working professionally full time.  

That said, I have currently scaled back due to Covid protocols.  I have contracted out my time weekdays from 9 to 5 for remote IT work, in order to secure a steady source of revenue, and work only evenings and weekends with certain exceptions.

My customers have included several charities both local, national and international, local people looking for something different, an array of professional models and social influencers, as well as corporate contracts with divisions of large industrial companies and small local 1 man shops all looking to stand out in some way.

In October 2017 and 2018 I was one of three photographers to accompany 100 attendees of the Americares charity gala known as the  Hanger Party in New York on a 24 hour return trip to Guatemala in 2017 and Puerto Rico in 2018 so that they may view the work Americares does in these locations first hand. 

The gala started on a saturday near 5PM in a hangar at the Westchester Airport 25 miles north of NYC.  It was attended each year by more than 1000 influential philanthropic families from the north east US where over $5Million was raised to help the charity provide medical aid to those who need it. (They have an overhead of under 3% in general). 

At 9PM 100 of the 1000 guests boarded a 737 and flew off to a destination, landing at 3AM, and sleeping for 4 hours before waking and visiting several sites, to return to the airport at 4PM and fly back to the US for Sunday evening.

The 30 or so hours event would generate about 2500 to 3000 photos per photographer.  It is quite a ride, and when I include the drive from Boston to NYC it was a very long weekend with little sleep, but it was a wonderful event to be part of each time.

There are a lot of misunderstandings about the photography business.  Lets start with clearing some of this up.

1.) You can take a decent photo with an iPhone or a Samsung Galaxy but dont try to make it bigger than about 5X7 if the image has any detail.  The sensors in compact cameras and cellphones are not able to capture the detail, their lenses are not clear enough, and most standard camera effects are faked, rather poorly by those cameras

2.) Maybe the wedding cerimony took 20 minutes but the work took at least 5 times that.  Not to mention the equipment.  

3. Sites like this that can cost a photographer as much as $100 just o get a single job if you consider that it may cost $20 for the lead given to 5 photographers total, and since on average you get one out of 5, that means if you have a $100 budget I cannot afford to bid on your project