CALEB SCHAFTLEIN,

I'm Gabrielle Pellegrino, a photographer newly based out of Utah. My camera and I have traveled the world together, capturing moments since I was 15. With a keen eye for fashion magazines and a boundless imagination, I see the world as dreamy, beautiful, and just a touch odd. It's this perspective that draws me to the unusual and the extraordinary. I’ve always found myself gravitating towards unique projects, effortlessly assembling creative teams, and taking on the role of art director.

I started out as a model in my teen years, however, as the rest of the kids my age were growing I stopped at a whopping 5'3" While, I still model from time to time, I found a deep fascination with fashion magazines, and movies that prioritize beautiful lighting and fabric movement, I found myself creating clothes out of garbage bags, and starting molding the environments that were available to me to create a more dreamy set.

Beginning my photography journey almost feels dreamlike, a similar experience to finding your soulmate. When I started photography there was nothing else, there would never be anything else. Maybe it sounds silly but I've always been very intuitive, spiritual and connected to otherness and photography was my way that connected my inside visions to the outside world. There's nothing like the high of knowing I got "THE SHOT".

Planning a shoot is a more holistic process for me. While each shoot is different, a majority of the time I take one little facet or prop to focus on and I start to envision the scene, the mood, how I want it to feel is a large part of my process, the color toning etc. I start to look at how I can incorporate this one item or fascet and blend it with the environment and mood to create balance. Once I get an idea, I start looking to assemble a creative team, whos talent could highlight and add the extra mile in creating this moment. When working with my model (it gets a little ethereal here so stay with me) something happens where I feel like I energetically link in with my subjects, creating ease, trust and comfort is absolutely HUGE for me, starting slow and letting the art unravel naturally. Maybe we have a plan, maybe the energy of the models takes us into a different direction. With that energetic connection, we solve the "problem" of how do we fit, blend and find balance within the scene and how do we get there? I call it structured yet flexible.

For this specific shoot however, the model and I were just playing around at sunset, grabbed the lampshade and called it a day, I find it important to practice frequently and as a professional photography it's important to remember to play, and why we got into the business in the first place.

I'm unsure what other photographers are doing, mine feels intuitively lead, and the choices I make for my art and my business is based on what feels right, vulnerable and passionate. I think my work is a visual representation of my heart, my passion and my inner world. I think a lot of people want to give themselves permission to access that or have the opportunity to see themselves this way, and I'm really glad that I get to.

I've spent more time in my life telling myself that I can't be a photographer and trying to convince myself otherwise. Sometimes I tell myself that I wish I started sooner, but there was a moment this season after shooting a really fun wedding, that I was like you know what? I can do this, photography is what I'm made for.

Balance, vulnerability, connection


I think my work calls in a type, so often times my clients and I are generally aligned, and when we aren't I try to set the expectation early. I prioritize going slow in building that trust during a shoot. I think I hold a lot of confidence shooting as I've been doing it for 15 years.

I love and appreciate good art of many forms of mediums to pull inspiration from. Lately I love creating from poetry. I love beautiful fashion, flowers, graphic design, and paintings. As far as photographers go I love Tim Walker and Annie Leibovitz.

If you watched me edit, I think you'd be astounded it could be so easy, or really disappointed because I take probably like 5 minutes to edit and feel like my personal process is pretty underwhelming. I'll go ahead and say some of my best works, I literally slapped a filter on it and called it a day. I focus a lot of my time color toning however.

I don't want to curse myself by saying I don't know if I ever have, I think my biggest problem is overbooking myself and forcing myself to create on a whim.

My top tip is to listen to your voice fully and deeply no matter how strange you think it may be, force yourself to create all the time. Workshop it, grab a friend, play in all kinds of light, in these times, go without the expectation of making ART and make it about fun, about trying something new. My biggest breakthroughs have been in fun 5 minute shoots spent with people I love. Some of my best art has been on days where I felt like I couldn't create anything because I was drained but knew I had to practice. Some of my best art has equipped me for jobs to handle it with ease. Some of my best art has connected me with friends of a friend who had a super aligned project. Additionally, have some projects that you make solely for you. Take self portraits, know the experience of being in front of a camera, or do something that fuels the inner most innards of your soul.

Get Your Photo Published

The #1 platform photographers and models use to get published

Submit a photo