ANNOUNCING THE WOMAN OF THE MONTH

Meet September’s Fort Worth Woman of the Month! Sabrina Gebhardt’s name is all over this city. Having been a local photographer for over ten years now, she has photographed over 1,000 sessions. Her work is very recognizable and the odds are high that you have seen her photographs hanging in someone’s home. Her natural skill, attention to detail, and overall professional attitude make her a true expert in her field.

Originally from Houston, Sabrina moved to Fort Worth in 1998. She married her college sweetheart and now, sixteen years later, they have three kids who all attend the neighborhood public schools. As she graduated from college, Sabrina began her buying career with Zale Corporation in Irving. This was a job she truly loved as she was a jewelry buyer and was able to travel the world before she and her husband began their family. She openly states, “When I found out I was pregnant (on a business trip in China no less), I had no expectation of leaving my career. I was going to be a full-time working mom with an awesome career. Then I had my daughter.” 

Life tends to shift once a baby is born and whether you are a mom headed back to work or not, the new transition can be quite challenging. After a few short days in to motherhood, as she was staring at her newborn daughter, Sabrina decided to put her career with Zale Corporation on hold and stay at home full time. 

When her second child, a son, was born, Sabrina began her photography business. She had been a Stay at Home Mom for four years at this point and was looking for a way to give herself her own creative outlet. What started as a childhood love of photography only grew with motherhood and she wanted to use her natural gift to tell a story. Sabrina states, “I grew up with parents who both cherished photography as a hobby and so a love of capturing moments on camera really does come naturally to me.”

Sabrina’s work stands out above the crowd for many reasons. From the moment she enters your space for the first hours after a birth, for a hospital session, as you cuddle at home, or while you are enjoying vacation together, everyone from husbands to children begin to feel at ease. Her mission is not to create moments, but to capture the love that already exists. She states, “When I photograph a family, my main goal is to tell their story. I want to really see them. I want to help them relax and have fun and enjoy their people.” Instead of forced poses and stiff positions, Sabrina works hard to find a combination of not only necessary natural light but a natural fit for your family. Where your family feels comfortable is where she wants to capture your photos which in the end, create the true masterpiece. Sabrina explains, “I hope that when clients open their final gallery of images, they are overwhelmed with love for their family because they can see it in the laughter, in the touches, and in the way they look at each other. You can totally capture love on camera and I aim for that every single time.”

Now ten years later, Sabrina is continuing to capture families with a constant waitlist of more wanting their chance to be next. Beyond just freezing moments for families, Sabrina has a genuine appreciation for the connections made. She states, “I have so many friendships started with meeting at a photoshoot. Spending a few hours together, rehashing a birth story and changing newborn diapers together really connects people. I am definitely here for it.” A testament to her work is to watch families visit and/or move away to different states but Sabrina is still continually hired to capture the moments for their family along the way.

Her biggest honors of her career have been the sessions in which she captures love amidst someone’s heartache. Because of the compassion she subconsciously shares with those around her, she has brings light to an otherwise dark moment. Sabrina explains further, “Over the past ten years. I have been blessed with the huge honor of capturing both babies and grandparents at the end of life. There is literally no greater honor than to photograph someone who is not expected to live much longer. In each experience I was welcomed in to intimate settings and able to freeze the details that will be missed most -the way their tiny hands fit in to a mothers, the way that a toddler fit on his grandmother’s lap, the precious little feet that would never come home from the hospital, the way that children loved to pile around their grandfather and snuggle. Each of these families experienced immense pain and loss but now have something to hold on to and I can’t tell you how much of an honor it was to be asked to be a part of that experience.” Quotes like this show her heart. She is grateful for the experience in which she provided immeasurable, long-lasting memories for a hurting family.

As she has continued to perfect her craft, Sabrina has also shifted a bit of her focus over the past five years towards an educational role. In knowing how lonely the photography industry can be for budding photographers in the beginning, she has found the need for teaching and mentorship of both photographers and entrepreneurs. She exclaims, “To be totally honest, I am kind of shocked with how much I love this role. I am definitely not giving up on photographing families of Fort Worth, but I am really loving the role of educator.” With a focus on community over competition, Sabrina uses her mentorship role to “not only give them the business tools and knowledge they need to thrive” but also to “welcome them in to an industry community of like-minded professionals,” she states. Having created business courses, mentorship sessions, free classes, as well as using her social media platform to encourage and assist photographers, Sabrina’s talent will, no doubt, spread nationwide.

When asked what she loves about Fort Worth, Sabrina immediately mentioned that she would never leave. Having arrived here to attend TCU in the late nineties with now an established family still here in Cowtown, she can drive almost everywhere and see memories of the past. “I met my husband of sixteen years while at TCU, we had our rehearsal dinner Joe T. Garcias, and our wedding was at TCU’s Robert Carr Chapel – I am obsessed with the fact that I get to drive by the chapel on an almost daily basis” she states. Sabrina also describes an appreciation that Fort Worth has “this incredible two degrees of separation thing going on.” She further explains, “everyone has a connection with someone. I run in to friends all over town.”

The most humble of professionals tend to struggle when asked to choose one word to describe their impact and Sabrina was no different. She provided a combination of the three words – relationships, connections, community – but did not provide a description which was ironically descriptive in its own way as her work speaks for itself. The moments Sabrina captures both build and showcase beautiful relationships, the cohesiveness of the gallery you receive provides a connection that will never be lost to a particular moment in time, and the way she makes you feel during a session are all a natural part of her work that remind you of the beauty of community.

She is the epitome of perfecting her natural talent to bring joy to others while sharing her triumphs and trials with others to help them do the same. To view more of her work, you can click on sabrinagebhardt.com or find her on Instagram @sabrinagebhardtphotography.