Photographer profile: Kalman Zabarsky

High quality, creative photography is one of the most important assets in our design work. I've had the pleasure of working with photographer Kal Zabarsky on several photo assignments over the past year. The pictures have been used in a variety of marketing materials from websites, brochures, infographics and presentations.

Kal is an amazing photographer

He was a full time photographer at BU for many years and is now semi retired working on photo assignments he enjoys. He always has a joke or story on hand to relax everyone in front of the camera which is key to capturing people in a natural, comfortable way. His ability to work in the moment and spot when something unique is happening allows him to capture amazing images.Over the past month we have worked on 2 projects together: photos for an independent K-12 school in Boston and 128 Business Council. These projects couldn't have been more different from another."Great pictures are just handed to me," Kal said at the school where he photographed enthusiastic kids with absolutely no fear of the camera studying in creative looking classrooms. The 128BC pictures needed to depict — in a contemporary, cool style — commuters in public, entering/exiting buses, a fleet of busses and their drivers, and the team working collaboratively in a conference room setting. Weather, bus schedules, and physical limitations in the office space created challenges, but it didn't matter.

Kal worked with the constraints and turned them into assets.

For example, he turned a darker, traditional looking conference room into a setting for interactive team working pictures by leveraging lighting, cropping the compositions and directing the team members.During the shoots, we chat and exchange stories. I tell him about my backyard chickens and he shares his latest breakfast pizza creations (he loves to cook!). Here are a few fun facts about Kal.