>

Exploring Santiago

Read on

July 30, 2008

Contrary to some people’s popular belief, Santiago is not totally devoid of all culture and beauty. :) Sure, I bitch and moan…I’m an expat, it’s what we do. But, this city has it’s moments for me and last Friday was one of them.

I went out exploring with friends throughout Barrio Concha y Toro, Barrio Brasil, El Centro through to Barrio Lastarria. Good times. Of course, I had my new camera with me, but let’s not lie, I was NERVOUS. Carrying around thousands of dollars worth of equipment is more than a little nerve wracking in a part of town that’s featured nightly on the news showing bands of petty thieves. I didn’t want to get caught being the stupid gringa, waving my gear around, taunting fate and thieves with temptation. So I didn’t take a ton of pictures. But, this was my first time using the new cam in low light, and oh my gosh, I think I’m LOVE. Everything that S. and I make from photography sessions, we invest right back into the business buying more equipment. We bought the 40d with money from the past couple sessions we did, plus a generous gift certificate from a friend, and it’s seriously the best purchase I’ve ever made. The camera’s capabilities over what my Rebel XT could do are above and beyond what I expected. Needless to say, I’m thrilled. And I feel like I’m now better prepared to push myself to new levels in photography.

Here are a few smatterings of the photos I took last Friday. Yes, I know I’m slow, but it takes me a long time to edit photos to get the mood perfect. I usually have a specific idea in mind of what feel I’m trying to get and I’ll play around in Photoshop until I get it exactly right.

Concha y Toro

IMG_1024

IMG_1109

IMG_1076

Note: These pictures are cross posted everywhere. They’re already up on Facebook. I’ll make some of them public on my Flickr, and for the full set, check out my photography blog.

And in other random news, I’m now blogging for TONIC. I’m SO excited about this, as it’s more original autobiographical type content than what I’ve been doing for other blogs and I feel very free writing for them. The theme is environmental issues, and I’ll be focusing on what it’s like to try and be “green” while living in Chile. Leave me a little love on my first post so I don’t feel like the loser new kid on the blog. :)

PS. Does anybody know how to widen the main column in Wordpress and in Blogger? I want to be able to post larger photos here and on my photography blog and I’m HTML impaired.

18 Comments

Facebook comments:

18 Comments »

  1. You just reminded me that I’ve been meaning to tell you that there’s this show here called “Andaluces por el mundo” where they film expats from Andalucia, Spain in different cities all over the world and last week was the Santiago episode! There was a guy on it from our neighborhood (Triana) and he told a story about how his first job interview was at the university on Calle Triana and he thought it was fate. I thought of you as I was watching it, and thought that Santiago is very beautiful!

    Comment by Sarita — July 30, 2008 @ 1:55 pm

  2. woah did you just walk into a bar and see a naked lady laying there? or is that wax or something? beautiful pics btw. my hubby is a photographer too. he wants to get into doing more studio work but he needs a lot of equipment. photography equipment is so expensive!!

    Comment by kumichan83 — July 30, 2008 @ 2:45 pm

  3. Beautiful work. Beautiful subjects.

    Sorry, can’t help out, I’m HTML impaired too.

    Comment by Reb — July 30, 2008 @ 2:58 pm

  4. Sarita, that’s so cool! Yeah, there are definitely parts of Santiago that are beautiful…you just have to know where to find them.

    Kumichan, it’s a mannequin :) The bar was filled with them!!!!

    Reb, thank you!

    Comment by Mamacita Chilena — July 30, 2008 @ 3:03 pm

  5. Extraordinarily beautiful photos.

    Comment by Mark H — July 30, 2008 @ 5:43 pm

  6. Sweet photos Kyle.

    Comment by Maeskizzle — July 30, 2008 @ 11:02 pm

  7. Why thank you!

    And diggin the treatment on that 2nd photo.

    Comment by Christy — July 31, 2008 @ 1:17 am

  8. I just wanted to tell you how much I admire your photographs. Those you took of Tamsin & her fiance are just stunning. She's steered me to your website, and I'll be back from time to time.

    Janet

    Comment by Janet — July 31, 2008 @ 3:43 am

  9. beautiful pictures, a good camera makes a huge huge difference, especially if you know how it works!!!!!!! Will definitely check out your links.

    Comment by Bluestreak — July 31, 2008 @ 4:41 am

  10. whoa!!! just be careful when u come to Estación Central…

    Comment by j4ur14 — July 31, 2008 @ 6:46 am

  11. extremely, completely jealous, kyle! the 40d? only in my dreams…well, actually my dreams usually involve the 5d, but even the 40d can make my mind wander into peaceful fields. =] congrats! i do the same with my photocash: turn it right around and put it into more gear. i’ve been focused on acquiring more lenses and lights first…now i just really want a decent camera.

    those pictures are so intriguing! i love the treatment on the first pair of shots…almost lomofied! great look.

    as for the big pics…i’ll email you the details.

    Comment by rik — July 31, 2008 @ 7:29 am

  12. What cool architecture. But what is with that naked lady?

    Comment by Maurey — July 31, 2008 @ 9:02 am

  13. sweet pics!
    I wish I could get a cool camera, I have a really old Minolta that I still can’t figure out. I left it in the states because it was driving me crazy!! I have wanted to upgrade my digi cam for a long time, but I can’t make up my mind! So for now I stick with my Canon Powershot A85, that I have had since I was in 10th grade. Back when having 4 batteries was standard! Thank the stars for rechargeables! I am also worried that if I do buy a much better one that I won’t even take any pictures because I will be too scared to ever take it out! Happy picture taking I can’t wait to see your new stuff!

    Comment by Shannon — July 31, 2008 @ 9:13 am

  14. And, we are psyched to have you writing for TONIC!

    Comment by Dan — July 31, 2008 @ 9:42 am

  15. Dude! Those are AWESOME!!! And I don’t think all the credit should go solely to the equipment… seems to me the photographer has an incredible eye!!! ;)

    Fned.
    P.S. Heading over to TONIC right this minute!

    Comment by Fned — July 31, 2008 @ 1:53 pm

  16. Congrats on the gig. I am looking forward to reading your posts.

    Beautiful pictures! I hope to see it for myself next year.

    Comment by Lori - Blondie in Brazil — July 31, 2008 @ 2:36 pm

  17. Beautiful photos! Nope, can’t compete with that. :)

    Comment by Ordinary Girl — July 31, 2008 @ 9:00 pm

  18. You make such nice photos. Love the pic of the couple on the street.

    To widen the column you have to edit your design- the widths will be in the .css file that is usually the first one they show when you go to edit the design template. It’s sorta complex if you’re html/css impaired. I suggest downloading and installing a new template that has a wider layout, or even a photo-specific template since you post lots of them.

    Comment by mexpat — August 4, 2008 @ 8:52 am

RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URL

Leave a comment