Fotografo de Bodas, Santiago

March 12, 2009

*Judging by the sunshine today, you’ll probably notice that this post was written a few days ago. And winter hasn’t really arrived, it just came to visit for 24 hours and then left again.

Today is a dreary day in Santiago. The rain drizzled down and when I took Papi out for a run she came back completely covered in mud. It was so cold that after I gave her a bath to clean her up, in between the time that she was sitting there waiting for me to find the blow dryer she actually started shivering a little. Winter has arrived.

This normally really depresses me. Santiago is romantic and lovely in the rain like Paris. The city floods making parts of the sidewalks impassable and impossible to get across without wetting your feet and pants. It is just ugly, and oh so very grey during the off season here.

But, today, I wasn’t depressed at all.

In fact, I’m feeling good. You could say that’s because this is the first cold day we’ve had in months and it’s just nice to have a change. Or you could say that I am on the verge of booking wedding number six, which would put me exactly halfway to my goal of booking 12 weddings in 2009, which honestly felt impossible when I wrote it down. And I have several other prospects for weddings 7, 8, and 9 for the year. Although I’m not counting my chickens before they’re hatched.

So after seeing the inquiries increasing significantly with the booking percentage holding steady, I decided to celebrate like any good photographer — I bought the new Canon 5d Mark II! This is the first thing for the business that I’ve ever bought on credit. Normally any money I make off of photography goes into a fund for new equipment and once I’ve saved enough for whatever I need, I buy it. But, this camera is a big investment and I feel like it’s what I need to take me to the next level. I know that using a credit card for a purchase this big isn’t necessarily the healthiest spending habit, and I’ll admit, seeing my balance go that high makes me nervous. This is the first time we’ve used a credit card that we haven’t been able to pay off at the end of the month. I’m hoping it’s worth it!

And I’ll admit that on a selfish level as well — this is the camera I want to travel the world with.

I love photography so much and I’m trying so hard to make it work. Inching ever so steadily towards my goals has me in a good place right now. As long as I know that I’m moving forward, always moving, no matter how slow the pace may be, I’ll be alright.

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6 Comments

well done on the camera. you will see it makes a huge difference. i recently purchased the nikon d90 and the quality of my pictures has dramatically increased..!! Looking forward to seeing the pictures you shoot with it… go kyle go!!!

ps: i dislike the way blogger handels comments / stupid word verification *argh*

Comment by AndrÃ© — March 12, 2009 @ 2:37 am

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Dear Kyle,
Enjoy it and consider it an investment – As you said, it will take you to the next level as a pro!
All the best Caroline

Comment by Anonymous — March 12, 2009 @ 5:16 am

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I heard a really scary statistic the other day: american debt is equal to 1 year american gross national product. in the 90s we were around 5 % gross national product, but this has been steadily increasing. The only other time in history that we had this 1 to 1 ration was 1929. Also, this only counts personal debt, not business debt.

That said, you clearly are not contributing to this statistic. I think it was a good buy. Technically it was an asset development purchas which is the type of purchase you want to make on credit– one which appreciates in value or one that allows you to bring in income.

okay, i will stop spouting econ theory. cute camera! can’t wait to see the pictures.

Comment by Clare — March 12, 2009 @ 6:59 am

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i had know idea cameras could have 21 megapixels, wow! it makes my dinky 5 megapixel camera seem dinkier. but i think you made a great investment in buying it. if you had bought a big plasma tv and called it an investment for watching colo colo games or something, i’d think otherwise but if you’re going to the next photography level i hope it will bring you to the next pay level so that what you paid for the camera becomes an afterthought

Comment by Isabel — March 12, 2009 @ 7:24 am

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Thanks Andre, I’m so excited!

I know the word verification is annoying, but otherwise I end up getting so many spam comments sorry!

Caroline, I’m trying to look at it as an investment and not a very scare debt laden purchase

Clare, YIKES. Those are some frightening stats. Although I can’t say I’m surprised. I think I know a lot of people that have personally contributed to the problem. S. and I used our credit cards to pay for our wedding and spent almost a year paying it off (that said, we were both making NO money at the time). After that we decided not to use it except for things we would be able to pay off at the end of every month. So needless to say this purchase was a BIG deal for us.

Isabel, yeah, 21 megapixels is total overkill. Unless I was going to make a wall-size portrait of S. I probably won’t use it! That’s definitely not the feature I’m most excited about. I’m thrilled because in all the side by side comparisons, the colors are much richer and the tones are more true to life than what my camera produces now. Images come out sharper and the camera is also great in low light. So YAY for technology!!!!!!

Comment by Mamacita Chilena — March 12, 2009 @ 8:43 am

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You are not inching slowly… you are doing awesomely! You would make any momma proud

I have no clue about cameras but I will buy this Mark II in Japan. It’s gonna be hand to mouth until we are able to get that sucker! I just want it for my husband so bad because I know how important it is to him. His camera got stolen, then his friend’s Nikon that he was borrowing got stolen so he has been really depressed about not having photography in his life.

I am planning on buying an SLR camera for myself too. Any recs? I was thinking the Canon Kiss (I think this may be the Rebel XT in the US). I just figured cheap is good for me since I don’t even know if I’ll get into it and I want it more to be able to make a website than anything. BUT I know there are lots of used camera shops in Japan so maybe I can get a better quality one used? What do you think? Sorry for the mega long comment!

Comment by Kathleen — March 12, 2009 @ 6:52 pm

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