Kyle Hepp

May 11, 2009

I traveled to Concepcion this weekend for the wedding of a lovely Canadian bride to, of course, her Chilean fiance. The trip was eventful from start to finish.

When I arrived at the airport, the place was a zoo. There were easily over a hundred people crowded inside around the arrivals area, and press and photographers everywhere. I got out my camera immediately, thinking I’d have the chance to grab a shot of someone famous. I was too far outside the crowd to really see what was happening but all of a sudden everyone began to applaud. Then the room got silent. I sauntered up to a policeman to ask what was going on and he said that the body of a 20 something year old Chilean boy, who had died in Cuba, had come back to Concepcion, on my flight. I’m so glad I didn’t know that beforehand — it would have creeped me out. The news sobered me up and after one photo I put my camera away. The family came out all sobbing, which in turn started the crowd crying. Taking pictures felt so disrespectful. I don’t know how the photojournalists do it. Thank goodness my job is to take pictures of people on the happiest day of their life! Anything else, and I couldn’t handle it.

So I went and sat down on a bench right near the doors outside to wait for the groom to come collect me from the airport. I felt too intrusive being an outsider on what felt like an entire city’s mourning for someone that I had never met. Watching seemed like gawking. It felt wrong.

The weather upon arrival was drizzly and grey. My first impression of Concepcion was that it seemed like a sad city. Although that could be influenced by the fact that I didn’t see a single ray of sunshine the whole time I was visiting and because there was a funeral in the airport when I arrived. So you know, I’d be willing to give it a second chance.

Fortunately, Kristin and Pancho, the bride and groom, were nothing short of awesome. They were just happy to be together and even the rain on their wedding didn’t stop them from smiling all day long. I was a little nervous because I had never met them before, but were so cool and SO fun to photograph, even braving the rain and getting completely drenched, all for the sake of the pictures. First photograph from the wedding is here, if you’re interested.

After the wedding, some kind guests drove me back from Pingueral, where the ceremony was held, to my hostel in Concepcion. The drive, along the beautiful and winding roads next to Chile’s coastline was stunning. I, however, didn’t take any pictures, party because it was pretty dark, but mostly because I was car sick for the first time in my life. I didn’t throw up, but only because I was with people I didn’t know. Otherwise I would have made them stop the car so I could puke like the exorcist. I have NEVER felt that ill in my life. It was miserable.

We arrived at my hostel, which was totally ghetto and ridiculously expensive for the crap quality, although to their credit the staff was friendly and helpful. Even once I was out of the car I still felt pretty sick, so at 9pm, I laid down and went to bed for the night. A taxi picked me up at 7:30am the next day, and that was that. Isn’t wedding photography travel oh so glam? I wish I had felt better so I could have seen a little more of the city, but alas, it was not meant to be.

On my flight back, I was just anxious to get home, however some passengers though that taking off, turbulence and landing were all ocassions to celebrate with vigorous trumpet playing. They were three (or maybe just two, I couldn’t tell) wannabe Mick Jagger types — old enough to fart dust, long greasy hair, harassing women young enough to be their daughters. The first time one stood up to play the trumpet before we took off, it was funny. But then he kept going and the pilot had to come out and make him sit down. I wanted to take a picture, but I also didn’t want the guys to notice me and start harassing me too, so I stayed low profile, slouched down in my seat with my camera safely hidden in my bag.

On the way back in to Santiago the sky was actually a beautiful shade of blue and the sun was out in full force, but I just thought I’d keep the processing dark to stay in theme with the rest of the photos. Speaking of processing, I did a tutorial on how I converted these to black and whites at my photography blog if you’re interested. However, I didn’t pull the A-curve quite as far to the left so that they don’t come out as pink and I pulled the B-curve more to the right for cooler tones. And no grain added. The end.