March 25, 2010
The contest that I tried to do a couple months back in Chile to give free wedding photography away to a deserving couple really did not work out. So I’m giving it another go, this time in the U.S. We’ve already received quite a few very deserving entries and I’m looking forward to reading more. If you know of anyone who you’d like to nominate, check out the details here. Only rules are that the wedding must be on a date that we’re not already booked and within the continental U.S. between the months of May-November.
Here is the story of how Seba wound up in photography instead of construction. Spanish by him, italics in English is my translation.
El otro dia estaba conversando con una persona en un matrimonio, le estaba contando un poco de como empece en la construccion y termine en la fotografia, y me pregunto: “Y que tal? Cual es mejor?”
En ese mismo momento respondi la fotografia, pero debo admitir, me dejo pensando varios dias.
Recuerdo cunado tenia 12 anos, y mis papas compraron una parcela en la playa. Ahi construiriamos nuestra casa. Cuento corto, tuvmos mil problemas a lo largo de los anos, con maestros y arquitectos, hasta que finalmente un Arquitecto nos robo parte de los planos y tuvimos que terminar nosotros de inventar la casa, tratar de entender los planos y lidiar con todos los maestros para tratar de terminar la casa. 17 anos despues, la casa aun no esta terminada (los que fueron al cumpleano de la Kyle pueden dar fe de eso). Dentro de todo lo malo, creo que esto fue algo que definitivamente inicio mi pasion por la construccion. No se como describirlo pero definitivamente es increible construir de la nada, de un terreno vacio donde antes no habia nada. En mi corto paso por la construccion participe en la construccion de 5 supermercados, 1 Easy, 1 mall, 1 Ripley y la remodelacion del hotel Marriot y del Aeropuerto. (no la parte que se cayo en el terremoto).*
En la fotografia tambien me inicie tempranamente. Recuerdo que tenia 14 anos cuando rompi mi chanchito y me compre mi primera camara. Una EOS500, el ultimo grito de la tecnologia por aquellos anos. Creo que en aquel entonces me costo cerca de 100.000, es decir, mis ahorros de toda una vida.
The other day I was at a wedding talking to someone and I told them a little bit about how I started in construction and ended in photography. The person asked me, “So. Which is better?” In that moment, I responded that photography was better. But I have to admit, the conversation left me thinking for a couple days.
I remember when I was 12 years old and my parents bought a lot of land near the beach. That was where we would build our house. Long story short, we had a million problems through the years with handymen and architects, until finally, one of the architects robbed part of the plans to the house and we had to finish it ourselves. We just made it up as we went trying to understand the plans and deal with the workers to finish the house. 17 years later, the house still isn’t finished (anyone who was at Kyle’s birthday party can testify to that). But, even with all the bad that came along with it, I think this was definitely something that started a passion in me for construction. I don’t know how to describe it, but it’s definitely incredible to build something from nothing, on an empty lot where there used be nothing. In my short time in construction I was helped build 5 supermarkets, 1 Easy, 1 mall, 1 Ripley and the remodeling of the Marriot and the airport (not the part that fell in the earthquake).*
With photography, I also had an early start. I remember when I was 14 years old I broke my piggy bank and bought my first camera. It was an EOS500, the latest and greatest in technology during those years. I think that back then it cost around $200 dollars — that is to say, my entire life’s savings.
*Editor’s note: Nothing Seba built fell in the earthquake.
Esa camara me acompano por anos, reemplazando a la camara con la que mi papa me enseno. La mitica Zenit-E, ensamblada en la Union sovietica, imaginaran la reliquia que era. Si no lo imaginan, se las presento.
This camera accompanied me for years (above), replacing the camera that my dad taught me on — the mythical Zenit-E, made in the Soviet Union. Imagine the relic that this thing was. If you can’t imagine, let me show it to you:
Ahora la fotografia para mi siempre fue un hobby, me apasiono por anos. Pasaba horas recorriendo la ciudad los fines de semana, sacando fotos, tengo miles de negativos repartidos por ahi. Cuando entre a la U me meti a una clase de fotografia y empece a explorar las maravillas del revelado en cuarto obscuro. Finalmente la falta de tiempo y la vida universitaria fueron sepultando mi hobby.
Now the photography for me was always a hobby, but it was something I had a passion for for years. I spent hours walking around the city on the weekends, taking photos. I have thousands of negatives lost around the house. When I started college, I had a photography class and I started to explore the wonders of the dark room. Finally, lack of time and the university life buried my hobby beneath me.
To be continued…
March 23, 2010
Quick, before I forget — I donated the rest of the money from the prints purchased to houses being built in Colchagua. So you know I’m not lying, you can go see my intitials on their official donation spreadsheet here. Thanks again to everyone who helped raise money! Grand total of money donated for the Teleton and this was about $1500. Amazing.
Because I’ve been so busy posting too many amazing weddings to even keep track of, I’ve sort of neglected talking much about what else is going on in our life. Because yes, believe it or not, we do have a life outside photography.
Aside from taking pictures of pretty people in cemeteries and elsewhere, we also have been trying to buy an apartment. Not an easy feat. As anyone who lives in Santiago knows, you cannot pay people in Chile to get things done. They have to do it all on their own time. But we did actually find an apartment or two that we are going to buy. One of them, the owner of the apartment died, right before we signed the agreement to buy. Mala cuea. It could take up to 3 months now before the deed of the property is put into the name of the new owner, which is complicated because of crazy Chilean inheritance laws. And obviously we can’t buy until that’s all straightened out because we would very much like to make sure that this is legally ours once we pay for it!
And then we were denied for a loan on the other apartment, and are currently in the process of re-applying with Seba’s parents as co-signers. It’s a little frustrating to feel like even though we are running a successful business and still have a huge emergency fund chunk of savings in the bank, that isn’t financially responsible enough to be approved for a mortgage. We thought they would take the average of the past year’s boletas (receipts, or basically the Chilean way of verifying income if you’re self employed). But instead of taking the average, they said, “You made $5,000 in the month of December, but in the month of January you made $500. Your income fluctuates too much. We can’t approve you.” Our income does fluctuate a lot since we function on deposits when the couple books and then the payment of the final balance the month of the wedding. And some months we obviously get more bookings or have more weddings paying their final deposits. But I psychotically budget out our lives on my crazy spreadsheets. I could tell you down to the peso OR penny (my spreadsheets calculates in U.S. dollars and Chilean pesos and all I have to do is plug the exchange rate in for it to re-calculate) how much money we will have in December of this year. Once we do get an apartment and figure out our new expenses I’ll start budgeting out beyond that. The bank doesn’t care. So even though we hated having to be dependent on the good ol’ ‘rents, we went to them to co-sign our loan. Fortunately Seba’s parents are the real estate sharks of Estacion Central so we should get approved this time around. We find out soon, and I’m nervous!
But, even if our loan comes through, there are still so many other variables. The guy in the second apartment isn’t going to sign the agreement to sell until he finds a place to buy. Then once we buy it, we want to do a complete remodeling.
Realistically, I’m thinking we probably won’t move in until the end of the year. When we moved back in with Seba’s parents in October when we got back from Europe, we thought it would be 2-3 months before we found an apartment to buy and moved in. Reality check aaaaaaaaand MARK. Silly me, thinking anything in Chile would be uncomplicated and not time consuming 
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