Kyle Hepp

April 4, 2010

Dado el enorme exito de mi ultimo post y los cientos de comentarios que recibio, me veo en la obligacion de volver por estos lados a contarles el resto de la historia.

Given the enormous success of my last post and the 100′s of comments that it got, I felt obligated to come back and finish the story.

Anos despues, conoci a la Kyle, le preste mi vieja camara y le ensene a usarla. Con el tiempo ella se metio a full en la fotografia, mientras yo me dedicaba a la construccion. Y con el tiempo, y por diversas razones que no vale la pena mencionar, termine aqui, de vuelta a mi viejo hobby trabajando con la Kyle.

Years later, I met Kyle, I loaned her my old film camera, and I taught her how to use it. With the passing of time, she got totally into photography, while I started my career in construction. And, with the passing of time, and because of lost of different reasons not worth mentioning now, I ended up here — back to my old hobby and working with Kyle.

Hace ya casi 1 ano que renuncie a mi trabajo en construccion, y ciertamente hay muchas cosas que echo de menos. Varias veces me ha pasado que me toca pasar por fuera de alguna obra, y puta que me gustaria estar trabajando ahi adentro!! La Kyle siempre me dice que cuando pasa eso pongo una cara parecida a la del gato con botas de Shrek.

It’s been almost a year since I quit my job in construction, and there are definitely a lot of things that I miss. I often walk by construction sites (editors note: First time around doing the translation, I accidentally typed construction shits instead of sites. Freudian slip?) and man, I would love to be there inside working. Kyle always tells me that when I walk by a construction site I get a sad little face like the cat with boots from Shrek.

Al rato me acuerdo que a veces trabajaba mas de 70 horas a la semana, que veia a la gente de la pega mas que la Kyle y que me toco trabajar todo el verano en turno de noche y se me pasa la nostalgia enseguida.

And then a little while later, I remember that I was working more than 70 hours a week, that I saw my co-workers more than Kyle and that all last summer I was stuck on the night shift — and my nostalgia passes.

Ciertamente la fotografia es mas amable en ese sentido, y…….ahora trabajo con la Kyle!!!! Por un lado es impagable poder pasar el tiempo con ella, poder disponer de nuestro tiempo para salir, descansar, ir a la playa, viajar etc. pero es un equilibrio delicado. Muchas veces nos hemos querido matar, o mas bien ella me ha querido matar a mi xD. Imaginense 24/7 juntos, no es facil, pero no volveria atras.

Certainly photography is nicer in that way…and now I work with Kyle!!! In that sense, working with her is priceless — we can make our own schedule and go out, rest, go to the beach house, travel, etc. But it’s a delicate balance. We want to kill each other quite often — or I should say she wants to kill me quite often. Imagine being together with your significant other 24/7. It’s not easy, but I’d never give it back up.

Definitivamente el argumento que zanja toda la discucion de cual de las dos profesiones es mejor es el hecho de ser mi propio jefe, de poder disponer de mi tiempo. En una obra en la que estuve el ano pasado llego un jefe de terreno nuevo, a los 3 meses renuncio. Antes que se fuera le pregunte por que y me dijo: “Me encanta la construccion, me gusta lo que hago, pero tambien me gusta hacer otras cosas”

When I talk to people about which of the two professions is better, the reason I keep coming back to is the fact that I’m my own boss — I can decide how I want to spend my time. On one construction site that I worked on last year, we got a new boss (anyone know how to translate jefe de terreno? He’s the guy who’s out there in the dirt coordinating the maestros and telling everyone what to do). He quit after 3 months. Before he left, I asked him why he was going and he said, “I love construction and I like what I do, but I like to do other things too.”

Y eso es algo en que la fotografia aventaja la construccion. La ultima temporada fotografiamos matrimonios en Santiago, Chiloe, Buenos Aires, Michigan y Wisconsin. Este ano vamos a Nueva York, Chicago, Tampa y Santander en Espana. Como poder pagar eso? El privilegio de que mi trabajo me permita viajar y ver el mundo, que es algo que siempre hemos querido hacer con la Kyle. Aunque no todo es tan color de rosas como suena, es harto trabajo, 24/7. Nos acostamos todos los dias a las 5AM, pasamos un promedio de 14 horas al dia en el computador, mas reuniones, manejar por todo Santiago, mantener la pagina y el equipo actualizado, etc. Supongo que al final no existe el trabajo facil, simplemente el que mas nos gusta. De igual forma todos requieren esfuerzo y dedicacion.

And that’s where photography takes the advantage over construction. Last season we shot weddings in Santiago,, Buenos Aires, Michigan and Wisconsin. This year we’re going to New York, Chicago, Tampa and Santander, Spain. How can you put a price on that? This job has given us the privilege of traveling and seeing the world, which is something Kyle and I always wanted to do. Although it’s not as much of a walk in the park as it sounds. It’s a lot of round the clock work. We go to bed every day at 5am, we spend an average of 14 hours a day on the computer, tons of meetings and driving around all of Santiago, updating the website and maintaing the equipment, etc. I suppose that in the end, there’s no such thing as an easy job, just such a thing as a job that we like the most. No matter what, anything you do requires hard work and dedication.

Pero aparte de todo, fotografiar bodas es super divertido!

And besides that, photographing weddings is really fun!