May 27, 2010
I was recently talking to my best friend’s about the blogging world and attacks on bloggers from readers and commenters. I’ve definitely been on the receiving end of many a hate email and the occasional obnoxious and/or cruel comment. I tend to ignore them. Don’t get me wrong — they often hurt my heart — but I see very little good that comes from responding. Unless the comment is hilarious.
Anyway, my friend said that she reads another blog where the commenters were attacking the blogger and the blogger responded, “You only know the part of my life that I choose to share with you. You don’t know everything about me.”
In the photography world there have been some crazy debates going on lately — mainly about wedding photographers who make themselves appear to be much more successful via what they choose to share on their blog, than they actually are.
Appearing to be massively successful is very easy. I could show you our Amazon trip and not tell you that we won it. I could show you photos of us gallivanting around Europe and not tell you that it took us 2 years to save up for those short little three months. I could show you all the weddings we shoot and based on how busy we are you might assume that we wouldn’t have problems getting a mortgage or that I don’t have to psychotically budget out every inch of our lives just to ensure that we’ll continue to scrape by.
I’ll be honest. We watch every penny we spend — especially in the U.S. Bringing our third world country salary to a first world country is NOT budget friendly. And my stomach sometimes hurts when more than a few weeks go by without booking a wedding. I get nervous. So much so that I’m probably going to give myself an ulcer worrying. It’d probably be easy to share just enough and nothing more on this blog so that you didn’t know all that.
Anyway, that all brings me to my point. I haven’t been posting much while we’re in Tennessee because we haven’t been doing anything crazy out of the ordinary. Well, we did shoot some killer sessions, but I still don’t have a computer to be able to edit them. So in the mean time, I’m having a fabulous time hanging out with my bestie and her fiance, enjoying the small yet luxurious comforts of life in the U.S., such as eating food sent from the heavens at Panera and lounging around in air conditioned bliss laughing at silly movies. To anyone but us, it’s mundane.
And I want to write about the mundane on occasion. I can’t have people thinking my life is totally over the top amazing all the time. That’s a front I’d never be able to, and would never want to be able to keep up. My life is really amazing — in large part because the incredible is balanced out enough by the struggles/craziness/hard times, that I appreciate the good that much more.
Who knows, maybe I’d have more clients and make more money if people were under the impression that I’m some insanely exclusive photographer who only shoots bajillion dollar weddings. But starting a blog based on complete honesty is what got me this far, so I’m going to keep on keeping on.
Stream of consciousness — over. Thanks for listening 
May 25, 2010
In case you’re wondering what we’re up to these days and why I haven’t been as regular about blogging lately, it’s because we’re road tripping!
We flew from NYC to Miami, hung out there, and then drove up from Miami to Nashville (14 hour drive, looong). My Dad loaned me his iPhone so that’s the camera I used on all these in case you’re wondering why the quality looks juuuuust a tad bit different than our normal pics.
Dog ice cream bars, how freaking cool is that?!?
Seba loves it.
Seba also loves driving the entire way because I forgot my driver’s license in Chile. Smart.
We have some sessions to post but we are still having Mac drama — the computer we ordered had to be sent back because it was DOA. They replaced the hard drive and sent it back to us. It then worked, but the hard drive was making grindy/clicky/hard drive failing noises. So they are replacing the whole computer but in the mean time I don’t have anywhere to edit photos 
May 20, 2010
Seba’s views on the U.S. In Spanish first and my English translation of his words at the bottom of the post.
A la fecha ya llevo aproximadamente 3 semanas en la tierra del tio Sam, y creo que a estas alturas podria enumerar algunas cosas que me han llamado la atencion en este pais, tanto de la cultura, como de la gente , que por cierto es completamente diferente que en Chile.
Primero, para romper con algunos estereotipos:
Para todos los que piensan que las casitas son todas ordenaditas, sin rejas y con sus buzones para el correo como en las peliculas……..las weas son exactamente asi!! como en las peliculas!!
Hablando en serio, recuerdo la primera vez que vine a USA y fuimos a Michigan. En la entrada del Mall (que tenia calefaccion) habia un perchero gigante. La gente entraba, colgaba su chaqueta (con llaves del auto, billeteras,etc) y se iba a recorrer el mall. A la vuelta recogian la chaqueta y se iban. Sin guardias, sin robos. Recuerdo que cuando lo vi pense, “WTF!! donde esta la camara escondida de esta wea.”
En mas de una ocasion me ha tocado ver autos en la calle con los vidrios abajo…..como si nada. La puerta lateral de la casa abierta, sin llave.
En una ocasion estuve pintando unas casas en Tampa.Un dia los ninos de la casa del frente dejaron las bicicletas en el antejardin y entraron. Cuando me fui ese dia aun estaban ahi, y lo mas increible, cuando volvi al dia siguiente…AUN ESTABAN AHI!!!! No tienen idea como hubieran desaparecido esas bicicletas en mi barrio.
Que mas? Las carreteras son la raja, muchas pistas, buenas vermas, cruces sobre y bajo nivel que a veces me parecen ridiculos, pero efectivos. Los autos son mas baratos, la bencina es mas barata, (2,85 dolares el gl / si se, la mitad que en chile) todas als tonteras electronicas son mas baratas, casi 50% mas barato que en chile y mas encima, comparativamente, se gana mas plata en USA que en Chile. En USA, comprar en Supermercados es mas caro, el arriendo es mas caro, comprar una propiedad es mas caro, supongo que en el gran esquema es mas menos lo mismo vivir alla o aca.
En fin, lo que mas recuerdo de mi primera visita no lo vi alla, si no que me di cuenta cuando volvi a Chile. no se si lo podre explicar bien pero al estar alla me habia acostumbrado a estar tranquilo, a caminar tranquilo por la calle de noche y recuerdo cuando volvi a Chile, venia de vuelta tarde por el Paseo Ahumada y de repente como que me cayo la teja. HDP esta wea no es USA y tengo que empezar a mirar para atras denuevo.
Ahora, el proposito de este post no es que se pongan todos saltones e hiperventilados, que chile, que USA, que mi pais, que esto y esto otro. No odio Chile ( a veces si un poco), no me creo Gringo, es simplemente una opinion de lo que he visto las veces que he pasado por aca.
Otra cosa que me di cuenta, si creen que se pueden formar una opinion de la gente o el pais por los diarios, las noticias, las peliculas o el internet, estan muy equivocados,
Al menos en mi experiencia.
From U.S.A., With Love
To date, I’ve been in Uncle Sam’s land for about 3 weeks, and I think that by now I can list a few things that have caught my attention in this country — in terms of the culture, and the people, which are completely different than in Chile.
First of all, to do away with a few stereotypes:
For those of you who think that the houses are all in neat little rows, without fences and with their mailboxes lining the street, like in the movies…that’s exactly how it is!!! Just like in the movies!!!
But seriously, I remember the first time that I came to the U.S. In the entrance to the mall (that had heat) there was a giant coat rack. People came in, hung up their jackets (with their car keys, checkbooks etc.) and went to go walk through the mall. When they were done, they came back to get their jackets and they left. No guards, no thefts. I remember when I saw that, I thought, “WTF! Where’s the hidden camera?”
On more than one occasion, I’ve seen cars parked in the street with the windows down…as if it were nothing. Side doors to houses, unlocked.
A different time, I was painting houses in Tampa. One day, the kids from the house on the other side of the street left their bikes in the front yard and they went inside. When I went home that day, the bikes were still there, and even more incredible, when I came back the next day…THEY WERE STILL THERE!!! You have no idea how fast those bikes would have disappeared in my neighborhood.
What else? The highways are amazing, with a lot more lanes, good shoulders, overpasses and underpasses that sometimes seem ridiculous to me — although effective. Buying a car is cheaper, gas is cheaper ($2.85 a gallon, half of what it costs in Chile), electronics are cheaper, at least 50% cheaper, and what’s more, comparatively, people earn more money in the U.S. than they do in Chile. In the U.S. going grocery shopping is more expensive, rent is more expensive, buying property is more expensive, so I guess in the grand scheme of things, it’s more or less the same to live here or there.
When all is said and done, what I remember most from my first visit, I didn’t actually see in the U.S. It wasn’t until I arrived back to Chile that I realized what had impacted me the most. I’m not sure if I can explain it here, but being in the U.S. I had gotten used to letting my guard down, to being able walk around the streets at night with my guard down. And I remember when I got to Chile, I was coming home from Paseo Ahumada (smack in the middle of downtown Santiago) and it hit me like a ton of bricks. Mother effer, this is not the U.S. and I have to start watching my back again.
Now, the point of this post isn’t to get everyone going crazy and hyperventilating, blah blah blah Chile, blah blah blah U.S., bla blah blah this and that. I don’t hate Chile (ok, well sometimes I do), I don’t think I’m Gringa, it’s just an opinion on what I’ve seen the couple times that I’ve been here.
And one more thing that I realized — if people think that they can form an opinion about a culture or a country based on the newspapers, the news, movies or the internet, they’re very wrong.
At least in my experience.
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