June 18, 2010
Jose Ignacio and Sole traveled all the way from Concepcion for their photo session. They are rockstars in front of the camera, and rockstars because they survived the an 8.8 at it’s epicenter. Yikes. I’m glad they made it out ok, and I’m glad I got to photograph them 
Jose Ignacio y Sole viajaron desde Concepcion para su sesion de fotos. Son estrellas de Rock en frente de las camaras, estrellas de rock por que sobrevivieron un terremoto 8.8 en el epicentro. Me alegro de que hayan salido bien y me alegro que los pude fotografiar. 
Love this totally abstract shot that Seba grabbed!
Me encanata esta foto totalmente abstracta que saco Seba!
June 17, 2010
I adore the World Cup with every bone in my body. I obsess over it the same way I obsess over a perfect photo — it sticks in my head and I can’t get it out.
I played soccer from 2nd grade up through my senior year of high school. I didn’t suck too bad. Then in college, I coached a high school team. Then I did an internship with the United Soccer Leagues (they run the U.S. semi-pro leagues) And on study abroad in Chile, I played for La Catolica’s university team — though by that point I was so out of shape/practice from not having played for 4 years, that I really, really sucked. At this point I probably couldn’t score a goal anywhere, anyhow, even if Green were the goalie.
Point being, I love the sport. My mom, being the super (hot) mom that she is, supported my brother and I in this obsession. My mom paid for my expensive club teams, drove me all over the state for games, sat out in the pouring rain to cheer me on, screaming, “Kick far, Kyle, KICK IT FAR!” She woke up with us at 4am to watch the World Cup in China and even let us stay home from school if that pesky little thing called “getting an education” interfered with with an important game. I would watch every single minute of the World Cup, the U20 World Cup, the U17 World Cup, the Woman’s World Cup — and something would be amiss if I didn’t mention my undying love for Briana Scurry and Brian McBride. They’re my two favorite players in U.S. history, though Clint Dempsey has also wormed his way into my heart. Bless his soul, that’s boy’s not scared of anything or anyone, even superstar Brazilians whose names translate into the best butt jokes ever.
When I moved to Chile, in a cruel twist of fate, I married the only South American in the world who cares less about soccer than most Americans. To give you an idea of just how little he cares, we didn’t watch the Chile game yesterday. Though it was an accident — he thought I had set the alarm and I thought he had set the alarm. But still. When I found out the U.S. opened on June 12th, a Saturday afternoon, I wrote it on my calendar to make sure I didn’t book a wedding that day. If we were playing at 7:30am you better believe I’d have ten alarms set.
What I love most about the World Cup is actually the agony of it. I’m a total masochist. In case you live under a rock, the U.S. tied England 1-1 in their opener. You could say that the hardest game is behind us, as England were supposedly Cup favorites — though I don’t think even the Brits really believe that. But the U.S. historically wins against all odds and then chokes against the little ones. We’ll beat Goliath every time — we were the Spain’s first lost in 35 games in the Confederation’s Cup, we were the only team aside from Runner’s Up, France, to score against Italy (in what was surely the ugliest game in the history of soccer, played 10 v. 9 almost the whole game because of red cards), the eventual World Cup winners in 2006. But when it’s David versus David, man do we struggle. I don’t even dare to get my hopes up about our game against Slovenia.
Of course, I wish we were one of the big World Cup superpowers.
But, you cannot choose your patria (unless your patria didn’t qualify, in which case, go nuts). That’s the entire point of the World Cup — it’s like a marriage vow. In sickness and in health, in the good times and the bad, ’til death do us part, through blatant obnoxious fouls, missed opportunities to put the ball in the back of the net, and horrible defending, I will stand behind my country.
It’s not that I don’t like the Chilean soccer team. I love them under Bielsa. Before I was embarrassed by the players’ crappy attitudes and lack of professionalism and refused to root for them because they were classless. But, El Loco has turned them around. Gone are the days of sexual harassment and destroying public property at hotels, getting drunk the night before a game and playing half assed on the field. Hello to the days of beating Argentina and making this country a better place to live in, and making a splendid qualifying run to this year’s big show (which I totally predicted).
But if the U.S. played Chile, I would root against Chile with every fiber of my being. Because if you’re a real soccer fan you know that you can’t choose your patria — or call it soccer, for that matter Fortunately, the odds of having to make that choice are slim to none. If both teams get out of their group second, they’d have to meet in the finals.
And I’m pretty sure that if there were a Chile v. U.S. World Cup final, it would create some kind of black hole that would suck the entire earth down and we’d all stop existing.
Who knows, though? Maybe, just maybe, one of the two will get out of their group 1st. Spain’s loss and England’s tie have opened up some doors. But we’ll see. I’m certainly not making any bets on either team just yet.
And that’s the beauty of it all.
When your country takes the field, you agonize because you know you’re playing a team that’s sure to beat you, but still you still wish against all odds that your boys surprise you and tough it out. You hold your breath for 90 minutes. You yell and throw things at the TV. And you think, if you Just. Hope. Hard. Enough. that will make the difference and your country will win.
June 15, 2010
I know that a lot of photographers out there are firm believers in attending workshops to better their craft.
I am not
I honestly think that most of what you would learn from fellow photogs can be found on the internet. For free.
The being said, New York Wedding Photographer, Ryan Brenizer, is sort of, like, kinda, a little bit, one of the absolute best there is. I don’t want to inflate his ego too much, but he’s basically a living legend amongst photographers. And, amongst the massive photographer backlash against fellow photographers who give what some deem to be basically worthless workshops* and charge what some deem to be exorbitant amounts of money* for them, I felt that his price for the amount of knowledge and experience that he has to share, was actually fair. So I bit the bullet and Paypal’ed him to schedule our 2 on 1 consult while we were in NYC in May.
Seba and I paid a visit to his studio where we sat down with Ryan and jumped right into how to better utilize flash during receptions. I’m going to be honest. A LOT of that went completely over my head. I’m pretty dense, and Ryan talks really fast. Looking back on it, I should’ve brought a tape recorder. He explained many of the techniques that he used, and I’ve already implemented some of them in weddings this year. None of it was rocket science, and probably was things that I could’ve googled around and found out on the internet, but at the same time, to know that someone who takes as amazing pictures as Ryan is using such simple techniques to achieve the incredible results that he gets, was just sort of a reminder — there is no magic bullet.
My critique of this part of the afternoon is that I wish we would’ve had time to try some of what he was talking about ourselves in order to get a little bit more hands on experience.
We then headed to Central Park where he showed us how to do two things I’ve wanted to try out for a while — The Brenizer Method and his flash composite technique (that while he maybe didn’t invent, he might as well have in the wedding photography industry). I sort of got these techniques from my research online before but I didn’t really understand how or why he was utilizing them. Seeing Ryan in action was really helpful and gave me new ways to use the same simple gear I’ve always had at my disposal.
While we walked back, I bombarded him with questions about how he runs his business. Ryan is the first to admit that he’s probably not the best person to ask when it comes to marketing and all that jazz, but at the same time I was really interested to hear about how he keeps us with his massive workload (he shoots a ridiculous amount of weddings a year. I’m talking RIDICULOUS) and how he deals with his clients.
When we arrived at his studio, he quickly showed us a part of his workflow and how he processes the Brenizer Method and flash composite method images efficiently. Then we talked shop for a little bit longer.
Honestly, just the chatting part of the day was the most useful for me. I garnered a lot of useful information. I gained confidence and realized I was definitely on the right path in some things, while I needed to really push myself in other things.
Part of the deal was that Ryan would also do an online portfolio review as well. That was hard to hear and I was beyond terrified when his email popped up in my inbox. I actually read the first line from the gmail inbox preview that said, “keep in mind this is totally subjective,” and then proceeded to go to the bathroom and throw up. It took me over a half an hour from actually seeing the unread email to actually garnering the courage to open it. He very kindly ripped me a new one in several aspects, which has pushed me to be better in those areas, but he also built me back up and gave me a really great compliment, “You have an excellent eye, and there are shots in your portfolio that I would be absolutely thrilled to have in mine.” Coming from one of the top wedding photographers in the entire world, I’d like to blow those words up big, print them out and hang them on my wall.
My biggest criticism of the day is that we really didn’t get to try out anything that he was teaching us and that was hard. There simply wasn’t time for it. I couldn’t afford more time, even after Ryan generously spent even more of his day with us than was actually paid for. But if I could do it all over again, I would wait until we had more money saved up in order to be able to hire Ryan for a longer workshop. I know most fellow photographers are reading this and thinking that an afternoon with Ryan is a total steal. It is. I am NOT denying that.
I’m just saying that it was more than twice the price of Marcelo’s monthly tuition, which is a pretty big sacrifice for us to pay and I wish we could’ve afforded more time to be able to get even more out of it. That’s not Ryan’s fault and that’s not our fault, it just is the way it is.
But, all in all, it was still worth it. I’ve taken some of his advice and I feel like that has made my last wedding better. I kept in mind some of his words, “Look for the characters of the day to tell the story through them as well as the bride and groom.” That’s not a flash technique or even some kind of super crazy advice that I couldn’t have gotten anywhere else in the world — in fact, I just told you that. Tight here! For free! On the internet! But meeting Ryan and hearing more about the way he runs his business and the way his mind works and the way he works in general during a wedding has pushed me to make changes in my business, try new things, work even harder for my clients, and overall better myself as a photographer.
Nobody can deny that’s money well spent.
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