Kyle Hepp

March 10, 2012

To do list?

More like…To DONE list!

Yesterday I was a machine.

I edited two full photo sessions

I edited one full wedding

I shot one engagement session

I booked our hotel in Caracas

I booked our posada in Los Roques

I booked flights to Los Roques

I wrote four blog posts

I went through about a third of the Moment Junkie inbox.

I may never have another day that productive again in my life so I thought I better commemorate the occasion by writing about it and sharing the victory here.

I’m almost ready to go on vacation now and I can’t wait to bath myself in SPF 400 and then lay on the sand all day long! Winning.

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February 27, 2012

Let’s talk about a little thing called passion. Let’s talk about a little thing called tunnel vision. It’s my belief that a combination of these two things makes for an entrepreneur who will never fail — change course, re-adjust, re-invent, sure, but never fail.

My friends Sam and Titi have both of those qualities. I met them when we photographed their wedding, and at that time, Sam was an avid baker/cooker — an avid hobbyist baker/cooker, I should mention. She’d never gone to school to be a chef, she’d never taken a class on how to run a restaurant.

Over the past couple of years, since I’ve known her, I’ve watched her pursue that passion with a tunnel vision for one thing and one thing only — she dreamed of opening up a cafe in Rancagua, the little city to the South of Santiago where she lives.

I had no doubt that she’d do it. She’s an amazing cook and not only that, but she has business smarts.

Since the seed was planted, I’ve watched her go through the trials and tribulations of this little thing called “paperwork,” to get her license to open a cafe and sell food and all that jazz and this other little thing called “remodeling” in order to make a retail space look beautiful as an eating space. In this case (and most cases in Chile) “paperwork” and “remodeling” are actually acronyms for the Seventh Circle of Hell. It took Sam and Titi longer than planned but this month, Cafe Tisa made it’s grande debut!

Even in the middle of February with no advertising that they were planning on opening (when all of Chile goes on vacation, leaving normally hustling and bustling cities as vacant as ghost towns) they’ve been busy! Word has spread quickly that there’s a new spot for good eats in town and people have responded! Sam already has regulars! I love it.

I went down for a visit to check out her labor of love.

The photos are all night shots — the cafe is even prettier than this during the day time with natural light, if you can imagine that.

This wall says:

Fair Trade: For you, for me, for them.

The menu changes regularly when certain salads go out of season or when Sam decides to add new sandwiches and what not to the offerings, so they have it up on a chalkboard wall that they can easily change! Sam’s friend did the drawings and I’m amazed. She writes neater than I can type!

I felt so special! After the doors were closed to regular clients Sam served us up a meal and we got to eat in a closed restaurant. It was fun, I felt sneaky! And the food was SO yummy. If you go, I highly recommend the quiche and the Ka-Pai Salad!

I’m so impressed with Sam and Titi and their drive and determination to make this happen. I can’t believe it’s a reality already! There’s no doubt in my mind that Cafe Tisa will become a huge success.

If you want to visit, find the map on how to get there here.

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February 26, 2012

Let’s talk Chilean wedding music. I love it.

Buuuuut, I have a tendency to not pay attention to the words at all and then make them up and drastically warp the meaning of the lyrics.

Take this one for instance:

I have been hearing this pretty little ditty every weekend at weddings for at least six months now. I would’ve sworn to you that the song says, “Hermosa, hermosa, blah blah blah me mata,” which is Spanish for, “Beautiful, beautiful, blah blah blah, she kills me.” It doesn’t. Five minutes ago Seba informed me that the first words are, “Mosa, mosa.”

Not only that but the SONG ISN’T IN SPANISH. It’s in Portuguese. How did I never hear that before??? Obviously now that I’m sitting in my nice quiet house jamming out on Youtube it’s clear as crystal.

And my most recent lyrical warping number two is an even bigger mistake.

Fast forward to :30 seconds in if you’d like to skip straight to me taking the meaning of this song to a whoooooole new level.

Before I let you laugh at my idiocy, I’d like to ask you to hear me out first — the damn song made no sense to me to begin with. From the words that I do know, all I’d ever gathered is that a guy says he has a nightmare about his girlfriend turning into a truck. Now that I’ve looked up the words, it’s basically a metaphor for sex where the woman turns into a truck and the man doesn’t know how to drive her.

Anyways, at :30 seconds, the chorus, the words are:

Ay que le pasa, que le pasa a mi camion
(que le pasa, que le pasa que no arranca)

Or in English:

What’s going on, what’s going on with my truck
(what’s going on, what’s going on with it that it won’t start)

Here is what I’ve always heard at that part of the song:

Ay que le pasa, que le pasa a mi camion
(que le pasa, que le pasa mi maraca)

To which the English translation would be:

What’s going on, what’s going on with my truck
(what’s going on, what’s going on with my whore)

You could also substitute slut for whore, but either way, you get my drift.

Admittedly, I do this in English as well. Music comes on the radio enough that I start to sing along, even if I’m just kind of mumbling along, which then turns into me inventing words because I’m always too lazy to look up the actual lyrics.

PS. Novias in Chile — I’ve never been at a wedding here where (Her)Mosa (Her)Mosa didn’t get the dance floor packed and I think we all already know that all of Chile hearts Chico Trujillo BIG time. You really can’t go wrong with these songs at your wedding!

I haven’t posted about my links lately but just wanted to remind you that if you have anything to buy from B&H or Amazon, I’d greatly appreciate if you do your shopping via my affiliate links in the sidebar! Thanks for remembering! And thanks so much to those who have (or do) already done so!

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