Santiago | Kyle Hepp

May 13, 2012

In English below the Spanish version.

Esta es una carta abierta a todos los banqueteros en Chile:

Ayúdame a ayudarte.

Mira, sé que piensas que estás siendo súper inteligente por ahorrarte 25.000 pesos en comida al darle al fotógrafo y videógrafos una colación que probablemente te costó 1.000 pesos por persona en vez de un plato principal.

Pero estás equivocado. Yo diría que un 80% de mis clientes me contratan antes de siquiera empezar a buscar banquetero. ¿Y a quién crees que acuden cuando quieren recomendaciones de a quién dar sus 10.000.000 de pesos que van a gastar en comida? Acuden a alguien que ha ido a más matrimonios en el último año de lo que ellos irán es sus vidas. Te voy a dar una pista….esa persona soy YO. El pequeño fotógrafo que tú crees no merece un plato caliente de comida.

¿De verdad crees que recomendaría a un banquetero rasca que da una mierda de sandwich frío que ni siquiera le darías a tu perro? Ah, seguro.

¿Quiénes son los banqueteros top en Santiago? Mis favoritos son Paulo Russo, Francesca Margozzini,Marta Correa y Sofia Jottar.

Te apuesto que alguno de los banqueteros que sirven horrendas colaciones se cortarían un coco por tener la mitad del éxito que tienen los banqueteros nombrados más arriba

Bueno, acá les tengo un pequeño secreto – Paulo, Francesca, Marta y Sofía tratan a todos… incluso la gente trabajando para el matrimonio… muy bien.

En mi experiencia con ellos cuatro, ellos han tenido alguien de su equipo que se ha acercado a nosotros y nos ha preguntado cuándo nos gustaría que nos sirvieran nuestra comida. Esto también es diferente de lo acostumbrado. Normalmente el banquetero dice: “No, tienen que esperar hasta que los 400 invitados terminen de comer y después les servimos”. Lo siento mucho, amigo, pero cuando todo el mundo termine de comer, nosotros tenemos que trabajar. Cuando todo el mundo termine de comer, eso significa que van a estar bailando y te apuesto que la novia y el novio no van a estar muy contentos contigo si sus fotógrafos están o cansados y hambrientos, o en algún lugar escondidos tratando de devorar un sándwich en 2 minutos cuando empieza la fiesta.

Y mi experiencia con Paulo, Francesca, Marta y Sofia, ellos también nos han servido la misma comida deliciosa que están comiendo los invitados y nos han dado un lugar donde sentarnos.

Así que saquemos la cuenta. Lo que le cuesta a Paulo Russo servirnos dos platos de comida = ¿25.000 pesos quizás? Dudo que sus costos sean tan altos. Pero la ganancia para Paulo Russo, cuando una novia está decidiendo entre él y algún otro banquetero y yo le digo que Paulo es absolutamente increíble, que si me fuese a casar mañana no le confiaría mi baquetearía a nadie más y esa novia lo contrata basado en mi recomendación = entre 10.000.000 y 25.000.000. Haz tú el cálculo.

Incluso si eres un imbécil, y no quieres tener un negocio exitoso de banquetería en Chile, entonces hablemos de otra cosa – ser una persona decente. ¿Tú sabes que los fotógrafos han estado de pie probablemente 4 o 5 horas para el momento en que se sirve la comida y que aún tienen que estar de pie por otras 5 o 6 horas? Si fueras tú, ¿no te gustaría una rica comida?

Como nota extra, y mientras estamos en el tema, debería dirigir esto a novias y novios también.

Nosotros hemos sido lo suficientemente afortunados de que casi nunca nos han servido estas colaciones, ¡toco madera! Nuestros novios son los mejores y siempre se han preocupado de que nosotros comamos bien.

Pero lo voy a decir de todas formas… ¿quién crees que va a trabajar más duro y a tomar mejores fotos, ir mas allá y en general tener más energía en tu matrimonio? ¿El fotógrafo que se comió un sándwich indecente que era demasiado asqueroso para incluso comer, o el que pudo tomar un descanso de 15 minutos para sentarse y comer una comida de verdad?

¡NO ES UN CONCEPTO DIFÍCIL DE CACHAR!

ES SIMPLEMENTE DECENCIA

La moraleja de la historia, banqueteros, no sean cagados y tendrán un mejor negocio. Novios, no sean cagados y tendrán mejores fotos.

Fin.

These are other photographers’ pictures of some of the meals they’ve been served at weddings. I have nothing against subway if it’s at least fresh, but I’m sure this had been sitting around for ages before it got eaten.

Estas son algunas fotos de otros fotógrafos de las comidas que les han servido durante matrimonios. No tengo nada en contra de Subway cuando está por lo menos fresco, pero seguro que llevaba un buen rato antes de que lo comieran.

Seriously banqueteros? You’re disgusting.

¿En serio, banqueteros? Son asquerosos.

Ok, a dried out piece of chicken and some french fries…it could definitely be worse.

Bueno, un pedazo de pollo seco con algunas papitas fritas… podría ser peor.

But even in the case of the last meal, which doesn’t look totally disgusting, I know for a fact that the bride and groom are usually charged at least 10,000 pesos for the vendor. That’s about 20 USD…and that’s what they serve for that price? What a rip off! The bride and groom are not the ones at fault, I’d say most of the time they probably have no idea what their caterer is serving their photographers/videographers.

Pero incluso en el caso de la última comida, que no se ve totalmente asquerosa, yo sé que les cobran por lo menos 10,000 pesos a los novios por este plato. Eso son más o menos 20 dólares… ¿y eso es lo que sirven por ese precio? ¡Qué estafa! Los novios no son los que tienen la culpa, yo diría que la mayoría de las veces probablemente no tienen idea lo que su banquetero les sirve a los fotógrafos/ videógrafos.

This is an open letter to all the caterers in Chile:

Help me to help you.

Listen, I know you think you’re being really clever by saving yourself $50 worth of food by giving the photographers and videographers a vendor meal that probably cost you $2 dollars a head instead of a main plate.

But you’re not. I’d say 80% of my clients hire me before they ever even begin looking for a caterer. And who do you think they go to when they want recommendations as for who to give their $20,000 that they’re going to spend on food to? They come to someone who has been to more weddings in the past year than they’ll go to in their entire lives. I’ll give you a hint…that person is ME. The lowly photographer that you think doesn’t deserve a hot plate.

Do you really think I’d ever recommend some shitty caterer who give some shitty limp cold sandwich that you wouldn’t even feed your dog? Ha. Yeah right.

Who are the top caterers in Santiago? I’d go with my personal favorite, Paulo Russo, along with Francesca Margosini and Sofia Jottar.

I’d bet you that some of the caterers that serve these horrendous vendor “meals” would cut off their left nut to be even half as successful as those I named above.

Well here’s a little secret — Paulo, Francesca and Sofia treat everybody…even the people working at the wedding…very well.

In my experiences with all three of them they’ve had staff approach us and ask us when we’d like our food served. That’s also a different experience from the norm. A typical caterer says, “No, you have to wait until all 400 guests are done eating, then we’ll serve you.” Sorry buddy, when everybody is done eating, we have to work. When everybody is done eating, that means they’re dancing and I’d bet that the bride and groom won’t be very happy with you if their photographer is either tired and starving by that point, or off somewhere trying to wolf down a sandwich when the action starts.

And in my experience with Paulo, Francesca and Sofia, they’ve also given us the same delicious food the guests are eating, a place to sit and a waiter who brought us drinks.

So let’s do the math. Cost to Paulo Russo to serve us two hot meals =$50? Maybe? I doubt his costs are even that high. But earnings to Paulo Russo when a bride is going between him and somebody else and I tell said bride that Paulo is absolutely amazing and if I were getting married tomorrow I wouldn’t trust my catering to anybody else and she hires him based off of my recommendation = $20,000-50,000? You do the math.

Even if you’re an idiot and you don’t want a successful catering business in Chile, then let’s talk about something else — be a decent human being. You know that the photographers have been on their feet for probably at least 4-5 hours by the time dinner is even served and that they’ll still be there for another 5-6 hours. If it were you, wouldn’t you want a nice meal?

As a side note, while we’re on the subject, I should direct some of this to brides and grooms. We have been fortunate enough that we are almost never served vendor meals, knock on wood!

But I’ll say it anyways…who do you think is going to work harder to take better pictures, go the extra mile and just generally have more energy at your wedding? The photographer who picked at a crappy sandwich that was too disgusting to eat, or the one who got a 15 minute break to sit down and eat a real meal?

IT’S NOT ROCKET SCIENCE PEOPLE.

It’s common decency.

Moral of the story. Caterers, don’t be shitheads and you’ll get more business. Novios, don’t be shitheads and your pictures will be better.

The end.

18 Comments

March 29, 2012

The best part about our job has to be meeting new people. I seriously love it. The internet is a big place, but Monica and Alvaro found me by googling “fotografo de matrimonios” and now that we’ve met, I feel like it was meant to be! They had to email me and we had to become friends. That’s just the way it is. Sadly, we were already booked on their wedding day. Happily, they’ll be in good hands with our associate photographer shooting their wedding! I haven’t decided yet if I’ll give Pia a blog of her own, or if the photos she takes will be featured here, but either way, you’ll get to see Monica and Alvaro in all their wedding finery around these parts, don’t you worry

We spent a fun afternoon wandering around El Golf neighborhood shoot photos the other day.

I love this area because on weekends it’s totally dead. There aren’t many people around, making it a great spot for photos. Plus, there are all kinds of cool lines and shapes to play with in pictures.

It’s also a very clean and modern neighborhood. Around Santiago, sometimes people refer to it as Sanhattan (Santiago + Manhattan, get it).

On occasion, we’ve had problems with getting kicked off office buildings’ front lawns and things like that, but for the most part, there are no guards around on the weekends so you can do things like send your clients halfway down a non-moving escalator. Love this shot!

And love this light!

Adore this one too!

Look how cute Monica and Alvaro are!

And look how adoringly they look at each other. It’s sweet to see, even for a non-romantic heart of stone like me

That’s some gorgeousness right there.

I’m laughing just looking at this photo. How many times did it take us to get the leave throwing to work? At least 5. We were incapable of getting them to come down in anything other than a decidedly un-pretty clump of yellow.

SCORE! Seba for the win!!! He’s so amazing.

And this is my absolute favorite of the day. I’ve shot with that red and orange ball thingy in the background of quite a few photos with quite a few couples so doing it in a different way was a challenge. And I am in love with the outcome!