Hotel deals

Wednesday 27 January 2010

Free Wedding Photography / Fotografia de Boda Gratis

Yes its that time of year again....


Every new year we re-introduce 2 main elements to the wedding photography. First is the opportunity to win your wedding photography for 2011. Already with several bookings and over 20 clients waiting to finalise some details 2011 will be another very busy year for http://www.fotografobritanico.com/ and http://www.weddingphotochile.com/ .


Our aim once again is to ensure that one lucky couple who book with us in 2010 for their wedding photography in 2011 will win it free of charge...this also includes destination wedding clients national and international. Last year Sylvain and Jennifer from Boucherville in Quebec, Canada were the lucky winners getting married in the historic Quebec City about 2 hours north of Montreal. The total prize was worth over $5500.00 dollars


The prize draw as with last year will take place on the 24th of Dec 2010 and the lucky winners will receive the good news almost like a Christmas present...nice eh !!


As usual the  little 2 month returns offering a 15% discount on all Chile based weddings booked for 2011 provided the booking is made and deposit received before 31st March 2010 so there's two months remaining.


Since I know that the service provided by weddingphotochile / fotografobritanico is somewhat unique in Chile and we know that our prices are not the cheapest we hope this little offer helps you in making a quality choice when selecting and budgeting for your wedding photographer in Chile.


Good luck and we look forward to meeting you

Tuesday 26 January 2010

Sample fotos from Saturday Wedding










both the bride and the assistant photographer had black eyes...see previous days post







Saturday wedding at parcela, Villa Alemana, Chile 23/01/2010
Eileen and Linus

Sunday 24 January 2010

2 Black Eyes , a Swimming Pool and a Portrait in the Gents Toilet

Well this week brought quite a variety to the table…..it all started off on Monday when I was doing my usual research to sourch anything photography in Chile. Scanning through the pages of related items in the hope to find a printing company that can hit the mark on my rather anal quality standards for printing I stumbled onto a photographer, who, for his own sake will remain without name. I could not believe that this person who markets themselve as a professional wedding photographer in santiago and throughout Chile has the main photo on the website as a self portrait, taken in a mirror in a gent toilet with a line of urinals in the background. I was a little surprized to say the least as I know things are different here but who in their right mind would hire someone who portraits themselves and their business in this way?...beyond my reasoning..



Friday night I received a disturbing message from Mauricio (2nd Camera man)..While on a location shoot in Villa Alemana he was approached by 4 young men or wannabe men, they procceded to try to rob him and hit him across the right eye with a bottle which thankfully never broke. Mauricio got more than his share of marks from fighting back and a corker of a black eye as a reminder of how shooting in the streets of Chile always brings a risk. As a sign of his professionalism he managed to keep posession of all his equipment…..Ive always said…stealing a camera from a tourist and stealling a camera from a photographer are 2 completely different things…..we bite back….with big teeth!! Ha ha ha…anyway Mauricio escaped with probably more damage to his pride than anything else and he lives to tell the tale and work yesterday at the poolside parcela wedding.


Eileen and Linus had planned carefully to ensure there day was very relaxed and felt like they were a part of the day with everyone involved rather than being the stars of the show. The beautiful parcela located just outside Villa Alemana was the perfect set. With a very natural and country feel to it, everyone was so relaxed and just totally kicked back. The swimming pool added a great element to the day….In the early stages it served to keep the younger kids amused but as the pisco started to flow it became a playground for all ages. Eileen had insisted that we (the photographers) brought our swimming outfits, which we actually did and had them in the truck, but the event was buzzing and there was too much going on for us to drop the cameras so we kept on working right through..



The 2nd black eye in this unusually titled post came during the wild and funkie dancing under the tents in the garden…with a sudden change in the music everyone stepped it up a notch including one young guest to the left of the bride who, in a very fast spin proceeded to catch the bride directly on the nose with her right fist. The bride held her feet and stayed standing but only just….what a smack!...i could not believe she did not go down. Within a few minutes, even after ice and cold towels etc etc…the swelling on the bridge of her nose and the blackening of here eye began…WHAT A WEEK !



Eileen is a real sweetheart and a trooper too…she got herself fixed up…a quick retouch of the makeup and party on…Linus, you’re a lucky man !
Next week 2 weddings in V Region…..Quillota and Concon one very informal and one very formal, back to back…
Watch this space…

Tuesday 19 January 2010

Sample from Wedding Club Fach

Upon meeting Julio and Marianela several months ago I just knew this wedding was going to have that certain touch of class about it. A good friend of mine, Ignacio (DJ and producer) introduced me to the couple at there appartment in providencia where we bahed out ll the details and put our game plan down on paper. Marianela had a very clear idea of what she liked and did not like and Julio was very methodical in making sure everything went smooth on the day...Other than a small invasion of guests during the closed formal shoot all ran like a swiss watch.


The locationCLUB FACH in Santiago is like other military buildings in Chile but has a superior exterior and location making the 1am street shooting rather fun. Due to the elections being the following day, Santiagio was a ghost town on Saturday night...

The cake at this event was stunning...the most artistic cake yet encountered in my southern hemesphere shooting....a shame to cut it!!!

Below you can see just 5 of the 200+ images prepaired for the couple consisting of portraiture and photojournalistic images.


Next week very different wedding in a counrty parcela...watch this space.....









Sunday 17 January 2010

Club Fach 16/Jan 2010 Santiago Wedding Photography

What a great couple, What a great location, What a great night.
This was the first time Wedding Photo Chile had the pleasure of working in Club Fach in Providencia, Santiago. The building holds lots of great features and elements perfect for creating some very cool wedding photos. Since it is Sunday at non and I got back at 4:45am heres a couple of sample shots editied just for the Blog.
During the undertaking of the formal portraits , about 5 photos in....the room we had setup as our "shoot space"was invaded by about 70 guests which put the shooting on hold for about 30 mins until we could convince them to leave, but not before one of our lighting units got knocked over and broken ...and expensive accident but as usul...we had a spare.The lighing challenges were many at this event due to the start time being 8:30 at night leaving no available day light outside, or entering through windows. The old and coloured walls made for some colour casting when using reflected light but this is all recoverable and the end results for this wedding will be a very elegant set of formals with some great party shots to fit the clients requirements.
The Santiago air quality yesterday was particularly bad, so the long drive home at 3:30am with the roof open and the windows down was very welcomed after a full days shooting....all in all  a damn fine day!


Friday 15 January 2010

8 Weddings in 5 Weeks

So begins a non stop run of weddings between Santiago and Vina del mar and a few places in-between and round about. This is going to be a very busy session for us.

To be able to handle this volume of work with consistency, energy, attention to details and overall gusto takes mental and physical preparation as well as a highly systematic image post production and archive handling system.

Over the years in www.GardnerHamilton.com covering press photography for some of the worlds biggest big agencies I have honed my skills and systems into running like a Swiss watch. This is paramount when dealing with multiple clients in a short space of time. With www.fotografobritanico.com and www.weddinghotochile.com the emphasis is always on having the right energy and synergy on the day for and with clients to assist in creating the right images and equally as important, following a strict file handling and post production process to ensure everything runs smooth.

To be honest, I'm a systems junkie...every process I do in my working life has a process which I follow as tightly as possible. This allows me to monitor accurately what service my clients receive and how it can be improved upon...If you don't monitor it....you can't manage it....right?

Over the coming weeks will entail handling 100's of gigabytes of images so in anticipation..all file folders for receiving files from the various (numbered) cameras are ready...along with file folders to store primary, secondary and tertiary level image selections before continuing to the edit folders. This way anyone in the team can access any image from any event quickly through the main storage server. This also provides a tight photo logging system which is highly important when creating the final discs for the clients.

The DVD discs for each event with custom laser etching are already prepared for these 8 events, the cover templates also just awaiting a selected image to be embedded from each event , then print to complete the disc sets.

With approximately 50 man / woman hours going into each event it pays to be ahead of the game. with all this preparation complete it leaves myself and the team free to concentrate on what matters to you...great photos...properly edited...delivered promptly. A friend of a friend in Chile who recently got married 20 somethingth of October 2009 is still waiting to receive her disc and wedding photography album. I have seen a few tasters and to be honest...what I have seen ain't worth the wait.

When you reserve with a wedding photographer be sure to clarify the production time, while you should not want to pressure or rush your photographer into doing a fast edit...especially if it is a one person business, you do want to ensure you get your images within a reasonable time frame...the normal maximum accepted in most of the countries I have worked in is 6 weeks, as a maximum...but you should expect 2-4 weeks depending how busy he or she is at the time. Our target is to have the images ready within 10 days but never at the cost of quality. If your going on a honeymoon we try to have them ready for your return.

With the case of international clients, of which we served 19 of in 2009, we make an excreted effort to ensure your images are ready to take home with you...we take pride in handing them to you personally rather than mailing them. So we, where possible, stay at your location for some extra time after your wedding day and edit our little tooshies off before returning home...recently the case in LA and in Buenas Aires but hey...never in a rush to leave either...

Tomorrow is a very grand event with many many guests...some great music features and some international cuisine....I can't wait...Santiago  here we come.  now...I'd better get that hotel booked!!!!



Saludos / Regards

Gardner Hamilton



Sunday 10 January 2010

Lider, Jumbo and Santa Isobel...AHHHH

 

Well, a very busy week indeed. Meetings, Job for a large international commercial client , editing photos, shopping for some new equipment , shooting for our commercial on TV and more meetings..........
 
This week seen over 4 hours of my time lost due to meetings and appointments being late or people not showing up...a common practice in these parts...but a little annoying none the less as, with wedding season upon us pretty much every minute of every day right now is accounted for.  We are also very busy shooting our new publicity video commercial due to air soon on several websites and 2 local TV stations.  Loosing the 4 hours this week was tough but it can be reclaimed.
 
So whats with the title of this post on a wedding photography blog?   I know....
 
Well its like this.....Over the last 10-15 weddings, where the brides and grooms have went to great lengths to make all the little details look amazing on their day and they do a great job. While perfoming selections for editing from the photos taken there is a high frequency of beautiful ornate baskets from which to launch the flower petals from, BUT, the "launcher" neglects to take the petals from the supermarket bag and empty them into the basket, thus many photos of this paramount moment in the event have the supermarket bag placed inside the basket with a great advert for Jumbo, Lider, Paris, Easy, Ripley, Santa Isobel...need i go on.   So....brides.....i would suggest that you mention the guests....use the basket !!! ... While this can be semi corrected by removing the name and advertising from the usually white bags, it looses a certain touch of class from the look of this classic moment in any wedding... some food for thought.
 
and  breath...............................ahhhhh
 
delivered images to my 3rd clients from Switzerland in 3 months...it was very nice to se them again and have a coffee and a laugh talking about the goings on at their event...they gave me the go ahead to post a couple of their images so here you go...
 
NEXT WEEK.........  Club Fach (Santiago)
 
 
 
Saludos / Regards
 
Gardner Hamilton
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

.

Wednesday 6 January 2010

Diario de un fotografo

Llegar de regreso a Chile (después de más de una decada en norteamerica) e incorporarme, como independiente, al mundo fotográfico que se especializa en cubrir eventos y matrimonios, resultó bastante fácil. Muy pronto me dí cuenta que, los estandares que se exigen y que se obtienen son muy bajos, por lo tanto, mi capacidad y calidad de producción mostró, desde el principio, una diferencia extraordinaria en relación a lo que se compra y vende aquí, en el mercado local.

Pasado un corto tiempo y con gran decepción, comprendí que la fotografía de matrimonies en Chile, no pasa de ser un mero compilado de imagenes, con suerte, al estilo reportaje; carentes de trazos artísticos y composición. Postproducción muy limitada, a veces, inexistente o sencillamente, realizada con exageración, sin gusto, clase, creatividad; utilizando aplicaciones y efectos ya pasados de moda. (a esto, algúnos autodenominados fotógrafos, le llaman su “estilo propio”) El mercado nacional necesita ¡urgentemente! diversidad y disponibilidad de estilos.

Se entiende que la mayoría de fotógrafos en Chile enfrentan grandes dificultades para adquirir equipos fotográficos de banguardia, tanto porque no se venden en el mercado chileno, por su alto costo e inaccesibilidad en general. Es por esta razón además, que carreras como Periodismo Gráfico, Diseño Gráfico o cualquiera que contenga Fotografía Digital en su malla curricular, son también basadas en la actualidad, en equipos y técnicas que ya están obsoletos en países desarrollados. Con esto queda de manifiesto que la baja calidad de las imagenes producidas en Chile no es sólo un problema cultural.

Cuando encontré www.weddingphotochile.com fue como encontrar el oasis en el desierto, pronto pasé a formar parte del equipo que lidera Gardner Hamilton. Aquí se trabaja para brindar a nuestros clientes una perspectiva moderna a sus fotografías de bodas, les ofrecemos combinaciones de imagenes artísticas, formales y también reportaje. En alta resolución de 21.1 y 30 megapixel. Todas las fotografías obtenidas a través de equipos Canon y Leica de última generación y editadas en photoshop CS3 Extended.

Este año 2010, ya cuenta con bastantes clientes, en su mayoria, parejas extranjero-chilenas, que nos han elegido por encontrar en nuestra fotografía los estilos y calidad que imperan en Europa y norteamerica. Así es que espero ansiosa al inicio de las actividades de este año ya que, cada nueva boda es un desafío distinto y me brinda la oportunidad de crear, demostrar y utilizar todas las herramientas para el mejor desempeño.



¡Muchas felicidades a los novios!


Soledad Valenzuela
Photographer/Postproducion Editor

www.WeddingPhotoChile.com

Wedding photography video

Video

On Location Photography Equipment

I thought I would give everyone a little look behind the scenes as to the base equipment we use for on location shooting (out of studio). Our base kit consists of 18 and 21.1 mega pixel cameras with a very wide range of lenses and accessories. All the camera bodies are replaced every 2 years to ensure reliability.
 This equipment is brought to your event with multiple power packs and back up power and has the provision for up to 3 photographers to capture approx 50,000 images onsite at any single event. This far exceeds the demands of any client but isn't it nice to know the task at hand is covered?. I hear and know of many wedding photographers in Chile who take 1 camera and 1 flash...IMAGINE...if that camera breaks down on the day...say no more!
Saludos / Regards
Gardner Hamilton

.

Sunday 3 January 2010

Wedding 2nd Jan 2010...TRAFFIC !!

When I first received the enquiry for pricing and availability to provide wedding photography for Claudia and Thomas on the 2nd of Jan 2010 the first thing that crossed  my mind was TRAFFIC IN VINA!!!   Oh boy, was I ever right. Claudia and Thomas are my first clients for 2010, based in Switzerland, as were two Chilean Swiss couples from last year, the couple were squeezing Christmas, New Year and Wedding into one trip...oh yeah...and a baptism.
So the event kicks off at 6:30 sharp...so...as usual Mauricio and myself left vina to arrive with at least one hour to prepare, re-scout the location and take some details photos. TRAFFIC IN VINA quickly became a reality. With over 2 million people descending upon Vina del mar, Valparaiso and Renaca over the festive season this manifested into a 4km trip taking 1 hour and 15 mins. While the WeddingPhotoChile team arrived with time to spare...we were the only ones. The entire wedding party, guests and priest included were over 1 hour late. The bride finally arrived thereafter and onward we went.
 
Normally when a client requests artistic style portraits I advise them to lock in at least 1 hour for shooting in a pre determined location. In this case we had decided on the beach which, I had scouted about 12 days before finding the perfect spot. In this case due to the extreme delays the entire event was now 90 mins behind schedule and Club Arabe in Vina were waiting to receive us.

Along with the fading light consideration allowing only 20 mins shooting time on the beach we all packed up and headed off for the return journey to Vina in which we were accompanied by all the cars who preciously accompanied us into Renaca and some more thus resulting in a 1.5 hour journey...
 
Instead of dinner at 8:30 we had delicious steaks at 12am...I felt really bad for Thomas and Claudia as they had travelled all this way to have their special day here and spend around 2.5 hours in there ribboned car...good chance for some alone time (+driver).
 
So...the moral of this story is.....Vina del mar region of Chile at certain times of year are VERY MUCH effected by tourism and traffic can become a lockdown. If your planning any wedding activity in this area I would suggest checking out any other events that may be taking place. The next big lockdown of traffic flow will be the onslaught of  summer beach lovers tho January/February, the incomers following Dakar rally mid February,then the Festival de Vina 2010 at the end of February.
All in all, a long long day but great...super nice couple, very patient considering, and a great time had by all.
No images on this one as the client is retaining all rights.
 
 
Saludos / Regards
 
Gardner Hamilton

www.WeddingPhotoChile.com
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

.