Wedding Photography Santiago y Curacavi 5th Feb 2010 Chris and Amanda (Toronto, Canada)

Chris and Amanada, Curacavi, Chile Fotografia Matrimonio 5th Feb 2010

Both Chris and Amanada flew in last week and have had a crazy time meeting all the people involved in their wedding, including the wedding photographer….eh….that would be me!. I first spoke to them several months ago and it was great to finally meet them face to face over a coffe in Vina del Mar 2 days before the boda after several months of emails and calls back and forth to Toronto, Canada
Although tired from travel and all the details to be handled for the event, they were both in great spirits, very much in love and ready for the big day.
Starting with preperation shots in Las condes, Santiago with Amanada then moving round the corner to Vitacura for some prep shooting with the groom. Amanda is a professional makeup artist for a major cosmetics company so having the chance to photograph a bride doing her own makeup at this level was a unique opportunity.

http://www.illusion.cl/ Video services

Amanda being a hopeless romantic wanted to ensure she got the posed romantic wedding photographs while Chris, with a solid knowledge of photography expressed his preference for the more candid capture.

A wonderfull location in Curacavi was the next destination after the wedding preperation photographs were done. Mountains line the horizon at this little oasis as the event team are hard at work upon our arrival about 2 hours before the event. As always arriving early to ensure everything from a photographic point of view is taken care of, also giving time to re-scout the location and select my shoot spots for the day.

With a lagoon side ceremony under a shaded alter the event was just beautiful..worth their hard work and the long flight south from the -40 degrees in northern Ontario at this time.

Being of Chilean extraction himself, Chris felt the right cuisine for the event was the local stuff, giving his own family originally of Valdivia a taste of home and his new family a taste of what used to be his homeland. Traditional fingerfoods, main coarse and desserts were the order of the day.


For the team at Wedding Photo Chile, a relatively early finnish on this matrimonio and not the usual 4am staggering into bed. The fresh night air driving home through the mountains on route to Vina del mar from Santiago/Curacavi is the perfect end to a great day.



Next week…2 weddings including Vineyard Matetic in Casablanca valley with clients from Manhatten NY

Contacto
Gardner Hamilton
www.weddingphotochile.com
info@weddingphotochile.com
Tel (0056-9) 9-992 9508
Facebook “Gardner WeddingPhotographer Hamilton”

Fotografo boda santiago chile fotografo matrimonio santiago chile fotografo casamiento santiago chile
Fotografo boda vina del mar chile fotografo matrimonio vina del mar chile fotografo casamiento vina del mar chile servicio fotografia Gardner Hamilton weddingphotochile wedding photographer santiago chile wedding photographer vin del mar chile destination wedding photographer chile fotografo britanico photography services www.fotografobritanico.com

Karen and Yan Wedding Photography 30th Jan 2010 Vina del mar

Another sunny day in Vina del mar started mid afternoon as Karen arrived at the Sheraton Hotel in Vina del mar with her 3 best friends ready for the preperation of the big day.

As usual Stealing the dress and shoes is always priority for the wedding photographer and this was no exception. Karens shoes were more than different with respect to bridalwear but, with the imported Italian wedding dress they hit the spot beautifully.

Karens long time friends proceeded to insert Karen into her dress with military precision and some laughs along the way. This was truely one of the killer dresses of the 2009/2010 season with some fantastic details and a quality unseen locally here in Chile.

Take Dress...Insert Bride

After the preperation photographs we had some free time to spend catching some informal portrait and architectural detail photographs around the Sheraton Hotel. This was a great chance to kill some time, get more photos and help distract Karen who was getting a little nervous. Putting her on the balcony of her room and shooting from far made her feel at ease and got her used to the camer starting to look at her for the rest of the day...Clearing people from 7 balconies, beach towels from about 10 and some other items from several other of  the balconies was not easy but hats off to Maurico for running to god knows how many room doors to get it done! I think it payed off in the clean image showing bride and location.

A little stroll through the Hotel gave opportunity to catch some classic angles wth some locally well known architecture ensuring a clear reminder for the future of the day unfolding

Finally Karen takes one last look from the balcony as a single woman before heading downstairs to join the vintage car which will take her to meet Yan at the little stone church in Miraflores to seal the deal, then off to the Concon sailing club for PARTEE !

Friday 29th Jan 2010 parcela Villa Alemana, Chile Wedding Photography

The day started with some preperation shooting at home where I managed to convince them both that a pre wedding ride on Hugos motorbike was a great opportunity for a very cool addition to their album.

Being the gentleman as always Hugo assists his bride to be

Hugos 2nd passion is his bike, kept spotlessly clean, gleaming in the driveway a reflection shot was too good an opportunity to miss.

Valeria and Hugo are a very romantic couple who planned there special day for a countryside wedding with a very natural feel in what used to be a functioning bodega. They enjoyed the romantic poses for the informal portraiture session.

The day was hot and the night was cool….perfect with the shade of the trees for the ceromony and the cool of the night for the dansing…A damn fine event. Only only little hickup…a wonderful high heeled shoe containing a guest planted itself on my left foot breaking my second toe. Another warwound from photographing weddings in Chile…

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

Sample fotos from Saturday Wedding

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

http://www.weddingphotochile.com/

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

Eileen and Linus

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…

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.....

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!

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

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

www.fotografobritanico.com

www.weddingphotochile.com

www.gardnerhamilton.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

.