Hitched Studios

Hey, hey.  I’ve decided to post a few/a lot of photographs from my three weeks in Chile.  It was ultimately a trip filled with more fun and love and friendship and laughter than photography, but here some of my favorites.

do enjoy, won’t you?  And why wouldn’t you enjoy?  What? You don’t like looking at other people’s vacation photos?!  I’ve never heard of such a thing….

Santiago:

Modern, prosperous, beautiful Santiago with the Andes all pinked up.

Venturing into the only gritty (read: interesting) part of the city, I went to Mercado Central and found this little gato.

huevos y una mujer. (i'm practicing)

I'm both terrified and elated that this woman looks like my grandmother. And therefore me.

Patagonia.  What?  I spent five days here.  I went through Cascada travel and stayed at EcoCamp. If you have any desire to go to this region of the world, and really you should, stay here.  It’s an incredible experience.

Did this really happen? Was I really at the right place at the right time to watch two cubs playing and then listen for their mother?

Oh, look. Mom. Just in from the grocery store.

Stop it. I could have gone home after this moment. It happened in about the first 15 minutes of my trip here.

Pretty much the happiest I've been in years. Photo by Backer McKenzie.

Eco Camp!! My Smurf Village dream come true.

Inside my dome. Patagonia has incredibly harsh weather, but these little pods stayed perfectly warm.

Inside one of the main dining domes. The bar area. (the BAR AREA!!!!!!)

The dining domes.

Apparently hurricanes are very common in their Summer months. That's the front side of a hurricane coming across the lake. It made for a very long and rainy and windy day, though you wouldn't be able to tell looking at this photo.

I'm sorry. I couldn't resist.

I can't help it, I'm sorry for putting three vista shots in a row. It's Patagonia. That's my excuse.

Our first site of Grey Glacier. It's 20 miles long.

Iceberg. I mentioned we have a shaving cream that comes in a similar shade of blue. That didn't go over so well.

Observe my deft photoshop skills. I just wanted to show some scale before I showed more Gray Glacier love.

We were a 1/2 mile away from the glacier when I took this. Tis large.

Lake Pehoe.

The lawn mower at eco camp.

My new friends. This is how hard we laughed all five days of our time together in Torres Del Paine.

The park was so incredibly different every day. These trees were particular pretty to me. (Patagonia is the region, Torres Del Paine is the park).

Photograph by Backer McKenzie.

;)

PUCON!  Pucon is a very touristy, but very fun, ‘adventure capitol’ of Chile.  It had a kindof Alps village vibe, but it was perfect for a solo traveler.  Lots of things to do, lots of fun people doing it all.

My apologies again. I couldn't resist. This was from the chair lift on the way to the base of the Mt Villarica, a live volcano.

The summit. And all the people who are ahead of us.

And all the people behind us!

Can I use the term litter when talking about volcanoes? If so, then this area of the world is littered with volcanoes. Here are three or four, from the side of one.

We make most of 'em here in the U.S., but we still export a few.

Just trying to make friends with the locals, that's all.

Valparaiso is an UNESCO world heritage site and a colorful, funky, cool, colorful little port city. The street art here is the best I’ve ever even heard of.  Not that I hear that much about street art, but you know…

Fish markets smell pretty good. Namely in 90 degree weather.

This was on the top of a street.

And this was at the bottom of the street.

This is an ascensor. A hillside tram that has taken people up and down Valparaiso's steep hills for 100 years.

Hello Lovelies.

C’mon stop it.  Stop trying to make us feel good and love you even more.

No, no don’t stop it.  Thank you.  We love it.  Thank you so much.

We were just honored at The Wedding Wire as a 2010 Bride’s Choice Award.  You voted and we’re honored.

We promise to keep trying really, really hard to make you incredibly happy.  (Ben has to work extra hard because he has less God-given talent, but we’ll both work super, super hard.)

Thank you.

Tara is officially out of the country and has landed safe in Chile…….. so guess who’s takin over!!!!

Ann & Clinton are two of my closest friends, so when they asked if I would join their epic adventure of a wedding, it was a tough sell.   We hopped on a plane to the Azores and swapped planes to get to Faial. Amazing!!!!  Ann’s dad was born here and she wanted to do some exploring. There was no real plan, go with the flow and see what happens. Within two days, and through more serendipity  than one could ever plan, everything was set. Cake, flowers, private restaurant reservations, ceremony site, and just about any other foreseeable detail for the day. A low stress, laid back, unique adventure to celebrate the coming together of two very special and unique people.

After scouting several locations to have the ceremony, we all secretly hoped that when we got to the rim of the volcano, it would be as cool as we imagined it……. and oh was it!!!!! Absolutely breathtaking. Unexplainable in words, which is why it’s a good thing I brought a camera. We had an impromptu engagement shoot at sunset on the rim. This is one of those times in my life that I know I won’t ever forget. The chance to do what I love to do, both with and for two people whom I love dearly, in a place as epic and amazing as the rim of a volcano, in the middle of the Atlantic. The awe didn’t fade as we hit Horta by storm for formals the next day. We had the day to celebrate and explore and then back to the rim for a sunset ceremony. Well, I’m sure the sun was setting, somewhere behind the dark clouds and freezing wind that blew in as we arrived at the rim. Not ones to let a little weather get in the way of a good time, the ceremony was just hastened a bit.  Great food, delicious cake and a unique first dance, and I’d call that a wedding. We rounded out the celebrations with a few more days of merriment and exploration and then started the journey home…………

To Ann & Clinton, I want to thank you both for dreaming of such an amazing adventure for a wedding and then having the guts to do it. To everyone else, please dream up your own epic adventure wedding, and then have the guts to bring us

If you want to see more of Ann & Clinton’s wedding day and highlights from the week, you can see more at  Dubsidephotography.com

This is Horta, Faial.

You have to shoot somewhere, why not a volcano.

One of the most beautiful and inspiring place I have ever been.

Ann going over any last minute details before the big day.

Ann & Ann ( that didn’t get confusing all week) were a little thrown oft my excitement to shoot getting readies with the girls……. Tara always steals that one.

GORGEOUS!

The architecture was so unique and beautiful, even in buildings that had been long forgotten.

This is the bar at the hotel that Manuel Brum ran. He was as nice a person as we could have met. He arranged the flowers from his beautiful garden, open his bar for just us and became an old friend quite quickly.

This is the lava flow that runs through Manuel’s garden……. I know, it must suck.

Who knew Clinton was so romantic.

I tried convincing them that the real shot would be them jumping in, but I don’t think they could hear me…….. or maybe they just pretended that they couldn’t.

Yes folks, Ann is a supermodel.

A windy, cold and short ceremony. Epic and amazing….. but cold.

They did a special feather release at the end of their ceremony. A unique way to end a unique ceremony.

The wedding party (above)…. the wedding photographer (below)

Ann and Clinton were up for anything, so it was no surprise that when I suggested that they do their first dance in the abandoned stone house by where we were staying, that they were super into it.

A contemplative Ann, looking out to what is ahead.

I could not have wished for a better view as we left the island. Above is the rim they were married on, and below is the tip of Pico, the island next to Faial.

How incredibly exciting!  Hitched Studios won The Knot’s Best of Weddings.  The Knot Best of Weddings provides a ‘for brides by brides’ guide to top wedding professionals and you, our brides, made us a winner!  THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!

We’re super excited and honored.