Kyle Hepp Photography

Location: Santiago Centro, near Metro Universidad de Chile.

It’s a huge historic red church. I believe the name is Iglesia San Francisco de Asis but I’m not sure. I took this while my mom was here. We were driving past so I rolled down the window, looked up and started snapping away. Yes, I have fantastic photographic technique

For Tamsin and Anibal’s engagement session (I would say their Getting To Know You session, since that’s what I call the pre-wedding shoot with all my other clients, but I already know Tamsin and Anibal pretty well. We go way back…although to last Jan. hahaha!) I was really looking forward to getting some cool urban shots in a location in Santiago Centro in an area called Paris/Londres. There are these old buildings and cobblestones roads. Unfortunately, we arrived and the cobblestone roads were being completely torn up. There was construction EVERYWHERE. So we took a few shots, and moved on to plan B. Cerro Santa Lucia. Here are just a couple of my favorites from the pictures that I’m finished editing. I’m still only about halfway through, so there will be more to come soon!

Funky processing and playing with textures…who me?!? NEVER

Showing off that bling!

Look really hard, there are some soon to be newlyweds in there, I promise! I just had to get one shot with the whole church in the background, because it’s so historic.

How am I so lucky to have such beautiful friends/clients?!? It’s amazing really…

I died when I saw this one, it’s SO romantic!

I did a shoot today with the lovely Tamsin and handsome Anibal, so I wanted to post a quick sneak preview. Lots more to come soon!

Goal for this session: Don’t take boring Sears portraits. Mission accomplished! It was really cool to do this session and see all four kids’ individual personalities coming through. They’re all so different, yet they really seemed to get along great and just have fun with each other.

While I was out shooting a photo with all four of them, my husband used that zoom to grab these great individual portraits. Love them all!!!

And here was the end result out of my camera.

Last, but not least, here are my three absolute faves from the session! The first one just reminds me so much of my childhood and having fun with my brother with the way they are all giggling.
And plus I got the composition spot on how I wanted it!

On this one the background was begging for me to texturize it, so I did, and I love how it came out. Playing with textures is becoming one of my favorite post processing techniques. Only problem is that it’s time consuming, but the results are always worth it.

Aaaand, I am SO crazy about this one too! Now I want someone to take a picture of me and my husband in that thingy so we can have a cool circly portrait too.

Thanks M. family for coming out! I hope you love the pictures as much as we do!

YES. I am obsessed with this location No matter how many times I shoot, I am always discovering new little nooks and crannies that make for interesting backgrounds.

A little textured and vintage processing.

My new 20mm 2.8 lens gets really cool bubbly light flare. I love it!

A classic portrait.

And another classic portrait with not so classic post processing and light flare!

And last but not least, just a snapshot on the escalator as we were leaving the park.

More to come later!  I have so many photos just sitting on my computer right now that I haven’t had the chance to edit and blog!

Last weekend S. and I headed out to Chicureo for a portrait session with little Pia. She was amazing to play work with! If there is a god, someday I will have a kid as awesome as Pia!

I love love looooooooove silhouette photos with gorgeous light flare.

Classic black and white.

This is quite possibly one my favorite photos taken, EVER.

Ahhh, she has the beautiful, long Chilean eyelashes. No, of course I’m not jealous of a five year old

Another favorite of mine!

Does it get any more gorgeous than this? A child’s innocence and the beauty of nature combined with glowy afternoon light…a photographer truly couldn’t ask for more.

And I’ll end this post with a few shots co-starring Mati!

And no, this picture isn’t photoshopped. Pia and Mati are playing their special game!

Hi everyone, just wanted to let you all know that I’m now offering postcards featuring images that I have taken of Chile over the years. Just so you know what you’re getting, several of these are published images and one is #1 prize winner in the only photography contest I’ve ever entered. Someday I just might be a famous photographer, you never know…so buy now and watch your postcards’ value go up later

Prices start at $15 dollars for a pack of 5 postcards if you’re in the U.S., or $7,500 CLP in Chile.

Custom postcards are available in sets of 20 for $45 dollars or $22,500 CLP. Choose 20 of your favorite images from my Flickr. Or order 20 postcards of the same image if you like it that much…it’s custom, so whatever you want, goes!

All orders are payable to Kylehepp@gmail.com via Paypal if you’re outside Chile. Inside Chile I can accept cash or bank transfer. Send me your address and specify which pack you’d like in the paypal message body with the money transfer. Once payment is received please allow 2-4 weeks for delivery.

Sets are as follows:

In Black and White, Faces of Santiago: See images in this pack.

This set contains photos that are extremely representative of the “real” Santiago…Nuts 4 Nuts stands are on every corner. If you’ve ever lived or even just visited the smell of sweet caramelized peanuts roasting probably brings back memories.

And of course, we couldn’t leave out the metro, one of the cleanest, safest in the world.

The policemen, or “pacos” as they are known here are seen on many street corners especially in downtown Santiago. *Please note, you should not call a policeman a paco to his face, as this is considered a derogatory term, although it’s by far the most common word used for them amongst young people.

The sad reality is that homeless people are abundant in this city. Leaving them out would be to ignore a part of the society that already has no voice.

And Cueca dancers showing off their skills on street corners is classic in Santiago!

La Moneda: See images in this pack.

La Moneda is the Chilean equivalent of the U.S. Whitehouse. It’s where the president goes about her daily business, and is often the site of large protests whenever there’s social unrest. As a result, La Moneda is open to the public, but remains heavily guarded by policemen or pacos.

These images were shot during a protest by Chilean homeowners.

Chile in an Image: See images in this pack.

Chile is a diverse and beautiful country. From the snowcapped mountains surrounding Santiago, to the flora and fauna outside the city this country has it all…coastline, volcanoes and colors of the changing seasons.

Colors of Chile: See images in this pack.

Chile is a hard country to capture in just a few snapshots, but I’ve put together a few photos I feel are quite representative.

The Virgin Mary’s statue protects the city, so I shot this of her hand reaching down from on top of Cerro San Cristobal.

The national dance of Chile is the Cueca, seen in the image with the hat is the typical costume worn to dance it.

A clown and a little girl stroll through the port city of magical Valparaiso.

The last two images are repeat images from the Chile in Colors set, but you really can’t have Chile in an Image without the snowcapped Andes mountain range or the Chilean flag!

Since I’ve been editing so many pictures, I started get bored with the same old, same old style for every photo. I took it upon myself to do a little experimenting with different kinds of crazy processing and even some textures! Amanda, if you’re reading this and you don’t like any of these experimental pictures, don’t worry, I saved normal copies in color and black and white too

Here comes the bride….it was a long walk down! As you can tell, the wedding was held at an amazing venue: Hacienda Santa Cristina.

They could not have chosen a better time for the ceremony, the lighting was gorgeous!

Poor Waffle could barely see!

The best man looks on.

At a Chilean civil wedding ceremony, the bride and groom must each have a witness stand up and sign for them.

With just a few strokes of a pen, Amanda is now Waffle’s wife in sickness and in health!

BFF, and maid of honor Amy was SO happy for Amanda!

I’m kind of crazy about X-processing colors. Here, the judge is handing the new husband and wife their “Libreta de Familia,” in which the wedding has been inscribed, and where the births of little tiny Amandas and Waffles will be written.

Everyone pays close attention as the judge reads the closing words.

You may now kiss the bride!

I think I can almost hear her thoughts, “Oh my god, we’re MARRIED!”

Congratulatory hugs are in order.

It’s just two hands, but I can still feel the emotion of this picture…one generation passing wisdom down to the next, a father-in-laws love for the new addition to his family.

Here are a few of the details that made Amanda look so gorgeous on her big day…rings, dress and shoes…what could be more important than those?