Frozen Moments

jmg — Tue, 2 Jul 2013 04:55:00 GMT

It sounds like a cliché, but life is made of moments. Moments that you can either keep in your mind and you're heart, or forget. And for me, this last summer was all about family moments, and I didn’t want to lose them. So I took my camera with me and tried to freeze them, and bring them back to our home. Maybe there aren't the best ones, the most emotional ones, but at least, the ones I could bring back. And I'm happy with it.

Our vacations are our special family time, and we go to the south of Chile. We do it almost every summer: two or three weeks on February we stop everything we're doing (studies, work, holidays somewhere else), get the nine of us together (yes! nine!), hop in a big SUV, and drive heading to the south. This time we visited Neltume, Villarrica and Ranco lake.

The first moment (picture with the boat), happened the day we got to Neltume lake. It is a small beautiful, almost virgin lake near the Andes Mountains. It’s surrounded by small hills, packed with high and leafy trees. It’s always a very quite and peaceful place to be. What you won't guess from the picture is that every summer almost 51 cousins, 13 aunts and uncles, and my grandmother (my grandfather passed away two decades ago) meet there in just 4 cabins. And we have always a great time together. And there’s always enough space for everybody to come (even friends). And that’s the moment when I walked by and saw our lake, our family.

The second moment (cloudy/afternoon picture), happened in Villarrica lake. This lake is more frequented by tourists from many places. I like it when it rains, because everybody gets into their houses and you get to see pictures like this one. This moment is quite special because it is a common after rain scene in Villarrica, and it is my first time that I was able to capture it just like I saw it, something that happens to almost every non professional photographer (picture different to what is seen). It’s also somehow metaphorical: it started raining and we had a family fight, and this sight helped us to make peaces: everybody watched it, loved it and forgot the fight.

The third, fourth and fifth moments (grass, lake and stones; trees and stone window; people in b/w pictures) happened in Ranco lake. It is a huge lake also in the south of Chile. We went there to spent time only with my parents and my siblings. It was our time. So we had this little stone beach with a handcrafted mini harbor to spend time together (pic 1): we didn’t have a boat or a sailing boat, but we had a great time (pic 2). We went trekking one day and found an abandoned house, it was like being characters of Indiana Jones or Jumanji (pic 3).

Photos: Moments

jmg — Tue, 2 Jul 2013 02:30:00 GMT

I'm the eldest brother of 7 siblings and the 11th cousin of 51 just from my mother's side. As you would notice, my life is from its starting point already an adventure. If you want to meet different kind of people, with different interests and styles you should meet my family. But although this difference we love each other, and we spend a great time together. One thing we've always loved, and one thing we're all passionate about is traveling together. Obviously expenses are too high to leave our country, but we don't care, we still do family trips (and when I say family, I mean the whole family) around Chile. You'd better get to know Chile: its south with its gorgeous lakes, volcanoes and rivers; its north with its dry and vast desert; and its center with its great mountains, farming and wines. There're a lot of great picture books of Chile, and many people visit us for the landscape and people, but for me, it’s a whole new country when visited with my family. I want to learn to capture this incredible country with them, and tell this whole new story about it. I think this assignment is just what I need to learn, to get to the next level and capture for real those great moments.