All language subtitles for Episode 25 Patreon St. Tropez Experience

Chapter 25, friends.

Welcome to another episode.

Who was going to tell me that I

was going to get to chapter 25 and

now I think there is no limit, right?

I think this is going to last a

long time.

We are super happy, as you are seeing,

with this platform.

Patreon is giving us a lot of possibilities

and besides that, well, it seems that I

finally find myself a little more loose in

front of the camera.

I still think it's like a paranoia, right?

I mean, to be talking to a camera

where I don't have a feedback, I don't

have anything, it's just recorded, that's it, it's

edited, it's modeled ...

Erika almost always does it, I have to

be frank, and then the subtitles, which also

take us like another day.

But hey, we're having a great time and,

well, we're already in September, I've already told

you in the previous episode, but, well, I'm

not going to roll anymore, I'm very good

at going through the hills of Úbeda, let's

see how I translate that.

But hey, let's start with what is today's

episode and I would like to dedicate this

video to deconstruct one of the craziest images

I made last year.

It was at a wedding I did in

Sant Tropez and, well, the image I'm talking

about is this, okay?

And well, it's an image that I think

is full of, well, of humanity, right?

In which we can see that brides are

also human beings who go hungry, who have

a lot of heat.

I'll tell you about the heat in the

video.

And, well, I mean, I especially like it,

right?

Because we are sometimes, perhaps, used to seeing

very, very, very beautiful brides.

I mean, long songs, almost sometimes very dreamy,

right?

That it looks like they're going to sleep,

very soft, and suddenly, right?

It's like this image is PAM, right?

It's like a slap, right?

Saying, fuck, right?

That brides also eat, also cry, also fall

to the ground, and they also get nervous

and everything happens to them, right?

But, well, before I start, well, to describe

a little how I got to the final

image, I would like to put you in

advance and, well, tell you how the wedding

came about, also where it was, the problems

I had, which were many, and, in short,

until I got to it.

Of course, if I showed you only as

I had thought, only one, because of the

graphic series in which the image was conceived

as such, it would be, perhaps, too fast,

and Erika, well, she proposed that I show

you, right?

That I show you practically the entire graphic

route, because I started with the preparations until

I practically finished the wedding, and, of course,

mention the number of problems or the little

things that were emerging, that, after all, a

wedding is full of problems, problems in which

we have to go, well, fixing ourselves, or

trying to get a little ahead with all

that story, right?

And, after all, it is part of our

job, right?

Well, this has been said, what first I

should clarify is that this wedding was not

contracted to me, that is, I was not

the main photographer, but it was a French

photographer, which I have a special affection for,

and this French photographer was injured, his right

arm was injured, a week before the wedding,

his wrist was broken, so he could not

photograph it, he quickly called me, and he

told me, and he proposed that if I

could help him, please, that if I could

go to Saint-Tropez, it is in the

south of France, okay?

I mean, French coast, I think it is

the blue coast, if I'm not mistaken, beautiful

area, if you have not visited it, I

recommend it to you.

Well, and that, right?

He asked me if I could help him,

clearly, I said yes, he offered me a

very, very tight budget, but, well, I had

to accept it, because, after all, we are

a community, I mean, this partner had attended

several of my workshops, we are in contact,

and, after all, if this ever happens to

me, I would also like someone to help

me, right?

So, as I was saying, the budget was

a little tight, that's why he proposed that

Erika should not come, that it was only

me, the only photographer, of course, that was

the first mistake, right?

Not a mistake, but I had to have

said the same, with the budget, well, let's

go for both, pay Erika's plane ticket, which

is not so much money, and we already

work there, right?

Of course, that was the first external element,

perhaps, that I could not, or that I

did not feel quite comfortable, right?

But, well, I had to accept it.

There were also several elements that I could

not control, I mean, elements other than me,

in which I would have liked them not

to have been like that, right?

But, well, the first was this, that it

was only me, second, and that is uncontrollable,

it was the heat, I know, that is,

it is summer and such, and I am

from an area of Spain in which we

get here at 40 degrees quietly, and even

sometimes 44, 45 degrees, and I am used

to that type of wedding, but it was

a climate, or the climate of southern France,

or Saint-Tropez, is a climate close to

what is in the Mediterranean, well, on the

coast, and the humidity was brutal, I mean,

when I say brutal, I still remember how

bad I had it, it was just showering,

and just as I came out of the

shower, I remember that I was already wet

again, and it was taking a step and

being soaked, of course, I am used to

that, because we have been photographing weddings on

the coast for a long time, but that

day I think I caught everything as a

setback, but hey, it was one more element,

and well, as you are seeing, I want

to show you this photo, which is the

moment of the speech, for example, of the

groom, and look how he was sweating, and

I assure you that all the boys were

like that, and the girls too, of course,

but of course, the boys with their shirts

closed, just imagine, as I say, these are

things that you have to control, and the

last one, and not least, on many occasions

I felt that I was not the photographer

for the bride's mother, I don't know how

to say this, or how to say it

correctly, but the point is that on several

occasions the bride's mother came to tell me

that I was not going to photograph it,

and I was stunned, and I noticed that

throughout the day that lady was looking at

me, it was as if she was constantly

analyzing my work, and the most curious thing

was that she was a photographer, maybe a

photographer from the old school, but the truth

is that it was the element that stayed

with me a little bit, well, except for

the work, I think it was pretty good,

and I hope that the groom liked it,

so they ended up delighted, but well, those

were the three elements that I wanted to

tell you a little bit, and we are

going to start talking a little bit until

we get to the moment of the image

that is the origin of this video.

Well, as I was saying, I started by

photographing preparations, I was lucky that they were

getting married in the same house, the couple

rented a super villa, with several floors, with

a piece of garden, and a pool there,

where, together with the groom, he met his

best friends, and her best friends, together with

the groom's family, that is, mother and father,

and together with the bride's parents, they were

all there, so when I arrived, the first

thing I found, that I was already there,

with the makeup artist, but before I prepared,

I went out, prepared the equipment, and the

first shot I made was that of this

boy who was just looking at me with

a scared face, to see what I was

up to, and as I told you, I

started shooting, taking pictures of the bride, with

her friends, then I photographed what the groom

was doing, first he was lying on a

sofa, and then I focused a little, as

you know, and I took pictures of the

makeup, of the transition, of the girl, I

also worked a little on the pictures of

the speeches, here we have the father, and

I photographed everything that was happening, as you

can see, the groom's car just arrived, the

one they would use, it was a very

old Porsche, and I tried to capture that,

as I told you, until the groom began

his preparations, and there I was, taking these

shots, in which you can see the groom

with a lot of heat, the groom started

to sweat, the first problem for me came

in this picture, the first moment I realized

God, Erika, now I really need her, because

the groom is leaving with his mother, and

at that moment I was fully aware that

the groom was leaving for the ceremony, for

the church, and I knew there was no

photographer, and I knew I was going to

miss a lot of transition photos, and at

that moment I missed Erika in a huge

way, but we started with the girl's preparations,

and I started to photograph from a little

intimate shot, I continued photographing how he lifted

the dress, how they started to play, the

moment the dress fell, as you can see,

it is a moment when the bride gets

a thousand, and I quickly left with my

car, I parked it anyway, I entered the

ceremony, and at the moment I entered I

played it again, I waited for the bride

at the altar, or I followed her from

behind, again, that second photographer that I missed,

but this was the image that I captured,

and we entered the ceremony, imagine, if it

was almost 40ºC, imagine inside, it was like

a pressure cooker, so I continued working, shooting,

first shots, then panoramic shots, and now,

look at this picture, you have everything on

your side, and you screw it up, something

that I still can't understand, how can it

be that at the moment the girl put

the bouquet on the bride's face, having them,

one meter away from me, to blur this

image?

I still don't understand it, how can it

be that everything is there?

I had already taken risks, I had already

photographed 7 or 8 weddings, I had already

done the pre-season, I knew what I

was doing, and suddenly I blur this image?

Later I continued with more stories, shooting, as

you can see, more open shots, until the

grooms go out, and here I wanted to

put myself in the role of two photographers,

I mean, try to photograph what would be

photographed in the front, and what would be

photographed in the back, what I did in

the front, I did it well, but this

image arrived late, so I think I should

have waited, just like these two, both this

one, when the grooms take the car, as

if they were running backwards, more or less,

here I saved a bit the paper, but

not at all, and from there, the grooms,

they were encapuchados, they had to go to

the beach, imagine at 5 pm, in June,

the sun above, a heat that could fry

an egg on top of the car, and

suddenly the grooms tell you that they want

to go to the beach, but they have

married in a small town, next to San

Tropez, it was a medieval town, full of

narrow streets, and you tell them, why don't

we take pictures here?

There is shade, there are lights, there are

more possibilities, and the grooms, beach, we want

beach, beach, beach, we went to the beach,

and the beach was full of people, and

the grooms told me, what do we do

now?

I was about to shoot myself, I was

lucky that the day before, I arrived with

too much time, and before I met the

grooms, I took a shower at the beach,

and I had a plan B, I was

going to look for something, just in case,

and there was a small forest, but very

small, full of pines, and I could do

something there, but before that, I took the

grooms, I don't know if it was a

joke, or a strange experience, but the beach

was going to be full, and as you

can see, crisis control, people calling to see

what they were doing, because they had to

take pictures with friends, as you can see,

I was very nervous, and I told them,

let's go to the forest, and we'll take

a couple of pictures, I had about 20

minutes, and as you can see, I took

a couple of pictures, I was playing with

35mm, always trying to play with the light,

and as you can see, the result, when

I was checking them yesterday, I saw that

it was a very interesting report, and now

comes the really interesting part, the report was

about to finish, and I had about 2

hours left, one and a half, two hours,

for the dinner, in a beach club, close

to the Mediterranean, and my boyfriends told me,

Victor, if you want, you can go to

your hotel, you can take a shower, you

can relax, you can come with us, but

what we are going to do, is to

take a shower, they were completely soaked, so

we are going to take a shower, we

are going to be relaxed, without a lot

of noise, we are going to be calm,

and it is more than likely, that you

are not going to take interesting pictures, so

we invite you, if you don't want to

come, don't come.

I had two options in my head, one,

to go to the hotel, to be relaxed,

or to go with them, the answer was

obvious, I was going with them, what was

I going to do in the hotel?

And they thought, it almost never happens, but

I had to go, because if the girlfriend

is in the pool, who knows if she

is going to give me something interesting, or

if something happens, I went there, and what

started to happen, as you can see, very

little, the boyfriends were there, they took off

their shirts, they changed, they got closer to

the pool, with their things, I documented a

little, and the boyfriend was naked, and my

job was to try to be the biggest

photojournalist possible, and that everything was in its

place, that things were in a certain sense,

and keep shooting, until things like this, where

you see that they started to spread, to

put anti-mosquito cream on the legs and

the rest of the body, so I thought,

if in addition to the heat we have

mosquitoes, today I'm going to die completely, until

I went into the house, I saw that

the boyfriend and his friends were getting ready,

I took very basic photos, the boyfriend with

a friend, I played with something else, a

little more playful, where I tried to play

with the boy's reflection, with the boyfriend, I

went out again, and the children were at

a table, they were going to have dinner,

or something like that, so I quickly caught

the girlfriend, as you are seeing now, but

think well, what I wanted to explain, and

the most important of all, the first photo,

when I caught all that, I didn't imagine

that this could happen, I quickly shot this

first photo, or two or three more, in

which I have the girlfriend from a 45º

angle, that is, from a 45º angle, that

for me is a shy angle, I did

1, 2 and 3, which was the moment

when the girlfriend was eating, and I quickly

thought, shit, I'm in a shy angle, I

took a couple of steps and I already

placed myself in front of her, and this,

please, pay attention, many wedding photographers make the

same mistake, both in ceremonial photos, or in

photos throughout the day, think well about this,

I always give the same example, capture everything

face to face, nothing from a few degrees

to one side or the other, because that

makes the photographer not have fought well, so

when I finally placed myself face to face,

this was the first photo I captured, in

which my first intention was to cut here,

to avoid those eyes, but little by little,

in the next shot I went up a

little and in the next shot I went

up the rest, why did I want to

keep my eyes open?

You have already heard me many times that

I love to create that non-obviousness, those

non-obvious photos in which we cannot see

eyes and when we do not see eyes,

the spectator participates in it, of course, if

I included eyes, as you are seeing, it

was because her gaze was totally heartbreaking, it

was full of force, I had to include

those eyes to add to the rawness of

the moment in which he looked like he

was going to starve, his eyes were almost

injected as if saying, God, I have to

eat, I have to eat, and I continued

until I shot that and the bride stopped,

she laughed, the magic broke and I did

not continue shooting, but I focused on what

was happening, as you are seeing, I kept

doing the things that were already there with

them, the bride doing the pari-pe with

her friends with the mobile phone, everyone ready,

we went out and we went straight to

the beach club and before we got in,

I saw this linear structure and I thought,

what do you think of a few photos

here?

I took advantage of that, I took a

picture and I went inside, and the rest

you are already seeing, I tried to play

with reflections because all the reception was at

the beach, and as you know, we are

not good friends unless I go to the

beach to bathe, to sunbathe, which is something

I love, but not to photograph, so I

tried to scratch all the creative resources that

I could, as I told you about the

reflection, as you are seeing the next one,

where I tried to play with the foreground,

and I managed to convince the bride that

if she wanted a photo with her friends,

and in addition to taking a more typical

photo, I told them to walk, I usually

do it with group photos, when I have

time, that they interact with each other, and

in addition to the classic photo, this one

that you are seeing, that you see a

little more interaction, a little more force, and

these photos are useful for something else, they

are not only for them, they can even

be used to publish on social networks, and

in all things.

The groom arrived, look how he is completely

soaked, because the speeches were coming, apart from

the speeches they were going to be at

the beach, as you are seeing, I tried

to photograph again Eche de menos Erika, to

help me with some lighting, and I had

to place the LED, to illuminate the faces

of the parents of the bride, and I

kept taking pictures, until the maitre said that

everyone was going to dinner, and you see

it, the grooms leave, and nothing more than

the grooms, who have already arrived to the

place, everyone was waiting for them, they were

waiting for a full disc jockey with music,

so imagine, everyone dancing, and finally 5 minutes

everyone to sit down, everyone to dinner, and

this is the photo of the first speech,

that was of the groom, and I had

already shown you before, but look how he

was going, and I was the same, it

was something totally crazy, and what came later,

dessert, some more speeches, and finally the party,

I was photographing the party, for about an

hour, and this was one of the photos

of the party, but I don't want to

entertain myself, with more party photos, because the

video of all this, and to finish, never

trust when a couple tells you, that something

may not have photographic interest, I assure you

that they may be wrong, no one better

than you, to know how much photographic interest

can have something, and something also super important,

my best photos, not at this wedding, but

throughout my career, have always happened, when I

have tried, and I have repeated everything several

times, it's like you do it once, you

take that photo, you think you have taken

it well, you think you have it, and

you try again, that's what many of the

photos have given me, so nothing else, I

hope everything goes as best as possible, if

you have a wedding this weekend, take advantage

of it, you never know when the next

one will arrive, be good, have a good

time, and see you soon.