Here’s the next image in my Faces of Cuba portfolio.
On one of our evenings in Havana last January, a small group of us headed off to Cafe Taberna for dinner and a show. We had a table on stage left right up front – it was fun shooting the singers! This fellow was the lead – I caught him in between a couple of his routines watching the show.
Here’s the next image in my Faces of Cuba portfolio.
One evening while we were in Havana we took in the show at the Tropicana. I was lucky – brought along an 85mm f/1.8 lens for my Nikon D600 – and we had seats that matched the reach of the 85mm lens perfectly. It was a great show! And she was a great dancer – I just love her look in this image!
Here’s another image in my Faces of Cuba portfolio – something I just started after working on last night’s image of The Fisherman!
The light pouring through those windows behind into this market in Havana was really amazing. It offered a high contrast opportunity for some great images of this butcher – and his colleagues.
I’ve been trying some new kinds of monochrome conversions – and here’s an example – a shot from the ferry in Havana last January. He was fishing out the side door of the ferry – and working to bait his hook. This edition has a bit of platinum toning in the midtones and shadows.
The Fisherman is the first image in my Faces of Cuba portfolio.
Another image from our first morning in Havana last January – a bread shop just opening up.
For this image, I did a lot of tweaking in Lightroom 5 before bringing it into Photoshop CC. I used the Topaz Simplify 4 filter to soften some of the areas of the image and and few other tweaks.
On our first morning after arriving in Havana, we went out early on “Dawn Patrol” to catch the morning light. We walked down this street heading to the harbor – and came across this relic up on blocks collecting dust.
I like the juxtaposition of the car and the guy walking toward me. The gradient of the street light on the car body also adds some visual interest.
I processed it in Photoshop using some techniques I’ve been experimenting with – including platinum toning and selective sharpening.
Consider it a work in progress!…
In late January 2013, Doug Kaye and I headed for Cuba – for a week long people-to-people cultural exchange organized by the excellent folks at Santa Fe Photography Workshops. We had a splendid time, got some amazing pictures, and met some wonderful people – especially the Cuban professional photographers who accompanied us out into the neighborhoods of Havana.
We stayed at a great hotel in central Havana. It was a wonderful home base for us – very comfortable and clean rooms. On our last morning in Havana I was up early – and took this shot looking down at the street corner below from my room on the 5th floor of the hotel.
I’ve been experimenting with a number of post-processing techniques for taking images to monochrome – and this one seemed to work out particularly well.
One of the best venues during our trip to Havana earlier this year was the public market. We had some very special light coming through the windows over the shoulders of several of the sellers.
I’m working on a new black and white post-processing workflow – and gave it a try on this particular image. It’s one of my favorites from our morning visit to the public market.
I used a warm black toning on most of the image – except for the highlights on him – along with a number of tonality adjustments to add depth to the image.
I’ve been taking advantage of the holiday (July 4th) today to do some reading and exploring around the use of textures in images. I find that the addition of a texture or two to an image can add additional visual interest – especially those images that have large areas of sky or water.
With Photoshop CC, Adobe’s Russell Brown has made available a new panel extension – Adobe Paper Texture Pro – which comes pre-loaded with a number of excellent textures from Flypaper Textures. Using these textures – along with the built-in Photoshop watercolor filter, I added a couple of textures to this image shot using my iPhone 5 from a bus as we were coming into Havana following our flight. It was late afternoon in late January – near the “golden hour”!
Last January, I headed to Havana, Cuba with my photo buddy Doug Kaye for a wonderful week of photography organized by Kip Brundage of Santa Fe Photographic Workshops.
One of the best things about this week was that we had Cuban photographers out with us as we walked the neighborhoods in Havana. They really helped us see – and opened our eyes to the beautiful people and places in Havana.
One of the Cuban photographers we really benefited from working with was Raúl Cañibano. It was such a treat to be out in the neighborhoods with him – and watch him as he captured images along with us. Raúl works very quickly – with minimal gear. He’s got a great gift for seeing an image in the moment – and capturing it quickly.
While we were out working with him in Havana, he had a small portfolio book of his photography that he shared with us. It’s a beautiful small size – with some amazing black and white photography both in Havana and out in the countryside in Cuba. We wanted to buy a copy of this book – but he couldn’t sell it to us.
Raúl’s book recently become available for ordering on Amazon.com – and it’s a real delight. I keep it in my home office alongside my desk – for inspiration! Raúl’s eye and capture is a real treat for the eye! If you enjoy great black and white photography of real people, you’ll really enjoy Raúl’s small book!
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