Perhaps she’s actually “The Courier” – with that manila envelope in her hand. Or “The Spy”?
She was basking in the late afternoon sun in a late January Havana when I captured this shot. Another in my Faces of Cuba portfolio.
Category: Photography – Nikon D600
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.
This afternoon a group of about a dozen owners of Ford Model A’s got together for their annual Ice Cream Social run to Los Altos. I stopped by and snapped a few shots – these were some really great Model A’s – and great guys and gals as well!
Sometimes I wonder about what I’d be doing if I had skipped a generation and was 20 years younger.
Think about it – would what you be doing if you were 20 years younger today?
When I was watching these hang gliders at Fort Funston I wondered whether I might be trying to do what they do – flying like an eagle up there along the cliff. Sure seems like a ton of fun – but there’s always that nasty risk/reward tradeoff.
Go boldly – but be careful. Being too careful isn’t the solution either. We all end up finding our balance – and ultimately learn whether those were good choices.
Yesterday, Doug Kaye and I met up for one of our regular photo walks – this time at the Berkeley Marina. To be honest (!), there’s not a lot of interesting photographic subjects at the marina. We found a few – as photographers always do – but we weren’t exactly captured by the opportunities for great shots.
As we were heading back to our cars, we walked up the hill in César Chávez Park where we found a group of kids enjoying what seemed like a summer day camp experience. I happened to notice a boy off to my right and took one quick shot. I captured the image – but didn’t “fill the frame” or study the subject – I just took one shot.
As I looked at this image in post-processing, I thought it really needed a very tight crop – along with a monochrome treatment. Thus, this result. I titled it “Explorer” – as he seems completely engaged in exploring that rock below him!
This has a bit of platinum toning – but only in the darker tones using a luminosity mask in Photoshop CC. Some High Pass sharpening helps to focus the eye on the subject – and the border keeps the eye inside the frame. I just love the late morning light on his back!
Doug Kaye and I met up for one of our irregular Friday photo walks today – this time in Berkeley. We did a bit of shooting down at the Berkeley Marina before heading to 4th Street and a great lunch at Zut!
Heading to lunch, we walked a couple of blocks and, along the way, came across this bronze sculpture – which, as it turns out, is named Pablo and is the creation of Mavis McClure.
I thought the light on Pablo was pretty special – and sat down to try to capture what interested me. Angular light across the face is almost always special and interesting – and Pablo’s oversized hands and the light on one of them just added more visual interest for me.
I opted to crop it to a square image, adding a black border, and processing it in Lightroom 5 as a monochrome image. As I look at this image, I’m sure Pablo’s thinking good thoughts!
It was great for me to get out shooting again with Doug today – brightened my mood and brought on good thoughts! Doug captured a shot of me composing this image.
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.
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