Streets of Cuba Day 6-7

After getting our fill of Vinales, we made our way down to Trinidad, Cuba.  It's an amazing coastal town with colorful buildings and people to add to the life of the Cubans.

As we finish walking around Trinidad, the group was pretty spent and headed down to the resort and watched the sunset as we enjoy some rum and cokes.

From here on we are almost finished for the trip, now we just need to head back to Havana for a day and take off to the cold of Canada!

Streets of Cuba trip, day 5

Now that our group was in a groove, we got up and planned to head out to the valley and take some shots.  On the way there Juris decided to stop the bus in the town of Vinales and do some shooting in the town.  So it was our first true test to see what we learned in the last few days!

I started walking about thinking this isn't going to turn out well, I'm looking around and seeing nothing.  So I stop at a corner and just watch people go about their day, and wait to see if something happens.  After a few minutes I begin to relax and what once seemed a boring small town, started to come alive with the people.

From here we left to hit the valley where the heat was so intense you needed an umbrella for some shade.  Unfortunately my dad forgot his and had to borrow one.

After sweating every last drop of water from our bodies, we headed to a tobacco farm to take a look at how they make cigars....and enjoy some too!

The local farmer provided a pig roast, finished off with a bottle of white rum and a cigar.  It couldn't get any better.

Streets of Cuba trip, day 4

Hello All!
With day 3 in the books, we're now done with Havana for the time being.  Off to Vinales, which was a half day trek to the west side of the country.  Vinales is a unique area of low rising mountain ranges and cool caves, with the only other area similar to this in South East Asia.

As we arrived in the late afternoon we checked into Les Jazmines Hotel, which had an awesome view of the landscape that we'll be shooting for the next few days, as you can see from the pic below. 

After dinner, our group did a photo review of the last few days, which Juris critiqued.  It was a great experience, because Juris was incredibly insightful and motivated us for the next day.

After feeling upbeat from the critique we headed off to the bar, Polo Mantunez, for some local music and cabaret, where yours truly got up and danced with the singer. If we weren't tired, we were after the show!

On to the next day.

Streets of Cuba trip, day 3

Today was the start of a fantastic day.  After breakfast we met up with local photographer Orlando Lazaro Ortega.  Orlando took us through about 6 homes in Havana and, with the help of Juris, we slowly started getting in the groove and taking some great shots.

What was great was that these people were going about their day as if we weren't there.

Unfortunately, all these apartments were on the top floor, which made for some serious sweating, and some much needed breaks, as my dad can attest to.

After climbing the stairs of Havana, we had lunch at Jardin del Oriente, a relaxing outdoor restaurant with cold beer.  After lunch, we gathered all the energy we had left and headed to Cojimar, where Hemingway was known to have a few drinks while he wrote his best stuff.

After a few drinks in honor of Hemingway, we were done and in desperate need of food.  So we passed the day away with dinner at El Templete and some music at Palacio Del Paseneo.  Another good day in the books!

Streets of Cuba trip, day 2

Now that our group had got our fill of taking tourist shots, we set out in the early hours of the sunrise to take some street shots of kids going to school and adults going to work...or just sitting around.  While walking around we used Juris' technique of just staying in one spot for 10-15 minutes and letting the area get used to us - and have them start acting like there isn't a cheesy tourist with camera waiting for something magical to happen.

The other thing Juris told us, is not to be afraid to ask people if you can take their photo.  He said 95% of the time, people will say "yes", so should we turn down the opportunity of a great photo for 5% rejection? (after writing this sentence, I was thinking, I wish I had those odds when I was asking girls to go out on a date with me!).
Back to photography - the opportunity came for me to ask to take a photo, but it wasn't of a person, it was of the street.  And I needed to use his balcony, for a better view.  So the guy said sure, with the condition that he got to try to sell knock-off cigars to me.  But it was worth it, because I took one of my favorite shots of the trip.

After the walk, we made our way back to the hotel where we had breakfast and prepared for more walking.  The walk began at Plaza San Francisco, where tons of Cubans were doing Tai Chi, something I never would have guessed.
As lunch was approaching, we headed to a ballet dance theatre which had a restaurant.  While at the restaurant we heard a band play, and our tour guide got us to go in and take a few photos of them practicing.  Turns out, the main singer is one of the few remaining band members of Buena Vista Social Club.  It was pretty awesome to hear them play.

Afterwards we head to another spot in Havana and watched some Rumba and Salsa music.  By the end of all this, we were exhausted and headed back to have some pizza and beer at our new favorite place Cafe Paris. Which is where my dad decided to break the ice, and spill beer all over Juris - we all had a good laugh...Juris included.
And that concluded day 2!

Streets of Cuba trip, day 1

Hello Everyone,
I'm back in Canada from a great photo workshop in Cuba with professional photographer Juris Kornets,  Natural Selections .

The trip was fantastic, and Juris did a great job in showing us how to take photos of people in a unique way. 

So last Friday morning we leave Toronto bound for Cuba, and within a few hours we arrive at Havana airport drinking some cuba libre while waiting for our luggage.  Once we're all set, we take off to check into Hotel Florida in Havana.

After dropping off our luggage, we all headed out with our cameras excited to take photos.  To be honest, we were in sensory overload, and didn't really take the greatest photos.  After soaking it all in (and a few beers)  Juris started to show us how to see our surroundings and we began taking some fantastic shots.

Which started when we had dinner at Santa Isabel Hotel, the dinner was on the rooftop with a fantastic view of Havana.

After a great dinner and some shots on the rooftop, we headed down for some more drinks at Plaza Vieja, Microbrewery, preparing ourselves for a great week of photography.

As seen here, my dad deep in thought at Plaza Vieja....what kind of drink to order?  Beer or cuba libre.  After a full day of traveling and walking the streets of Havana, we were done and headed to bed for day 2.

Great blog site for social media

If you're like me, I'm constantly trying to look for more information on how to use social media.  Here is a site with good information and how to use it with photography.
http://www.photographyblog.com/articles/successful_social_media_for_photographers/