Bring a camera to Cuba

[Ryan]

I've been going to Cuba for nearly 10 years now. And over the years I've brought back various bits and pieces of art that I thought was nice.

On my first trip, as a present for my wife, I brought back a tiny bronze sculpture of a raised fist set in stone. I thought it looked very revolutionary, my wife just saw it as me giving her a fist. Though she saw the funny side.

Later, I first met Jose Rey of Havaning.com when I met him to buy some of his pictures that I'd seen on Facebook. Even they didn't get past my wife.

Then last March, I was trying to photograph the waves coming over the Malecon from the back of taxi and having the usual luck when trying to take pictures with an iphone from the back of a moving car. Results like this.

Until I noticed something in one of them.

This one.

 

From that I did some cropping, the only Photoshop I did was remove the rear-view mirror "dimming lever" to get as wide a shot as I could.

And I got this.

 

My wife finally liked it. Since I had waited so long to get something "Cuban" on the wall, I decided to go large. I called up a photographer friend and was recommended a place called Inspirational Arts here in Dublin. Two guys, Ed and Jim there were fantastic to work with, after a bit of humming and haw-ing about the amount of noise in the shot. They got us up to have a look at some exposures and papers.

 

And finally we got this out of it. 3 metres (10 feet) wide.

 

It arrived Friday, I was away until Saturday night, hung it yesterday morning and here's the result.

 

 

 

I'm very happy with it and my wife loves it.

I suppose the point of the story is, when in Cuba get your camera out, you never know what you might get.

Also I suppose, I'm always amazed at the amount of information an iphone camera (that was an iphone 6) can capture at that distance and with that amount of cropping, through a windscreen, from the darkened (tinted) back of a moving taxi.

[Ethernut]

Great Post @Ryan. Lovely shot! Looks like it was made for your wall.

So true about the megapixels. I've seen 8 megapixel images made into billboards. At a certain distance it's impossible to tell. 

[Derboesekoenig]

You have me going over all the pictures I took now...maybe I have 1 or 2 worthy of something like this

[madandana]

Nice job bud. Thanks for sharing. 

Dana has some from Cuba and Europe on our wall. Good reminders of our travels.

[rckymtn22]

Great story and picture!

[Colt45]

Good stuff!

[Nino]

Great shot and work Andy !! Enjoy !!

[El Presidente]

I have some pictures of you at 4am if you would like me to forward? Your wife can pick the best one to put on another wall 

 

Great work mate 

[Bartolomeo]

Awesome pic!

[Habana Mike]

Nice!

[bugman78629]

NOICE..... ?

 

 

Enjoying a Behike at the Malecon with a perfect sunset....

[Lomey]

Great picture!

[Piligrim]

Great job!

[LLC]

Agree, great place for photography. 

[ayepatz]

Very nice, mate.?

I had a similar lucky iPhone experience, watching a storm from the Hotel Capri. 

[Derboesekoenig]

14 hours ago, bugman78629 said:

NOICE..... ?

 

 

Enjoying a Behike at the Malecon with a perfect sunset....

Either we stayed in the same Airbnb, or it is bloody close lol

[Guantanamera]

Sweet! Nice pic.

[bugman78629]

4 hours ago, Derboesekoenig said:

Either we stayed in the same Airbnb, or it is bloody close lol

Stayed at Casa Louis....?

[Ericbrobes]

That is something else! Really awesome to see, thanks for sharing.

[Optic101]

cool

[83Nation]

I’m horrible at remembering to actually print pictures... stupid digital lifestyle


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[Rhino]

I thought this was an AWESOME sculpture in one of the squares in Old Town.


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[dshapiro]

Nice!!!