During November 2015, I traveled with my family to discover Cuba. We explored Havana, and then got out of the city to travel to the southern coast and around a variety of towns, farm villages, beaches, mountains, and monuments. Here’s how it went…
Itinerary
Our itinerary took us through Havana, Trinidad, Las Terrazas, Remedios, Santa Clara, and Viñales. It was great seeing a wide range of places within Cuba, especially since we had a little more than a week to do it. The full daily log is below.
Getting in to and around Cuba
To get to Cuba, we flew Xtra Airways, a charter airline, from Miami, Florida direct to Havana, Cuba. The flight was great, and very straightforward. For visas, we each got a slightly different visa – my visa listed me as a reporter, since I was taking photos to write this story.
To travel around Cuba, we took a variety of Taxis within Havana, and then hired a private driver and van for the out of town sections. Since we were a group of 5 with limited time, it was very very convenient to have a dedicated, local driver to get us around. Had I done it with a single partner and had more time, it would have been fun to do it backpacker style with public transportation etc. But for our group and time constraints, the way in which we did it was great.
Photo Gear
While in cuba, I shot with four cameras. The Apple iPhone 6S, Sony RX100m3, GoPro Hero4 Silver, and Lytro Illum. All four were interesting cameras to shoot with, and allowed me to be flexible in both capturing the shot I wanted, and in being mobile and unencumbered most of the time. For more on the innovative Lytro Illum Lightfield Camera, click over to my full review. Although all four cameras are great for their own purpose, by far my favorite is the Sony RX100m3. It’s small and lightweight, is relatively easy to use for its size, and takes absolutely amazing photos. I love the flexibility of being able to shoot from waist level, as well as the bounce flash trick, and smooth video.
Photos
Here’s Cuba through my lens….
Cuba Diary
We did LOTS in Cuba. Here’s a quick daily log of our activities – far from complete, but a good overview:
Day 1 – 2016-11-24
woke up at 3am to get to airport early for xtra airways flight Miami > Havana
taxi, easy, cuc30 airport to airbnb- airbnb checkin and late breakfast – omelettes and fresh guava juice and strong coffee
walked around looking for bank and internet cards
met up with dads friends from ingrnius
went to grand hotel havana for views, cambio.
lunch at paladar – shredded pork
passed ice cream park
nap at airbnb
got evening snack at next door bakery
jason and jill arrived
family dinner at paladar cafe laurent
early sleep
Day 2
breakfast at bnb
explore hotel nacional
sent postcards to mihi and wukate
walked across the center of town through callejon de hamel
walked through chinatown
walked into floridita restaurant
walked through obispo walking street
got lunch at ivan chef justo
walked around old havana some more, discovered central csthedral square
hired driver in old red car and went up hill to castle
saw worlds longest cigar
checked out nuclear missiles
cruised down to to jazz club
got confused by multiple buena vista social clubs
taxi’d back to airbnb
walked to sarao’s nightclub, then to dinner at 11th floor block building paladar
walked back to sarao and saw mana-like band
sleep
Day 3
woke up late had breakfast
chatted with travel agent ti work out plans
got taxi to jaimanitas
bought gifts at art area
had lunch next to canal – sushi with cuban rice
taxi to the beach along miramar near copacabana
taxi to beach hotel
taxi to revolution plaza
walked to rosenberg memorial and performing arts center
found santeria worship dance and danced with them
walked to ice cream park
checked email at cuba libre hotel
had an amazing dinner at paladar la quardia
taxi to fabrica de artes
sleep
Day 4
woke up early to have breakfast at airbnb
met eric our driver
stopped at airport
hit the road for Vinñales
stopped for lunch at Las terrazas
walked around las terrazas, found flamingos, found coffee plantation
had wifi session at las terrazas cafe
got back on road for viñales
arrived in vibales at family home
stopped at overlook hotel in vinales
went in cave hike and boat ride
stopped at tobacco farm and discovered cinnamon tree, fighting cocks, etc
went to homestay – jason and i stayed on roof
had dinner at family house – great chx and lobster
walked around town and saw live music at cafe
went to bed early
sketch showerhead
Day 5
woke up early for home cooked breakfast
took morning stroll with jason
drove to house owners farm
saw farm with corn tobacco chickens pigs goats water pump
hit road for cien fuegos
stopped in At a few gas stations for gas and food
arrived in cien fuegos and walked around for an hour
saw pier, art galleries, town square, grocery store
drove to palace at punta gorda
got on road for trinidad
arrived at dennis homestay in trinidad
walked around town and found restaurant el medico
Day 6
woke up for home cooked breakfast in back porch
cruised out to exclusive beach resort for relaxing afternoon on beach
walked to end of beach for fresh fisherman lunch
drove to la boca beach at end of river to explore
returned to Trinidad
walked around town with dennis and learned about history if trinidad
grabbed dinner at la botija and listened to snazzy jazz band
Day 7
got in van and started drive to santa clara
stopped at che monument
drove to santa clara
went to beach on cay las brujas
drove to remedios and walked around town – first place with internet and also a pretty hotel
had a nice dinner at the casa particular
“the help”
slept late, woke up at 8 and walked to coffee mans house
Shots from the Lytro Illum
Throughout the trip, I shot a series of lightfield photos with the Lytro Illum Camera. I was testing and reviewing it on behalf of Lytro, and had a great time learning about lightfield photography. If you’re interested in more about the Lytro, check out the full review: Shooting Lightfield Photos in Cuba with the Lytro Illum.
The Lytro Illum takes photos using a specially developed lens and sensor that essentially captures all focal lengths and multiple angles of a scene simultaneously, and lets the photographer recompose and refocus a photo after it’s been shot. It’s an incredible new technology, and essentially adds a whole new element to the post-processing creative possibilities of digital photography. With traditional digital photography, exposure, color balance, and light levels can be tweaked and edited after the photo has been taken. Now with the Lytro Illum, focus is added to the creative possibilities.
https://vimeo.com/102169690
Shooting with the Illum
While the Illum was an interesting camera to shoot with, after snapping multi thousands of photos with it, and editing a countless number, I can say that it’s not really the best camera I’ve ever shot with. Sure, the perspective shift and focus shift features are really neat and enable more creative possibilities – but besides these neat tricks, the photos the camera makes is just not that great quality. When looking at just the flat photos it takes, I’m underwhelmed, and was constantly wishing I had my RX100m3 in my hand instead, to just take a great quality version of the same scene, even without the re-focusability. So I’m definitely a fan of the Lytro Illum for it’s extremely innovative new features and unlocking of new photographic realms. However, I don’t feel like these new capabilities really added anything substantial and long lasting to my photos, once the novelty of clicking around in the custom viewer wore off.
Holding the Illum
The Illum is a cool looking camera. It’s futuristic and sleep, representing an SLR from the far future. However, its actual physical functionality is extremely limited, compared with the functionality of a similarly sized and shaped standard DSLR camera, for example any Canon Digital SLR, from a Rebel on upwards. The buttons just weren’t as responsive as the could have been, the screen not as bright and clear as it could have been, and the touch screen interface is just not great. For in-the-field, from-the-hip shooting, you need to have your physical controls dialed in perfectly, easily adjustable, and to a point where there’s absolutely no time needing to be spent waiting or dealing with the interface. The Illum wasn’t there yet.
The Illum is an interesting proof of concept camera, and a valiant effort to make it appealing the pro photogs. It was fun shooting with it and learning the quirks – but I’m still looking forward to the next advance.
Fall colors in Colorado are beautiful – and what better vantage point than the top of 2 Colorado 14ers. This weekend, I did the Fall 14er adventure and climbed with a group of friends to the tops of Grays and Torreys Peaks. (USGS Topo Quad)
Wikipedia:
“Grays Peak is the tenth highest summit of the Rocky Mountains of North America and the U.S. state of Colorado. The prominent 14,278-foot (4,352 m) fourteener is the highest summit of the Front Range and the highest point on the Continental Divide in North America. (There are higher summits, such as Mount Elbert, which are near, but not on, the Divide.) Grays Peak is located in Arapahoe National Forest, 3.9 miles (6.2 km) southeast by east (bearing 122°) of Loveland Pass on the Continental Divide between Clear Creek and Summit counties. The peak is the highest point in both counties.”
Introducing the Technology & Camera Creatives Group – a meetup group Kevin Owocki and I are co-founding here in Boulder, Colorado. The group was born from an obvious and increasingly present intersection of technology and photography in our everyday lives. We thought it was finally time to have a formal group in Boulder to discuss these intersections, and make the most of it.
The Technology & Camera Creatives Group will meet on a monthly basis in Boulder, Colorado, USA and is open to anybody interesting in learning, teaching, networking, and enjoying the creative and technological fringes of photography, media, and technology.
Our first meetup is this coming Wednesday – details are at Meetup.com. Stop by our next event, share what you’ve been working on, and get inspired! This week, I’ll be showcasing a bit of my photography taken in freezing temperatures in Antarctica, as well as will be discussing how lightfield photography works, and showcasing the latest Lytro Illum camera system.
Me and Dave, pictured in the original Lytro Lightfield Camera
This past weekend friend Dave Surgan and I visited the Wired Holiday Store to demo the new Lytro lightfield camera. Although the workflow process for importing and manipulating images was a little buggy, the camera worked great. Form factor is very first generation, but apparently is necessary to accomodate the complex lens design. The square images are fun to shoot, and the control layout is simple – shutter button and touch sensitive zoom slider on the top, and power button on the bottom. Shooting pictures feels very “scientific”, on account of the long box form factor – kinda like looking through a toilet paper tube.