Throwback Thursday: Club Tropicana and LAPC 195 “colorful expressions”

 

Today I have another image taken in Club Tropicana in Havana for you.

I’m not interested in dancing at all. So, I wasn’t very eager to go, when I saw this topic on the agenda. But, I also didn’t want to stay alone at the hotel and the visit was already prepaid in the package. Thus, I went.

I have to admit, it was a great experience. I’m happy about the good quality of my images because it was very dark. All of my images are taken at ISO 6400 😲😳 to have short shutter speeds with a suitable field of depth and avoid motion blur.

I guess I’m going to show you a couple of more images taken during that night in the near future. Stay tuned.

In case, you want to see more from Cuba, click here.

Because of the colorful dresses of the ladies, this image is also a perfect fit for LAPC. It’s hosted by Anne, this week.

Take care!

 

Throwback Thursday: Club Tropicana

 

Today I have another image taken in Club Tropicana in Havana for you.

I’m not interested in dancing at all. So, I wasn’t very eager to go, when I saw this topic on the agenda. But, I also didn’t want to stay alone at the hotel and the visit was already prepaid in the package. Thus, I went.

I have to admit, it was a great experience. I’m happy about the good quality of my images because it was very dark. All of my images are taken at ISO 6400 😲😳.

I guess I’m going to show you a couple of more images taken during that night in the near future. Stay tuned.

In case, you want to see more from Cuba, click here.

Take care

 

 

Throwback Thursday and Lens-Artists Photo Challenge 193: “birthday”

This week, John Steiner is looking forward to celebrating his birthday, so I’m happy to join the LAPC party. In some families and in some cultures, birthdays are a reason for huge celebrations. So, I picked up this post published first back in 2013.

There is a certain habit in Cuba of celebrating a girl’s 15th birthday.

The girl gets special clothing, is dressed up, and gets perfect makeup. Then they go to a photographer to take beautiful photographs.

According to our guide, some girls are dressed like a bride for these sessions, others wear cocktail dresses and I also noticed photographs showing a girl dressed like a female version of an old-fashioned, Spanish caballero. The photographs are usually taken in a park or in the streets and not in a studio.

Two weeks later, the parents and the girl have a party with all of her friends, and an album, containing the photos, which is a real eyecatcher for that party. Also, the parents put framed photos from that session on their walls.

I like that idea. (OK, maybe, because I’m a photographer).

We met this young lady in the old town of Havana. Her mother was with her and took care of her hairstyle and her makeup, while the photographer directed his assistant to adjust the reflector.

So, we can congratulate her on her 15th birthday.

Are there any similar habits, where you live or coming from?

While waiting for my next post you can have a look at the previous posts and maybe drop me a note in the comments section below.

 

In the meantime, the girl is a young woman. As I said, I took these photos back in 2013. So, she’s already 24. How much must have changed for her in her life.

As I’m always interested in getting to know habits from other countries, regions, or cultures, drop me a note in the comments and tell me, how do you celebrate birthdays. I’m interested in your personal celebration as well as in general habits and traditions.

Take care!

Throwback Thursday: Club Tropicana

 

Oh, wow. Finally, I’m done! I was in Cuba back in Mach 2013. In the past, I already published some posts and images taken during that trip. But, one chapter of that trip was still nearly completely undone: the images taken during our visit of Club Tropicana in Havana.

I’m not interested in dancing at all. So, I wasn’t very eager to go, when I saw this topic on the agenda. But, I also didn’t wanted to stay alone at the hotel and the visit was already prepaid in the package. Thus, I went.

I have to admit, it was a great experience. I’m happy about the good quality of my images, because it way very dark. All of my images are taken at ISO 6400 😲😳.

I guess, I’m going to show you a couple of more images taken during that night in the near future. Stay tuned.

 

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Take care

 

 

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #82: capital cities

This week, we have a guest host for the weekly Lens-Artists photo challenge. It’s Viveka from Sweden. She asks for images from capital cities. Although I visited several capital cities (country capitals as well as state capitals), it’s very hard for me to find a suitable image. In my opinion, you should recognize the capital in that image for such a challenge but without simply showing an iconic building representing the city like the Eiffel Tower for Paris, The Brandenburger Tor for Berlin, colosseum for Rome, Big Ben for London or the skyscrapers for New York

The other main reason is, I don’t like these concrete deserts called cities. To be honest, I try to avoid cities.

Nevertheless, I dug into my archive and picked this image from Havanna for you.

I guess this is my most loved image taken on Cuba. If you’re interested in seeing more images from Cuba, you can check them out here in my blog.

The building in the back it the capitol of Havanna, a small version of the US capitol in Washington D.C.

Take care!

Throwback Thursday: while at the hair dresser

Taken at a Cuban hair dresser in the old-town of Havanna.

Take care!

Throwback Thursday: yellow and red

Take care!

Reflections

1955-56 Ford Victoria

Monochromia

More of my images can be seen at my own blog.

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Travel Tuesday: Cementerio Cristóbal Colón, La Habana, Cuba

 

For today’s holiday: All Saints’ Day!

Take care!

 

Throwback Thursday: Plymouth Fury

Take care!

Throwback Thursday: Trinidad

 

Take care!

Throwback Thursday: farmers work

A cuban tobacco farmer plowing his land with two cows in front of the plough. It feels like a time jump into the past.

Take care!

Throwback Thursday: Cuban farmers

March 10th, 2013

Take care!

Monochrome Madness 3-13

 

Today, I’m taking you out to another visit in Cuba. Here we have the skyline of Havana right over the bahia at sunset. I think of my visit quite often. It was a very pleasant time. I’ve had many posts on that trip here in my blog. You can find them by using the tag cuba.

While writing this post, we have had a hot day (+27°C). That reminded me to that wonderful trip to Cuba. Although, it’s less hot here than on Cuba, it’s more uncomfortable here because of the high moisture. During the last weeks we have had so much rain. Many houses and streets got over-flooded. Strawberries are rotting in the fields. June was a complete fail when speaking about this summer until now. May was fine, but June was too wet. We often have had more liters of rain during a single rainstorm than usually during a complete average month! We even have a temperatures around 12-15°C. (we often have these temperatures during winter).
I hope, summer will finally come one day – hopefully very soon!

This is my contribution to Monochrome Madness organized by Leanne Cole. Look at here site, to see many more monochrome images created by many other talented photographers.

Take care!

WPC: partners

This week’s topic for the weekly photo challenge by “The Daily Post” is “partners”.

Take care have a great weekend!

(as usual, you can see the photo enlarged, when clicking in it)

Creating a photo collage the easy way

Earlier this week I published a collage containing my top 10 images from last years Monochrome Madness, an open competition with only monochrome images. I got a few questions, how I was able to create it.

As usual, there are several options to create such collages. Some of the options might be Adobe Photoshop, Adobe InDesign, GIMP* or  Scribus*. (* these apps are open source and available for free legally!) I uses something completely different: Collage Factory Free. This is the light version of a software specialized for creating collages. The light version does not have all features of the complete version. Thus you might call it CrippleWare! Despite this, it has enough features for me.

First of all, you select a template. You can always modify the collage by adding further images, delete place holder or re-arrange them. You can also change the size and the angel simply by clicking on one of the blue dots in the edges of a frame and pull it or click on the red dot above the frame and spin it around as long as you like it.

Next, you select your images and pull them in the free space on the left. From here, you distribute them manually with your mouse or click on one of the automatic buttons in the upper left area (“fill random” and so on) I usually distribute them on my own.

Now, you can add a text box, if you want to. You can use every installed font. The software goes you some effects to add, like shadow, border or fillings.

Not everyone like the default background. That’s ok! You can change it. the app comes with many different option for the background: simple colors, color gradients, patterns and background images. You can even chose your own image for the background.

The last step is choosing the image size for the final image ind jpg format. Here we have the strongest restrictions in the software. There are only very few sizes available in the free version. For me, it’s enough. But, decide on you own. Don’t forget to save the creation in the edible format of the app, too. So you can change parts later, if you don’t like your original creation. The file format is a structure, that contains even the selected image. So, you can even move the edible file i.e. to an external storage and won’t loose one of the used images.

I attached screenshots from the app of a complete workflow. I created a collage from my Cuba images.

If you try the software on your own, please let me know, if you like it and, maybe, you can publish your creations somewhere and leave me a link to it. I’d like to see your creations!

Enjoy!

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Monochrome Madness 2-35

Every first week of a month, the monochrome madness by Leanne Cole has a specific theme. This week the theme is “bell”.

On Sunday we have had the first of Advent, the last 4 weeks until Christmas. A bell ist used for calling people together, to alert them. In ancient times, bells were i.e. used to alert the citizens in case of fire or war. So, I have an alarm bell for you. I found it in Castillo San Pedro de la Roca of Santiago de Cuba. The Castle high above the small entry to the big bay of Santiago. In the back, you can see the bay.

Be alerted for the upcoming holidays!

 

 

 

Take care!

 

Weekly Photo Challenge: ROY G. BIV

white = red + orange +yellow + green + blue +indigo + violet = rainbow

Take care!

(as usual, you can see the photo enlarged, when clicking in it)

Monochrome Madness 2-03

 

Todays photo for Leanne Cole’s Monochrome Madness is taken from my Cuba series. .

Take care!

Weekly Photo Challenge: Gone, But Not Forgotten

This weeks photo challenge at The Daily Post is called “Gone, But not Forgotten”.

Although, this is a kind of typical November theme and my first idea led me to a cemetery, I picked this photo for you. It’s taken on Cuba last year and shows one of the wonderful vintage cars. I like these cars because of their shape. They are beautiful designed and have a kind of character, other than todays cars. Modern cars are so uniform.

There are so many of them still on the road. Thus it was a feast for me to see them rolling.

Just in case, you like them too, I published a calendar with some of these beautiful cars. Ordering information is in one of my last posts.

Take care!

(as always: click on the photos to see them in a bigger size)

Monochrome Madness 37

Todays photo tor Leanne Cole’s Monochrome Madness is taken on Cuba last year.

It’s also converted with MacPhun Tonality Pro.

Take care!

Weekly Photo Challenge: descent

This weeks photo challenge at The Daily Post is called “descent”.

I picked this photo, taken in Castillo del Morro / Castillo San Pedro de la Roca above the entry to the Bahia de Santiago de Cuba, because of the nice view from above. This is the view, the Spanish soldiers have had, when on guard to watch for the pirates of the Caribbean in order to prevent attacks.

Take care and beware of the pirates!

Monochrome Madness 34

Today I have another photo from Cuba for  Leanne Cole’s Monochrome Madness.

I really like the old cars still running on Cuba. I also like them in bw. I guess, it perfectly fits together

Take care!

My Cuba calendars are available at the stores

Do you remember the Cuba calendars with photos of mine? They are back for 2015 – yeah!

Here are the ISBN numbers for ordering the 2015 calendar showing some of the fantastic vintage cars from Cuba as well as some insights into the old town of Havana. They are available in 5 country editions: Germany, Austria, Switzerland, United Kingdom and USA.

According to the publishing house, the ISBN numbers are internationally valid, and you should be able to get your copy by ordering it at a bookstore where you’re living. At least you can order them via amazon.de (*), amazon.at, amazon.ch and amazon.co.uk. At amazon.de you can also find an option for global delivery. So, take you chance!

German Edition:

2015	La Habana / Havana	Havana Portrait	Cuba Cars
Wandkalender DIN A4	978-3-660-71359-6	978-3-660-71493-7	978-3-660-69920-3
Wandkalender DIN A3	978-3-660-71357-2	978-3-660-71491-3	978-3-660-69919-7
Wandkalender DIN A2	978-3-660-71360-2	978-3-660-71494-4	978-3-660-69921-0
Tischkalender DIN A5	978-3-660-71358-9	978-3-660-71492-0	978-3-660-69922-7

US-Edition:

2015	La Habana / Havana	Havana Portrait	Cuba Cars
wall calendar DIN A4	978-3-660-90709-4	–	coming soon
wall calendar DIN A3	978-3-660-90708-7	–	coming soon
wall calendar DIN A2	978-3-660-90710-0	–	coming soon
table calendar DIN A5	978-3-660-90707-0	–	coming soon

UK-Edition:

2015	La Habana / Havana	Havana Portrait	Cuba Cars
wall calendar DIN A4	978-1-325-01576-4	–	978-1-325-01516-0
wall calendar DIN A3	978-1-325-01577-1	–	978-1-325-01517-7

AT-Edition:

2014	La Habana / Havana	Havana Portrait	Cuba Cars
Wandkalender DIN A4	978-3-660-90700-1	–	978-3-660-90488-8
Wandkalender DIN A3	978-3-660-90701-8	–	978-3-660-90489-5
Wandkalender DIN A2	978-3-660-90699-8	–	978-3-660-90491-8
Tischkalender DIN A5	978-3-660-90702-5	–	978-3-660-90490-1

CH-Edition:

2014	La Habana / Havana	Havana Portrait	Cuba Cars
Wandkalender DIN A4	978-3-660-99897-9	–	978-3-660-99845-0
Wandkalender DIN A3	978-3-660-99896-2	–	978-3-660-99842-9
Wandkalender DIN A2	978-3-660-99898-6	–	978-3-660-99843-6
Tischkalender DIN A5	978-3-660-99895-5	–	978-3-660-99844-3

(*) this link brings you to an amazon partner shop, showing a certain subset of the regular basket of good at amazon.de. You get the regular amazon.de prices, but I’m able to compile only these certain products for you.

 

 

 

Monochrome Madness 32

This time I picked another photo from Havana for Leanne Cole’s Monochrome Madness.

This black and creme-colored car was polished for shiny luster. Thus it got my attentions. It was parked in a row, right next to the Capitol, waiting for passengers.

I liked the shape and the reflections in the flood light showing the theater and the reflection of a passing by car in the wing.

Because of the color of the car, I converted the photo to monochrome and the warmth of the sepia tone, in combination with the reduced look reached by the bleaching of the lighter tones by remaining the shape of a car makes this photo to be something special for me.

Take care!