Las Bellas de Cuba

Last Year I took a trip with a few friends to Cuba, a place I've always been interested in going.

The visit was quite exciting. We visited the capital Havana, a grungy and antiquated, but beautiful city.

Quite noted was the beautiful people we met on a daily basis.  However it would have been remiss of us, if we left the country without photographing some of the beauty seen. 

The hair,  makeup and all was done by the very talented Dexter Pottinger and we were readily assisted by some local and newly acquainted friends.  

A very interesting thing happend the morning of the shoot. I realized that I didn't pack my fold-out reflectors and because of the time of day (around 10:00am) it would not have been possible to avoid the undesired and unflattering shadows that would fall on the models' faces. What a blunder!

A part of what makes a photographer is his ability to form solutions from unexpected variables. So, what did I do? Well most would guess foil paper wrapped over a board, but there was a problem. I asked around and the response was that they haven't seen foil paper in years! So it was down to Plan B. I remembered the old mirror in the room I was staying and knew right away that it would solve my shadow problem.  As you can see, it worked out perfectly.  

The unexpected!  Who would have thought that my reflector was replaced by a 60 year-old mirror! 

Disfrutas! 

Makeup and Hair : Dexter Pottinger 

Models: Maria & Correo

An Exciting Adventure In Downtown Kingston

Michael McWeeney

www.mmpnyc.com

Michael is a New York based photojournalist and videographer, specializing in travel, documentary and corporate photography. His photos tell powerful stories of people, illustrate vibrant experiences of places and capture the moments that define life.

He has covered assignments ranging from NASCAR in the Midwest to a murder investigation in Panama. Other projects have taken him to Amsterdam, Paris, Prague, Key West, Jamaica and Chile.

                                                                                                                

I was introduced to Michael through Nichole Allen because we all shared that similar bond of photography. Michael's experiences over the many years of doing photography has provided him a wealth of knowledge that he was more than willing to impart to the rest of us, so through Michael we hatched an Idea to group up and shoot anything of interest for a day. The original plan was to go to the parish of Portland but constraints in his time only allowed us to hang out for one evening so it was decided that downtown would be the place to go, hence the images in this post. 

Michael's trip to Jamaica was mainly to be the photographer for a friends wedding and he brought an arsenal of gears, but the camera I will be mentioning is the one used to shoot his images on our adventure downtown, the Leica M9 an amazing camera for an amazing photographer. 

Nichole Allen

Nichole is one of the most talented creative director I know who works at Waterworks advertising. Her artistic talent ranges from design and layout to concept development, direction and photography. Her love for photography cannot be questioned as over the years she has owned her craft by practicing various photographic style and equipping herself with quality gears, It still surprises  me that Nicole has more photo gear and lenses than I do and I'm a full time photographer. 

Her images were captured with the Fujifilm X100 a nimble and powerful camera. Try to see the story she presents especially in the image directly below with Scotiabank, I find it quite paradoxical and it gives you a glimpse into to the mind of this brilliant woman. 

Marvin Bartley


My images were shot with my canon t3i. Its So exciting that we all saw the same subjects in our own special way and thats one of the beauty of photography that makes me love it so much. We went down the same streets at the same time but the results were quite different.  

Chevonese Fender 

chevonesefender.blogspot.com

Chevonese is familiar to most of you who are in tune with my blog because shes been my model on multiple occassions. Her entusiasm for photography is one to be envied, her interest on the adventure Downtown reminded me of that pure and unbridled excitement that I had when I just started. She took loads of images not always caring about the technical components (an hinderance to experimentation), which worked in a very interesting way for her. Chevonese for me was able to take images that encouraged the viewers to step into her journey, this is somewhat expected because she's a writer. The best part of all of this was that her images were captured with a point and shoot camera, the Sony DSC-WX9.

How to get your models to loosen up for some fun photos

How do I get everyone to loosen up and just have fun for the camera? 

Well, for me, it is as simple as starting with myself; because if you notice I'm a part of the craze. I strongly believe that a photographer's energy affects the outcome of his or her images. What you give to your models is what you get. If you want fun photos then just have fun yourself while doing the shoot. 

I took it a bit further and became one of the models which made it much easier for my friends to loosen up. That may not be your thing, but it doesn't hurt to loosen up and be crazy behind the camera. 

Also try doing these kind of photos with your friends first, as I did. Your friends are more likely to act or be crazy for you. 

Hope you like. 

Crazy Models:  In order of appearance
Chevonese Fender
Zjadaine Barnes
(Yours Truly) Marvin Bartley
Samantha Sergeant
KerryAnn Fender