Cuba No Colour – With The Leica Monochrom

[one iota]

I’d like to thank Nick Devlin for his thoughtful and thought provoking article on Cuba.

I visited in January of this year and during the two weeks that I was there I encountered much of what he describes.

Cuba is like ice cream: it’s all delicious and comes in many flavours, Havana being just one. I would urge visitors to see more. In addition to Havana we went to Santiago de Cuba, Camaguey, Trinidad and Cienfuegos and each place and in between challenged our preconceptions. Consistently though, the Cubans we met were warm, gentle and seemed genuinely happy to host us. I guess they’ve learned through adversity and don’t “sweat over the small stuff”.

I take my hat off to Nick’s photographic restraint and his courage in restricting his medium to monochrome. That Leica sure delivers lovely images in his hands. Cuba’s colour is what makes it not look like an iron curtain country so to deliver a statement about its vitality in black and white is admirable and inspiring: so much so that I have revisited my collection and chose a couple that respond well to black and white. Not a patch on Nick's though: https://www.flickr.com/photos/mahnengland/sets/72157648323188503/

I left my DSLRs and lenses at home and used a Lumix LX100. That for me was the best thing I could have done. It was disturbing for me to see tourists “prowling” the streets like big game hunters with DSLR’s and telephoto lenses. Maybe the Cubans are used to it.

I hope that the Cubans can maintain their dignity and humility through what will be interesting and hopefully less constrained times for them.

[David Watson]

I too was impressed with Nick's courage.  It is a colourful country and begs to be photographed that way.  Having said that Nick's images are fresh and lend a new perspective in my opinion.

I visited Cuba in March 2013 but I have to say that I did not see one single person with an DSLR and a zoom lens prowling the streets of Havana or Trinidad.  I went because I missed Berlin before the fall of the wall and I was determined to see Cuba before the aforesaid big DSLR hunters descended in droves. 

It was great, I loved the friendly people and their music and, given the warm sunny climate, couldn't see that their lack of material possessions was preventing them from being happy.  Our guide said to me "when everyone has nothing - what is there to worry about - laugh and be happy".  Says something about Western style materialism.

Having said that everyone I photographed (with my Nikon and one 35mm lens) accepted a convertible peso or two in return for my taking a photograph - I thought it was polite (on advice) and not patronising to do that.

Pretty soon they will have their own passports and DSLRs and will be visiting the decadent west  (particularly Hermes in Paris, Bond St in London, The Met, Courcheval 1850 etc. etc).  Shame as what they need is better food, roofs that don't leak and a little bit of freedom.  Instead they will exchange poor happiness for rich misery.

Sorry for the attitude but I really liked Cuba and the Cubans as they are.

[S@W]

Sensational images, bravo !!

[b_rubenstein]

I just returned from Peter's workshop in Cuba this past Friday. It was an amazing experience. Right now, Cuba seems to be the place to photograph. Our group had 13 photographers and 3 companions. There were 3 full time and 2 part time working photographers. I heard from someone in our group that there were 8 people on the waiting list if anyone canceled.

Some comments on the workshop -
What I figured out after the first review session, where Peter critiques everyone's work, is that Peter conducts workshops on doing photojournalism. He is not trying to improve the type of photography someone may typically do. It is making pictures of people, in a context/environment that is visually and emotionally compelling. If you take a picture of a car, the car is part of the context, but at least one person should be a key element. Equipment is about as simple as it gets: a camera with controls that you know how to work and 35mm FOV lens. If all you have is a zoom, he will suggest taping the zoom to fix it to one focal length. This is HCB f8 and be there photography. He wants to see faces and eyes. When framing a picture it is critical to not cut off parts of the main subjects/elements like fingers, feet, elbows, etc. Framing should be loose enough to show the environment, but not so far as to lose contact with the subjects.
Peter plans out places to go and events to see and photograph. A bus is used for this. There is a guide on the bus that gives a very good narrative on what we pass and its history. Peter uses 2 excellent local photographers to act as guides for when the group breaks into smaller groups. For this trip, Peter was trying to get a few more images for a book on Cuba that will come out in November. If one wanted to see how Peter worked, they could tag along with him, but he wasn't paying much attention to anything other than his photography. Pretty much, no one was watching us photograph and stepping in to makes suggestions, or give hints. The education part comes in the reviews. There are a number of pictures in my Flickr album that I like, but wouldn't submit for review, because they weren't what Peter was looking for. The days can be long, the photography is intense and you will get out as much from the workshop as you put into it.

Gear notes (this is a internet photography forum) -
I think only 5 people had DSLRs, 3 people had Leicas, 3 of us had Olympus OM-Ds, several people had Fujis XT-1s, one person had a Sony RX1 and there were a couple of other cameras. 3 or 4 people had Panasonic LX100s as second/walk around cameras. FWIW, Peter used a Leica and some Nikon pro FX body with a 24-70/2.8 zoom. Cuba can be really hot and muggy. No one was carrying around large camera bags stuffed with gear, because the size and weight is just a liability. I used a the small Mirrorless Mover 20 bag with generally an E-M1, 12-40/2.8, 17/1.8 and sometimes a 3rd lens, and it worked very well.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/b_rubenstein/sets/72157649998736993/

[Internaut]

Wonderful article and photos.  Seeing the increased coverage of the Monochrom, of late, has me wondering if one of the other players will produce a monochrome camera of their own.  Unlikely, I know, but Leica's offering is, well, a Leica, and a rangefinder to boot.  By the time I first had a play with one of these, I quickly realised composing through the lens is just too ingrained.

[Manoli]

Thanks to Nick Devlin for the article, but am curious as to whether these were taken with the old Monochrom or a pre-production version of the new one. If the latter, any thoughts and comments on the differences ?

[thwalker]

Nick--great shots.  One question on your discussion of processing for the MM files.  Do you end up sharpening in LR after processing in SEP2?  If so, any negative impacts with regard to the grain you applied in Silver Efex?  Anyone else have thoughts on the sharpening workflow when using SEP2?

[Paulo Bizarro]

Nice article and top photos.

[ndevlin]

Thanks to Nick Devlin for the article, but am curious as to whether these were taken with the old Monochrom or a pre-production version of the new one. If the latter, any thoughts and comments on the differences ?

Just the pedestrian old MM 

I'd love to try the new one.....Leica are you listening??

- N.

[ndevlin]

Nick--great shots.  One question on your discussion of processing for the MM files.  Do you end up sharpening in LR after processing in SEP2?  If so, any negative impacts with regard to the grain you applied in Silver Efex?  Anyone else have thoughts on the sharpening workflow when using SEP2?

I've been experimenting with different approaches to this.  The 'Structure' control in SFX is very powerful, so I tend to go light on the gas for sharpening/clarity after that.  The MM is already so sharp out of camera, that not much is needed.  That said, I do apply final sharpening in LR.  However, I mask very heavily, so there is no impact in most textureless areas where the grain effect would be most obvious. I have seen no ill effects related to that process, but one does have to be careful.

- N.