Nick listed the areas that he wanted to shoot in Cuba :

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1. Street photography

2. Decaying Spanish colonial architecture

3. Old American Cars

4. Street art – which Cuba has a lot of

Nick gave a running commentary of each of his images explaining what he was after and why he took it. He explained his thought process as to how shots were composed and taken including the use of mono, narrow depth of field to help shape his compositions and the story he wants to tell.

Vinales Valley Farmer Cuba

I asked Nick to explain what he meant by the story told within an image. In my view the 'story' element of an image is subjective and I was eager to understand what story Nick was portraying through his images. Nick kindly explained that he wanted to create a sense of the location for the viewer by capturing authentic images portraying the real Cuba - the sights, the everyday life, the poverty and the history. The story within an image is where the viewer makes up fictional understanding or interpretations of what they see in an image depending on the composition. Street photography and environmental portraiture helped to generate storylines that allow the viewer to conjure up ideas of what is happening in the fragment of time captured in Nick’s images.

His presentation provides any ‘want a be’ travel ‘tog’ a blueprint of what to be on the lookout for in order to grab photographic opportunities as they appear when walking around an interesting location. Nick suggests :

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1. Make use of camera functions – using in-camera HDR to assist with low light shots

2. Depending on where you are in the world, look for bright or muted colours. The houses in Cuba are painted in vibrant colours providing good opportunities for still life shots.

3. Silhouetted landscape shots with the atmosphere created by the early morning mist

4. Sunsets/sunrise enhance the landscape creating amazing light available light on all subjects

5. Looking for foreground interest in the landscape

6. Looking out for reflections to include into your images

7. Looking for opportunities of juxtapositions with decaying buildings and poverty of the people, art, artwork depicting the communist history

8. Simple compositions using local ironwork set against the colourful backdrop of a local house

9. Environmental portraits – people selling wares to tourists, others going about their business, street art with human subjects in

10. Wandering dogs set against a backdrop of colonial Spanish architecture

After home-made tea and biscuits, Nick continued with part two of his presentation. This was another Photo holiday with a different company to the Shetland Islands. Nick went there with the intention to photograph seascapes and natural history. Nick followed the same format introducing the Islands with a brief history and a map of where he stayed and travelled. He explained, through his images, the wonderful wildlife and natural history that was available to photograph, from a decent variety of birdlife displaying a number of rituals to mammals and plant life.