The embargo halted the import of American cars into Cuba and so, for the last fifty plus years, the Cubans have learned to creatively keep their cars running one way or another…
Some seem to be held together with Bondo and a prayer…
And others are pristine, a dream car in any collection…
These cars are a national treasure to Cuba and can be found on any street with many and varied backgrounds…
And we hit many a side street in search of just the right car/background combination to aim our lenses at…
My creative juices were flowing with anticipation of finishing these images to emphasize their colorful existence. I found great pleasure in simply parking myself along the Malecon and working the cars, motorcycles and CoCo Taxis that passed by on their way to work…
I set my ISO to 200 and adjusted my aperture with a shutter speed of around 1/15 in mind to blur the background while panning with the moving vehicles. (Similar to Tech Tuesday BLur Motion recently only this time I am moving the camera with the auto keeping it sharp while blurring the background into streaks)…
CoCo Taxis are an inexpensive way to get around the city when your body gets tired of walking (I’m told we walked 8 miles the first day and between 3-5 miles every other day)…
The textured, crumbling buildings made great backdrops for the colorful autos. Using NIK Silver Efex Pro 2.0 and Color Efex 4.0 I emphasized these charachteristics in each image…
It was fun using whatever creative license I felt appropriate and each image has it’s own, unique look…
We even hired a couple of classic convertibles for a tour of the city…
Our drivers graciously parked at our request for one last photo opp…
Last year we hired an Edsel, this year it was a Belair…
Next year I’m looking for a Cadillac. Stay tuned.
These are wonderful, Laurie
I’m so jealous!!! Maybe one day I will make it down there 
Thanks Michael, I’d say go sooner rather than later.
Really like photo #4 & the last one catches an interesting view in the mirror, wonder who it could be?
Thanks Dave, I call it self portrait, Cuba!
So cool! Love these.
Thanks Jane!
Great shots Laurie. I remember riding in cars like that when I was a kid. That means they’ve been around for alot of years. I’m an OLD man now. Keep up the good work. I love the panning shots.
Rex
It’s so cool to seem them everywhere you turned. I love the old cars.
Love these old car photos. Awesome.
Thanks Bob, I love em too!
I really love the HDR popping the colour cars these really have that wow factor
Thanks Sue, That’s the look I was after! Glad you like em.
These are really great.. the motion is simply fantastic!
Love these ! Excellently done!