El Morro Lighthouse ~ Havana, Cuba…

This week I’ll be posting photos of Cuba here on my blog, and on Google+. Cuba is a fascinating and beautiful place, wonderful people, food and the best music ever.  Imagine enjoying a mojito at the Hotel Nacionale de Cuba with a spectacular view of the Malecón, Cuba’s waterfront! (Pictured opposite the lighthouse, along the Havana skyline). To take this photo, I narrowed the aperture, stopping down to f/16 to create the starburst with the sun. A texture layer was applied from Flypaper Textures, to give the sky area for more depth and definition. White balance can give you a little creative edge with color interpretation. For the photo above, the white balance was set at 10000K. A little later, I shot the same scene during twilight, using an FL-W filter (magenta) and white balance of 5000K.  I enjoy shooting at sunset, but I like how magical the light can be during the blue hour! The photo was shot with a Nikon D3s, Nikkor 28-300mm lens, and a Feisol CT-3442 tripod.