Paid Portrait – Havana, Cuba

I saw this woman in a brightly colored outfit at Plaza Vieja. Was it traditional? No idea. But it looked different from the typical clothing I saw people wearing. I asked for a portrait.

I had my 24-70mm f/2.8, so I zoomed to the maximum 70mm and set the aperture to f/2.8 to get the shallowest depth of field. I got decent background separation, especially since the buildings were some distance back. As you’ll see soon enough, this portrait is quite different from the ones I made later with the models.

As a fellow photographer and I learned, that she was catering to tourists. We ended up paying for the portrait. Not a big deal, I gave her a few bucks, maybe $5. However, it was good money for her. She earned $10 for a few minutes’ worth of work. Just for context, a regular doctor in Cuba gets paid about $40 per month, so $10 is a tidy sum.

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