Our first restaurant in Havana, Cuba was this Paladar - in-home restaurants Mostly family-run businesses, paladares are fundamentally directed to serve as a counterpart to state-run restaurants for tourists seeking a more vivid interaction with Cuban reality, and looking for homemade Cuban food.
Privately owned small restaurants have always existed in Cuba. Until the 1990s they were illegal, but the fall of the USSR and consequent economic crisis in Cuba forced the government to make the economic reforms of 1993. One of the items in those reforms was the legalization of privately owned small businesses as restaurants.
The models that emerge are quite diverse, ranging from the typical business set up in a family home, up to more elaborated variations including different types of cuisine in rooms specially designed or modified for the activity. Similarly, while most retailers offer Cuban food, and Italian food, which is very popular in Cuba, others have produced more ambitious projects combining local cuisine with Mediterranean and international elements.
The composition of the staff has also changed, moving from a model in which they were composed mainly of people united by family ties with a low level of professional training to teams that integrate professional chefs, often with long experience in gastronomy with other specialties such as marketing, accounting, public relations, legal advice and more.
Our group of 12 was usually the only patrons at each Paladar. Great food and service every stop.
I really like this photo I took last night at a travelling tivoli. I have been having some problems processing it however. Not sure I am happy with the colors. WB seems off no matter what I do, with how I saw the scene when I took the photo. Tempted to do B/W just to save myself the headache, but I like all the colors.
The first one was shot at ISO 1250, 1/40, F4, exposure brought up by +0.48 in Lightroom, the second one was at ISO 1600, 1/80, F8, exposure brought up by +1 in Lightroom. Both were shot with the A7RII. I am surprised they appear so noisy even after quite a bit of noise reduction. I know my processing skill is a 2 on a scale of 10.
Looking across Heart Lake (Lake owned by the Adirondack Mountain Club)
Tripod mounted Leica R 180mm f3.4 Apo Telyt lens and A7r
ISO 200, probably f11, 1/250 second
Exposure corrected by +0.24 Stops; processed in LR6
October 1, 2015
At Heart Lake, Adirondack Mountains, Lake Placid, NY
Happily, the entire focusing range looks "clean", without any objectionable aberrations for my purposes. I'm very impressed with the color rendition of all shots.
Captured with my "bokeh machine" aka Sony 135mm f/1.8 at f/2 via LA-EA4. Not the lightest nor the most compact option out there but I really love the result. A tad noisy in the AF department with limited AF points as it is controlled by the LA-EA4 but still, optically it is seriously top notch, IMHO. Anxiously waiting for a native FE or Batis 135mm f/2.0 .
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