This Easter we headed off to Cuba for an amazing week. It had been on our bucket list for years but we never got around to it before having kids so this year we decided we were finally brave enough to go long haul with them (we were also desperate to go before Cuba's improving links with the USA change it too much and it loses its unique character). It was ridiculously photogenic so what follows is just small selection of the photos that I took...

*See below for a few details about the holiday as I've had a lot of people asking!

First things first, going to Cuba for a week was a lot cheaper than you might expect. Going long haul is never going to be cheap, but it compared very favourably with European destinations because the prices don't get raised so much during school holidays as it's not such a typical family destination for UK families (though it should be!). You can get direct flights there from Manchester which was a big plus for us as it saved the journey down to Heathrow or Gatwick, and flight time is about 9 hours with a very short coach transfer to the hotels once you land. We went with Thomas Cook but there are plenty of tour operators that go there and there's a huge choice of hotels. We chose ours because it offers family bungalows set a 5 minute walk away from the main hotel complex - it was perfect as it was lovely and quiet and we had a living room to spread out into so the kids could go to bed and we weren't trapped sitting in a dark hotel room while they slept!

​Our hotel was the Sol Palmeras in Varadero. We weren't sure what to expect from Varadero as it's one of the main tourist resorts on the island (which we would normally avoid!), but we were really pleasantly surprised. The hotels are all spread out so once you're in your hotel's grounds you have no idea there are other large hotels quite nearby. The stunning private beach was for hotel guests only and it looked like it was straight out of a holiday brochure - I've never seen colours like it. Almost all of the big hotels are all inclusive which we've never done before, but we couldn't fault it. It made things so easy with the kids and I have to say I would definitely be happy to do all inclusive again! 

We had a couple of day trips out - one to Havana and one in a 4 x 4 jeep safari into the countryside. Havana was easily one of the most stunning cities I've ever visited - the whole place looked like a film set. We were driven there in a vintage American car and shown around all day by a wonderful tour guide. The whole of Cuba is stuck in a bit of a time warp ever since US sanctions were imposed after the Revolution at the end of the 1950s - that's why most of the cars date from that era. The time warp is visible everywhere you go in Cuba but perhaps even more so in Havana. Combine that with it being a World Heritage Site and it definitely makes for a spectacular place to visit. We spent most of our time in Old Havana (which dates back to the 1500s), as well as some of the landmarks from the Revolution. We also requested a trip into a more "normal" suburb to get a taste of real Cuban life and it was incredibly interesting, especially for the kids. It is incredibly safe there and walking around with the kids was a pleasure. I can't recommend it enough!

Our other day trip out in a 4 x 4 convoy was great fun! We (and by "we" I mean my husband as I'm a wuss) drove our own jeep all day (they didn't even check we had a driving licence!) and the kids loved seeing the Cuban countryside. We swam in a flooded cave, had lunch on a farm listening to a Cuban band, and finished the day with a speedboat trip through a mangrove lined river. The kids said it was their favourite day of the whole holiday (even better than the unlimited ice cream by the pool at the hotel which is saying a lot!).

In terms of practicalities, you don't need a visa to visit if you're a UK national - you just fill out a tourist card on the plane which takes 2 minutes and is usually included in the cost of your holiday. You can't get CUC (the Cuban currency used by tourists) outside of Cuba so instead we just took GBP cash and you can easily exchange it at the airport or hotel. Tipping is part of Cuban culture so try to get some small denominations if you can! We all had a few booster jabs before going, though there's nothing compulsory, only recommended. You also don't need anti malarial tablets at all in Cuba which is a bonus and although we took precautions with deet spray we actually didn't see a single mosquito the whole time we were there (but that was partly due to the season). We found Easter to be a great time of year to visit - very pleasant weather in the high 20s, and it's well before hurricane season starts (June - November). 

So I think that covers most aspects of the holiday! It really was amazing and if you fancy a holiday somewhere a bit different then I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it! 

And finally, if you want to view any of the photos individually, here's the full gallery....
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I was recently delighted to be contacted by the lovely people over at SleekLens to say that they love my portrait work and would I mind testing out some of their Lightroom presets on a few of my photos. Of course I was happy to oblige so in exchange for a free set of their "Strike a Pose workflow" Lightroom presets and brushes I agreed to give a completely honest review. I've really enjoyed playing with them so here are my thoughts...

The first thing I noticed was how many presets and brushes are included - it's a lot! I think there are 62 brushes and 69 presets in the pack, all designed to help with portrait workflow. As with any Lightroom presets and brushes they're very easy to install and full instructions were provided with the download so even if you've never done it before it will only take you a couple of minutes.

Once they were installed it was time to get playing! Here are a few before and afters along with my thoughts and which tools I used...

This first image (as with all my "before" shots) is straight out of camera and just converted straight from RAW to jpeg with no adjustments at all...

​Here it is using the SleekLens preset Sunset Portrait 2 as well as the reduce reds in their colour/tint adjustments. I have made no additional adjustments at all but the first thing I noticed was just how much it has made the eyes pop and the sunset portrait preset certainly gives the image some extra warmth. It's perhaps a touch warmer than I would normally edit but if you're aiming for that sunset look then it certainly helps...

​Next up I thought I would try out one of the black and white presets that are included in the pack. Here's the before shot...

​And here it is using the greyscale matte preset, along with the high contrast polish preset. I also added some extra clarity. I really like that although it gives the matte look I was easily able to maintain some depth and I really like how it's turned out ...

Here's the next "before" shot....

​And here it is using the SleekLens hide and seek preset, along with the high contrast and sharpen polish adjustments. I like how this combination has turned out as it has kept the colours very realistic and true to the setting, but it has just given it that extra something that it needed. ​...

​Last but not least I decided to try the presets out on a non human subject to to see how they looked. Here's my before shot...

​And here it is using the base - auto tone preset as well as the high contrast polish preset. As you can see I also cropped the image but the presets definitely helped the image the pop and really brought out those highlights in the background nicely...

So, what do you think to the SleekLens presets? There's lots more included in the pack but those were the ones that really stood out to me and fitted in the closest to my usually editing style.

If you want to find out more about SleekLens, their presets and their editing service then you can find out more here...

https://sleeklens.com/product/strike-a-pose-portrait-workflow/ 
https://sleeklens.com/product/professional-photo-editing-service/
https://sleeklens.com/product-category/lightroom-presets/
​https://www.pinterest.com/sleeklens/lightroom-presets/

First things first - to get a successful star trail photo you'll need some equipment:

* a dslr camera, with manual controls and a fully charged battery
* a sturdy tripod
* a cable shutter release that you can then effectively lock the shutter button down with (you can get these on ebay for about £2)
* a suitable lens, but any will do really. A few considerations come into play here when selecting a lens - composition, aperture, and focal length. The wider the focal length, the slower the stars will appear to move, so to get impressive star trails at 10mm you'd need to spend a lot longer than at 50mm, for example. But 10mm might allow a much more interesting composition, so it's something you'll have to weigh up depending on individual circumstances. And the wider you open your aperture the more light you'll let in - ie the more stars your camera will be able to see (but you'll have a shallower depth of field so you'll need to think carefully about your focus).
* a clear night, preferably with little or no moon (but it can be done if there is a moon - clear nights in England are rare so we can't afford to be too picky!). If the moon is out then you won't want it in your shot though.
* a location as far away from light pollution as possible for best results, but it can be achieved even in cities.
* warm clothes!

The two methods for getting a star trail photo:

1. A single, really long exposure. This is perhaps the simplest way, however with increased length of exposure comes increased noise. You also risk blowing out any highlights that might be in your foreground etc. I tend to avoid this method but have seen some nice examples using it and it can certainly be used to good effect.
2. Using free software to stack a series of 30 second exposures and create your final photo. This is how I do my star trails as it keeps noise down. It's this method that I will detail below.

Getting the shot(s!):

1. Find something interesting to put in your foreground. Make sure it doesn't move or it'll become a blurry mess over the course of the long exposure. The bride and groom above were under strict instructions not to move for the 30 seconds they were in shot.

2. Decide on your composition. You'll want to consider not only what you've chosen for your foreground interest, but also the direction you're facing, as this has a big impact on how the star trails will look. For example, point your camera at the North Star and the stars will appear to move in circles around it while it remains stationary (I am assuming you're in the Northern Hemisphere). Other directions will give different curves but no circles. 

3. Check you're happy with your composition and settings before spending a whole evening committed to them! To do this I do two things. Firstly, I take a single 5 minute exposure at a low ISO so that I can start to see a few star trails forming but the image isn't blown out. This allows me to tell if I've managed to get the position of the north star exactly where I want in the shot (of course if you're not pointing north then you can ignore this tip, although it will still give you an idea for the type of curves your star trails will form). Next, I take a single 30 second exposure at all the settings I think I will be using, to check I can see enough stars. A good starting point to experiment from would be a fairly wide aperture and ISO 400. If you can't see enough stars, either open your aperture wider or raise your ISO. I frequently find I'm using ISO 1000 to get plenty of star trails, but I do live in a light polluted area. 

4. Check your white balance from your test shots and adjust if necessary, but I find that no white balance setting is perfect for this and I frequently end up making changing during post processing to the final image so don't worry too much about which one you choose. Just make sure you don't leave it on auto or the camera may well decide to change it half way through the series of shots. 

5. Camera on manual, set your shutter speed to 30 seconds, and set your camera's shutter mode to continuous burst and attach your shutter release cable. From your experiments above you should now have decided which aperture and ISO works best for your shot. I usually have my aperture as wide open as possible and work my ISO from this depending on how the stars look in my test shot). I always shoot jpeg fine for star trails.

6. Focus. I tend to use hyper focal distances to ensure my whole shot is in sharp focus despite the wide aperture. I usually focus on my foreground object by shining a torch on it and auto-focusing on that spot, then switching it to manual focus whilst it's set on this point. Leave it on manual focus for the rest of the evening so the camera doesn't decide to change it!

7. You're good to go! Lock your shutter release cable button down and have a cup of tea! Stop the shots whenever you decide you're too cold/bored/scared of the dark... I usually find an hour produces nice results, but anything from 30 minutes to 12 hours(!) will produce nice star trails.

8. If you want to, you can also use your first and last shots of the sequence to light up your foreground interest a bit. I do it for both first and last shots and then I can keep whichever I think turned out the best and bin the other one.

9. I also take a couple of dark frames to use in the software for dark frame subtraction. Just take a photo using the same settings at the start of the sequence with your lens cap on, and another at the end of your sequence with your lens cap on. It helps improve the finished result as the software uses this to isolate any hot pixels etc.

Stacking the photos:

I use startrails.exe, which is brilliant freeware designed exactly for this purpose, but it only works on PCs. There's also starstax which works on MAC and PC. And, I haven't used it, but deepskystacker also works for this. All three of these are free to download, and very straightforward to use. You just import all of your photos, including any dark frames into the correct section, and the software does the rest - it really is that easy. They provide various options for blending and automatically filling any gaps etc for you to have a play around with. The whole process takes only a couple of minutes and some even provide you with the option to create a timelapse video of the photos.

I hope this is useful to some of you! And if you discover any great sites to take star trails then please do comment or let me know on my Facebook page as I'm always on the look out for interesting locations!