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Frozen

Many people describe Cuba as a country frozen in time. This is evident by the large number of vintage vehicles on the roads, many in pristine condition. I had the chance to chat with some of the owners about their vehicles. Each of them very proud of their prize possession. I was curious how they were able to get parts. They informed me that some of the parts are brought in by family members traveling from the U.S, others through black market dealers, but most parts are a result of resourceful craftsmanship. In many cases parts are fabricated locally or refurbished from old parts. The embargo certainly has made sourcing replacement parts very difficult.

The license plate color in Cuba is used to categorize the type of vehicle. Yellow is reserved for private vehicles, white for government VIPs and blue for state-owned vehicles. The letters on the plate indicate the province. An interesting fact is that any citizen can stop any vehicle with a blue plate and fetch a ride. In the case of this 1951 Chevrolet, the license plates denotes a private car, the number 3 at the bottom indicates the vehicle type and the letter “M” indicates that it’s from Matanzas province.

Cuban Chevrolet
Cuban Chevrolet

This image was taken with my SONY NEX-6 using my E PZ 16-50mm F3.5-5.6 OSS set on 18 mm. The camera was set on Aperture Priority mode with the aperture set at f/7.1, shutter speed at 1/100 and ISO at 100. This image was created from a single image processed in Lightroom. Please use the section below to post your comments, questions or suggestions.

T Kahler Signature

© 2015 T. Kahler Photography

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