Photographer Dane Isaac (@dane.isaac) is a commercial, portrait and street photographer who focuses on the usage of light and storytelling. Last year the Alpha Collective member traveled to Cuba for the first time for his brother’s medical school graduation and had the chance to explore the area with his camera. “My younger brother had been in Cuba for seven years studying medicine on a medical school scholarship,” Isaac explains. “I saw him several times when he would come visit our family, but I hadn’t ever made it to Cuba. We made a pact that I would go for his graduation so he wouldn’t have to worry about school and could show me around.” He submitted one of the images from his trip as his Most Meaningful Image Taken In 2022 and we connected with him to learn more about his entire experience, why it was so meaningful to him and his approach to each photograph throughout the journey.

Photo by Dane Isaac. Sony Alpha 7R III. Sony 24-70mm f/2.8 G Master. 1/1600-sec., f/5, ISO 400

See how Dane Isaac of the Alpha Collective went abroad to a place he'd never visited where he made some of his most meaningful images of the year.

Staying Present & Starting With A Documentary Style

“While taking photographs throughout Cuba,” explains Isaac, “I really wanted to sit and understand where this person I grew up with for my first 19 years of life had been doing the past seven years. We've been on separate journeys where I've been in the United States and he's been in Cuba. We both grew up in Grenada, and now have very different contrasting walks of life, especially with American and Cuban history. So we’re in these two foreign countries, but it's shaped our adulthood. I really just wanted to understand him through Cuba and have that bonding experience.”

Isaac traveled to Cuba for one week and while he had his camera with him at all times, he tried to have more of a documentary approach so that he could stay present and enjoy the time with his brother. “I would just let him take me to places that he was passionate about and then really just try to be present in the space, Whether it be his experience with people and the locals he’s come to know or just the different spaces he would frequent. It was cool to go with him and experience the things he had been experiencing, and when I saw something cool I would take a photo. That was really my approach.”

He continues, “I of course got photos of him, but I really wanted to document more of his experience and the places he liked going. I was primarily in Santiago de Cuba, which is at the opposite end of Cuba from Havana. It's a little different, it has the same flavor as Havana, but it’s on a different side of the country. I was only there for a week so I didn’t have too much time to come up with wild content while also enjoying the experience with my brother. So my approach was just built off experiencing the spaces and just flowing with whatever it gave me.”

A Photo Walk Though Cuba – People, Places & Portals

While walking around, Isaac carried his Sony Alpha 7R III and Sony 24-70mm f/2.8 G Master as a versatile option to capture the moments through his experience. “The Alpha 7R III is my main go-to camera for photography, and the Sony 24-70mm f/2.8 G Master is the ultimate travel lens. I don’t need anything beyond this focal length. It’s the ultimate workhorse and I could have it on me at all times.” Keep reading as Isaac takes us on a photo walk through his top 10 images from Cuba.

#1 – “On a night stroll to the waterfront to check out some local food vendors, I noticed this large Cuba statue. It was littered with children climbing in and around the letters. I sat on the floor admiring the bliss and carefree nature they carried. As I sat there I dialed my settings to balance the scene and pointed my camera towards the sign and waited for the right composition as kids ran in front of my lens."

Photo by Dane Isaac. Sony Alpha 7R III. Sony 24-70mm f/2.8 G Master. 1/100-sec., f/3.5, ISO 2500

#2 – “We were exploring one of the towns in Santiago and I took an image of this tourist. As most photographers, we try to be very discreet when we're taking street photography because you don't want people to act necessarily outside of the norm of what they're doing. So he actually caught me taking a photo and didn’t seem very happy. I walked away and made sure not to point my camera in his direction.”

Photo by Dane Isaac. Sony Alpha 7R III. Sony 24-70mm f/2.8 G Master. 1/640-sec., f/3.2, ISO 320

#3 – ”We were walking around and this guy, a street performer, and he was very adamant he wanted us to stop and listen to him because he knew we looked like tourists. He gave us an entire performance, and he allowed me to take a bunch of great portraits of him. He was excellent, and his suit! That's all about the details in his suit – oh my goodness.”

Photo by Dane Isaac. Sony Alpha 7R III. Sony 24-70mm f/2.8 G Master. 1/640-sec., f/3.2, ISO 320

#4 – My initial concept before actually going to Cuba, because like any photographer, I had this project idea I was going to do. I had this concept where I wanted to take street photos all through spaces, so would it be through a window or through a hole in a wall or a hole in a gate. I was really trying to focus on achieving that.”

“This was also the same first day we were exploring and I ran into this guy on his phone and the light just framed his head so perfectly. I also thought I could maybe achieve my concept of shooting through these portals. I was going to call the entire project portals, and that was the only reason I actually even took this photo. The colors were also excellent in this little space, but it was right off the street. He was just sitting down, I guess it's probably his entranceway to wherever he's living. And he was just sitting there, he's using his phone and it's framed perfectly.”

Photo by Dane Isaac. Sony Alpha 7R III. Sony 24-70mm f/2.8 G Master. 1/1000-sec., f/3.2, ISO 320

#5 – “This older man, he was sitting there observing passers by, and he looked like he had so much wisdom on him. He was just there. He was so calm. And it was actually right after I had the experience with the tourist who I had photographed who wasn’t happy, so I went up to him and I asked him, ‘Hey, do you mind me taking a photo of you?’ And he said, ‘Absolutely, no problem.’ I tried to give him some money for his trouble but he didn’t want anything and said we could take photos of him anytime. He was just such a nice, calm, reassuring presence after my experience of someone getting angry with me for potentially taking their photo. He was very humble."

Photo by Dane Isaac. Sony Alpha 7R III. Sony 24-70mm f/2.8 G Master. 1/125-sec., f/3.5, ISO 1600

#6 – “This space was actually in the back of where the guy was performing in photo #3. I think this was the space Castro probably gave one of his speeches and it was in Santiago de Cuba, which is where he was from, so many of the buildings have significance for his life and things he did. Architecturally it was just a marvel. It's one of the buildings that are kept up. The paint is fresh, it's clean, the symmetry within the buildings are great... it was excellent architecture.”

Photo by Dane Isaac. Sony Alpha 7R III. Sony 24-70mm f/2.8 G Master. 1/1600-sec., f/3.2, ISO 320

#7 – “For this image we were going to a hike where we got a truck. We were all sitting in the back of the truck and going through the countryside, and I was just hanging out the truck taking photos of passerbyers. I happened to capture this really cool composition of the boy in the street through one ‘portal.; And then this guy on, I think his mule, just carrying some type of stuff from his farm. You'll see a lot of cool people on the side of the street selling cheese or selling just some stuff they got from the garden.”

Photo by Dane Isaac. Sony Alpha 7R III. Sony 24-70mm f/2.8 G Master. 1/8000-sec., f/4.5, ISO 640

#8 – “Cuba has these scheduled blackouts in certain parts of the country to conserve energy. We were in this spot and there was a restaurant we were trying to go to when the electricity went. So what you're seeing here is a candlelit dinner in the window. It might look like the light above is illuminated, but it's just a light from the table that's shining upward into that light. But the blackouts are why everything is so dark, but everyone was just so unfazed because it's the regular. This was the only light outside of a few light candles that are on the table. You could see the guy in the background probably has a candle lit face.”

“But the entire street was just pitch black. The people that are in the houses, they didn't have any lights. They were just sitting there in the darkness the whole time. And this restaurant just had some candles they had that lit. I thought the frame was really nice, especially with the guy taking a bite within that. And again, I was really trying to go for this entire theme of portals and trying to capture people through framing of some sense, so I was really intrigued by this one as well.”

Photo by Dane Isaac. Sony Alpha 7R III. Sony 24-70mm f/2.8 G Master. 1/80-sec., f/2.8, ISO 10000

#9 – “This was taken early in the morning where our AirBnb was in Havana. I was trying to wake up as early as possible to just walk around the streets for sunrise. And this is the sunrise when the light just started peeking over the building and the shadows were just really excellent and it transformed. The courtyard wasn’t boring before, but it definitely didn’t look this intriguing. I was just going to take this overhead photo of this space, but then this guy walking his two dogs and all the shadows from the trees and this extra person in the background really made it. I really like shadow play and long shadowy stuff. It was a really cool image just to see from above.”

Photo by Dane Isaac. Sony Alpha 7R III. Sony 24-70mm f/2.8 G Master

#10 – And this was probably right after that. So I was walking the streets the last one of Havana just right shortly after sunrise. And this woman just emerged from her dark apartment or building, and she was just taking the first moments of light in through her gated doorway. So as she stepped, if you noticed right behind her, it was very dark. It was obvious she just emerged into the light, which was really cool. And it hit her so well. And again, the theme of me just trying to frame people within these little portals, this was an instant photo for me.

Photo by Dane Isaac. Sony Alpha 7R III. Sony 24-70mm f/2.8 G Master. 1/1600-sec., f/4.5, ISO 800

See more of Dane Isaac’s work on Instagram @dane.isaac and at daneisaac.com.