DESCRIPTION

2019 CUBA | April 6th, 2019 - April 16th, 2019.

Update: The 2019 Cuba trip was amazing! If you're interested in joining us on a future Cuba trip, or another one of our International tours let us know via our contact form. 

We are very excited to announce our upcoming Workshops With Purpose in Cuba next April. We will be leading a group of experienced photographers to donate our skills to the international charitable organization, Forward Edge, who work to transform the lives of vulnerable children and disaster victims. Our workshops combine photography education, logistical guidance, service work, and cultural experiences.

For each Workshops With Purpose trip, we carefully choose a different organization to work with based on their mission and our experience with them, if any. The organization is not selected based on any religious affiliation, although they MAY have a religious foundation. We select organizations that provide charitable services to ALL people, regardless of religious belief, race, or gender. Likewise, attendees are not expected to align with any religious belief. We welcome anyone who simply wants to do good in the world with their creative talents.

We ask that you come with an open mind. Our work may require us to document the work being done by a religious organization, possibly in a religious setting. Our mission is to respect, document, and help where needed -- even if we don’t completely align. Will this work for you? If so, read on! Entry in to Cuba from the US is restricted for general tourist travel. Since we are working with a religious organization, they will be able to host us with a religious visa. This is what we’ll be applying for. This does not mean you are going as an evangelist :-)

Click the next tab to see our project goals.

PROJECT GOALS

WWP will be working with Forward Edge who has a presence in Cuba. Forward Edge focuses primarily on supporting church-run children's programs which provide children with regular nutritious meals, educational tutoring, and spiritual discipleship. They spearhead building relationships with local pastors and churches ministering to children, families, and communities throughout Santiago de Cuba.

Your workshop leaders will be Kevin Kubota, and Benjamin Edwards, who have led numerous other workshops and have extensive international travel experience. They will provide education and coaching in the logistics of doing international charitable work, ethical storytelling, photography workflow, and photographic capture and lighting techniques for documentary and portrait work. Representatives from Forward Edge will also be coordinating and leading our group while in Cuba.

What will we be doing? Good question! We offer our skills in whatever way is most needed and helpful to the organization and the people we encounter. Forward Edge will have specific projects for us to photograph, which could include: documenting the community programs they sponsor, portraits of their staff, portraits of the local children and families, general use images for their marketing needs, in-house staff training on photography, creating outreach video or promotional pieces. We donate our services free of charge, and without licensing restrictions.

REQUIREMENTS

What’s required of me? Photographic experience and proficiency with a DSLR or mirrorless digital camera and the ability to edit and submit digital files ready for publication.

OPTIONS

The main program will cover 11 days. Five days working with Forward Edge International and 6 days touring the areas around Santiago, Trinidad, Havana, and Vinales. You have the option of ending your experience on day 8 in Trinidad and not visiting Havana and Vinales. Our 11-day program will INCLUDE team building, cultural experiences, classroom time, as well as the actual photographic/video project work for Forward Edge International. All in-country transportation, meals, accommodations, cultural experiences, and education is included in the workshop cost. We believe that our openness to cultural experience and education is equally important to the donation of our services to the efforts of Forward Edge. We do good in the world by appreciating other cultures, finding commonality, and developing deep compassion.

OPTION 1
Full program experience, 11 days, $4750. It includes:

• Travel to Santiago, Trinidad, Havana, and Vinales. This includes round trip airfare to Cuba from Miami.
• All accommodations, meals, transport, guides, programming, entry fees, visas, required health insurance, and photo instruction.
• It does not cover airfare to Miami.

OPTION 2
8-day Workshop experience: $4200. It includes:

• Travel to Santiago and Trinidad. This includes round trip airfare to Cuba from Miami.
• All accommodations, meals, transport, guides, programming, entry fees, visas, required health insurance, and photo instruction.
• It does not cover airfare to Miami.

OPTION 3
5-day Workshop experience: $3250. It includes:

• Airfare to Holguin airport in Santiago Cuba. This includes round trip airfare to Cuba from Miami.
• 5-days working with the Forward Edge International team
• All accommodations, meals, transport, guides, programming, entry fees, visas, required health insurance, and photo instruction.
• It does not cover airfare to Miami.

A non-refundable deposit of $1000 is due December 31st, 2018. Why is this non-refundable? We have a strict limit of 8 participants and a deadline of Jan. 1, 2019 to apply for our visas. If somebody decided to drop out, we will not be able to refill that vacancy and risk losing money on our empty spot and the deposits we've paid to organize the workshop. Make sense?

INSPIRATION

Benjamin Edwards' original video that moved Kevin Kubota to action...

The following is a video with highlights from our recent trip to Bolivia. What an amazing experience!

INSTRUCTORS

Kevin Kubota is a photographer, educator, and author with photographic roots reaching over 30 years deep. He has been featured in American Photo magazine as one of the "Top 10 Wedding Photographers in the World", and was named one of Nikon’s first "Legends Behind the Lens". He was awarded the Monte Zucker Humanitarian Award, and he is recognized as one of the "Most Influential People" by Shutter Magazine. His passion for educating photographers inspired KubotaImageTools.com, a resource for software, training, and creative hands-on workshops.

In 2013, Kevin partnered with fellow photographer, Benjamin Edwards, to launch Workshops With Purpose, leading other photographers on international charitable photography based endeavors.

Benjamin Edwards is a wedding, portrait, and humanitarian photographer based out of Bend, Oregon.

Whether documenting a bride’s perfect day, the dangers of female genital mutilation in Uganda, or the crisis in the Congo, Benjamin relies on his Faith, caffeine and love of his craft to ensure the image is captured.

Benjamin was featured in Photo District News magazine in Sept. 2009 as a “Photographer Making A Difference,” and won a Hollywood Film Festival award in 2009 for a short film he directed to raise awareness calling for the halt to conflict mining in the DRC.

In May of 2011, Benjamin was featured on Framed, an inspirational and educational web based series for photographers. The episode revolved around Benjamin’s passions, fears and hope for his photography.

More recently, Benjamin has written the third edition of Nikon: Creative Lighting System Digital Field Guide for Wiley Publishing. Benjamin co-founded Workshops With Purpose, a workshop dedicated to teaching storytellers how to story-tell in an ethical way for NGO’s. Benjamin has also launched his own domestic workshops series, Story + Light.

PHOTOS, VIDEOS, & ARTICLES

Bolivia Highlight Video

Kenya Highlight Video

Drone Footage of where we'll be going in Thailand

Ben's reflections on WWP Bolivia

Holli's experience at WWP Bolivia

Hadassah's experience at WWP Bolivia

Resource Magazine "Kijabe Project - How 10 Photographers Changed their World"