Despite its proximity, the Communist island nation of Cuba has been one of the last unreachable destinations for travelers from the United States. But recently relaxed regulations have prompted more and more curious Americans to make the short journey. Visitors like local hobbyist photographer Renee Pierce have taken it a step further, capturing images of Cuba through a well-timed lens and sharing them with the world.

“I loved the idea of going to a place that hadn’t been opened to anybody else,” Pierce says in the June issue of inRegister. “It was a pure place.”

On the trip arranged by renowned photographer Steve Simon and Cuban photographer and travel guide Juan Carlos Ocana, Pierce and her group snapped photos at the Cuban National Ballet School, an outdoor boxing club, downtown Havana and the Cuban countryside, the same sights an LSU study-abroad group—led by LSU professor Devyn Spence Benson, who has traveled there more than 20 times—might see this summer.

“You have to get outside the capital to understand the country,” Benson says.

To see more photos and learn more about opportunities to travel in Cuba, check out our article in the June issue of inRegister, available on newsstands now.