Cantonese Opera Again!

After running all my Cantonese opera shots through Lightroom ( which is a total Godsend, I can't believe it's taken me this long to get involved in it) I've found that I have quite a few that I really like. Stage lighting helps, but I think the thing that contributed most to the final look of the day was my new Nikon D300.

This camera rocks, seriously. Much better in low light than my old Nikon D50, which couldn't go above ISO 800 in most situations, and which didn't have the megapixel depth for much cropping and post-processing.

You can clearly see a differnence between these two cameras, if they are used side by side under the same conditions.

Here are more of the shots, and I have to point out that these were taken during a performance of a very famous opera company, with no flash allowed and very tight angles (I had to duck down at the fornt of the stage and not bother anyone who was trying to appreciate the show).

Enjoy!

Cantonese Opera at Tai Ping Festival in Hong Kong

I went up to Lam Tsuen in Tai Po (Hong Kong) over the weekend, to a once-in-ten-year festival that they were having up there. Crowded as all hell, but that's part of deal here in Hong Kong. It's even part of the criteria for judging whether an event is enjoyable: it needs to be "hot" and "noisy" to be good, or in Cantonese " Yi-Lau". It was both of those, and very good spirited and relaxed as well. I wish I could find more events like that here.

It was really my first time to see a full Cantonese Opera show live, and it was a spectacle. I was lucky enough to be able to go backstage to see the preparations, and to do this with a very famous opera company: Ming Chee Sing Chinese Opera.

Here are some of the shots that I got from Sunday, and there are a lot more on my Flickr stream: