I was asked to document a Cantonese Opera which was held at RNCM by a London amateur Cantonese Opera society. (I can't find any information of this society on the internet. I understand that because almost no teenagers are interested in this type of opera today so no one helping them to manage a website is reasonable.) Except the amateur actors and actresses from England and Holland, the famous professional Cantonese Opera actress in Hong Kong, Man Kim Faye 文劍斐 (Sorry, I can't find her official English name) was also invited to join this performance.
The person who asked me to do this job was a voluntary teacher from North West Chinese Art Centre. He have thought my photographic skills are good so he asked me to document the event for his friends who managed it.
I used my Canon 5D Mark II with the 70-200 f4L lens to take most of the shots. I was afraid of the lens would not be long enough but fortunately, I got a seat at first row. The zoom lens was able to give me some long shot to medium close up shot. Although I had mounted my camera on a tripod, I still had to use ISO 1600 to increase the shutter speed to 1/160-1/200s to freeze the actors and actresses' movement. The photos don't look bad under the 5D Mark II's excellent high ISO performance. I had taken more than 400 images in large size RAW files. It took me a long time to edit them. Hope the members of the society will be happy with the photos.
Man Kim Faye is a female but she always acts as a male character.
This was my first time to watch a Cantonese Opera. I thought that was going to be boring, but it was surprisingly funny. Hong Kong people should really treasure this unique Cantonese culture.
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