My officemates and I got free tickets to a “Wushu and Chinese Acrobatic Show”. This was held on June 9, in celebration of the 40 years of Philippines-China diplomatic relations. Aside from the opportunity to watch this kind of performance for the first time, this was also my first attempt at using AI Servo. Good thing we learned about the free tickets a week in advance so I had a weekend to practice taking pictures of subjects moving in varying distance from me. So what I did was I went to the ice skating rink in SM Megamall and practiced on the people there.
The bleachers near the rink were a bit crowded that day so I had to squeeze myself in and did not get a very nice spot. Also, one side of the rink was well lit while the other side was not so this affected the exposure. Below are two sample shots.
We arrived early at the venue so there were still many empty seats in front of the stage. This was an advantage especially since I’m only using an 18-135 mm lens, my only lens right now. However, the seats directly facing the stage were reserved for the VIPs and we were on the left side. I thought I’ll just try to take photos from the aisle from time to time. Once seated, I set my camera and checked the exposure. I anticipated fast moving subjects so my shutter speed was set at 1/500 at first and then changed to 1/650 after I noticed some motion blur.
And then the program began after a while. I also took some pictures of the speakers.
The wushu and acrobatic show then followed.
I was not able to take good photos from the aisle by the way since I blocked some of the audience when I stood so I just took photos from my seat.
In these next three photos, I could have used One Shot instead of AI Servo but I decided to stay on the latter because I didn’t want to miss shots and I was not familiar with the sequence of the show.
If you notice, my subjects are usually in the middle of the frame because I’m using center focus point. Again, since I was not familiar with the sequence of the show, I could not move to a different focus point. And from what I’ve researched, you cannot recompose when using AI Servo (comments/corrections are welcome).
After the first part, the Filipino group El Gamma Penumbra performed and many of us transferred to the stairs facing the center of the stage to get a better view. The group performs using silhouette and it is better captured in video than stills so I just skipped this part. But since no one ordered us to go back to our seats, I just stayed there for the remaining parts of the show. Now I could try other angles and take wide shots and it was also easier to take pictures there.
The show finished at around 10:30 PM. And my colleagues and I haven’t had dinner yet and we were so hungry. But I really enjoyed taking photos. One of the difficulties I encountered was the lighting. I know they change lighting very often during performances like this but I think there are some parts of the show where the tech staff missed some of the lights that should have been lit.
The bleachers near the rink were a bit crowded that day so I had to squeeze myself in and did not get a very nice spot. Also, one side of the rink was well lit while the other side was not so this affected the exposure. Below are two sample shots.
We arrived early at the venue so there were still many empty seats in front of the stage. This was an advantage especially since I’m only using an 18-135 mm lens, my only lens right now. However, the seats directly facing the stage were reserved for the VIPs and we were on the left side. I thought I’ll just try to take photos from the aisle from time to time. Once seated, I set my camera and checked the exposure. I anticipated fast moving subjects so my shutter speed was set at 1/500 at first and then changed to 1/650 after I noticed some motion blur.
And then the program began after a while. I also took some pictures of the speakers.
The wushu and acrobatic show then followed.
I was not able to take good photos from the aisle by the way since I blocked some of the audience when I stood so I just took photos from my seat.
In these next three photos, I could have used One Shot instead of AI Servo but I decided to stay on the latter because I didn’t want to miss shots and I was not familiar with the sequence of the show.
If you notice, my subjects are usually in the middle of the frame because I’m using center focus point. Again, since I was not familiar with the sequence of the show, I could not move to a different focus point. And from what I’ve researched, you cannot recompose when using AI Servo (comments/corrections are welcome).
After the first part, the Filipino group El Gamma Penumbra performed and many of us transferred to the stairs facing the center of the stage to get a better view. The group performs using silhouette and it is better captured in video than stills so I just skipped this part. But since no one ordered us to go back to our seats, I just stayed there for the remaining parts of the show. Now I could try other angles and take wide shots and it was also easier to take pictures there.
The show finished at around 10:30 PM. And my colleagues and I haven’t had dinner yet and we were so hungry. But I really enjoyed taking photos. One of the difficulties I encountered was the lighting. I know they change lighting very often during performances like this but I think there are some parts of the show where the tech staff missed some of the lights that should have been lit.
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