a Thousand Hands

A modern dance with traditional smell. A squad of fire-fighters turned dancers. And a little luck with lighting. That’s what this is all about.

My old 430EZ speedlite flash is not 100% compatible with my 7D. It still correspond automatically with the change in my 24-105mm lens, but will only fire full power. Lucky again, we are in digital era. I was lazy last night to do manual calculation using distance, guide number and all, so I fired up a few test shots before the event here in Bintan Resorts, and adjusted my settings manually.

I didn’t swivel my flash head when shooting vertical. There was no ceiling to use as bouncer, and I don’t have any portable bouncer; I relied mainly on the reflection from the spectators as it was tilted 60 degrees up. The use of ISO 640 was necessary to compensate for the I-don’t-know-how-many stops lost, to get enough light with 1/15 seconds exposure; while retaining the shimmering red satin and dark golden skin colour of the dancers, the Chinese New Year theme.

I also zoomed in that much and have to let go a few hands so I can get rid most of the distracting background (see the second picture).