Sussex Symphony Orchestra at St Bartholomew's Church, Brighton

On Saturday evening I had the pleasure of witnessing a stunning performance of Verdi's Requiem Mass by the Sussex Symphony Orchestra and the Sussex Chorus conducted by Mark Andrew-James.

I was lucky enough to present as part of a long term project documenting activities in around the church and inner city Brighton parish. St Bartholomew's church has to be one of the most spectacular churches in England and as one person said last week, it's on a par with some cathedrals. Put a choir and orchestra in St Bart's and you've the makings of a great evening.

The above frame was shot from the organ gallery with a Canon 5D MkII and 24 - 105 mm f4 IS L Series lens, securely fixed to a Manfrotto tripod. During the perfomance I was allowed to capture frames from the side lines providing I didn't use flash, which in any case would provide a distraction and be useless at some of the shooting distances unless I set up remotely fired units, for which there was no time. Um, lighting the above shot with flash would be a challenge!

Personally, I prefer to work with the available light where possible and remain invisible.

This shot of mezzo soprano Yvonne Howard was captured handheld with Canon 5D MkII and 24 - 105 mm f4 IS L Series lens at 1/13th of a second at an aperture of f5, focal length 105 mm the image stabilisher switched on and my back braced against a wall! Flash here would not be appropriate and totally distract form the performance and performer. I could have used a monopod to support the camera, but left it in the car - idiot!

The colour balance for these frames was set to tungsten which was appropriate considering the lighting set up. For me, the both the RAW & JPEG files were a bit on the cool side, so I added some red & yellow for a tad more warmth.

I'll be posting more images as the project progresses, so watch this space.

TTFN

Ian

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