Since the usual guy was stuck doing the lighting (very well, I might add – if a little high-contrast for my taste!), I was asked to step in and shoot the annual UCOpera during its dress rehearsal last weekend.

Aside from enjoying myself by being able to listen to an opera while I worked, the production itself was fun to shoot. Although being a dress rehearsal there were still a couple of lighting issues (in the wrong place, not bright enough and so on!), there were quite a few scenes involving characters in one part of the stage being watched by characters in another – and with a 70-200mm f/2.8, this gives you a good opportunity to play around with what’s in focus and what’s not. Although this shot here has the main action in focus, I took a couple where this was reversed,  which worked well.

You can see more in this Flickr set – there’s not many, but I think they offer a good selection of what was on offer.