I have never been to a live stage performance of Kabuki or Noh in Japan, so when the opportunity came up to see a performance here in Canberra at the Australian National University, I thought it would be interesting. I didn't know how much fun it would be! I also got to take the K5iis along, and got a front row seat, right in the middle. The only problem was that they tried to drag me onto the stage to take part in the Awa O-dori demonstration. In traditional Kabuki, all the actors are men. Since the university has a lot of female students, they balance the genders with a twist - the women play the men's roles, and the men play the women's roles! This is the character Sukeroku. The play was called "Sukeroku and the cherry blossoms of Edo".

PS The name of the group "Za Kabuki" reflects the way they have mixed up the genders; the name of Tokyo's famous theatre is "Kabuki Za".

[Liney]

Very evocative shot, the lighting adds to what appears to be a stern expresion to add a sinister touch. The purple of the headband really shows up, great shot well done

[RobG]

Very evocative shot, the lighting adds to what appears to be a stern expresion to add a sinister touch. The purple of the headband really shows up, great shot well done

Thank you! I just checked the EXIF and discovered that at that point I was using the DA 55-300 at 1600 ISO wide open (f4). It's surprisingly sharp under the circumstances - thank you Pentax. This is the best shot of the set so far; I agree that the dark background really adds to the mood. The play was actually a comedy, which you wouldn't guess from this shot!

[Bob Harris]

She's giving you the look Rob, very well captured but a bit scary.

[GeoJerry]

That's a great portrait, rich in color and culture. The lighting is great.

[RobG]

She's giving you the look Rob, very well captured but a bit scary.

Thanks Bob! She's playing the part of a tough samurai, so she's meant to look a bit scary!

That's a great portrait, rich in color and culture. The lighting is great.

Thanks Jerry! It's definitely the best of the lot from last night, although there's also a great shot of Seiya Sawada from his Rakugo performance. This character; Sukeroku, was played by Katherine Zhou, who did extremely well to remember so much dialogue in Japanese! She had by far the most lines.

There's more in the album on Flickr.

[imagecolorist]

Wow! It's awesome .... really very interesting for me. Looks like a creative job.

[Kerrowdown]

She's giving you the look

I often get that kinda look, it's a wonder I'm still living.

Great shot under difficult lighting.

[RobG]

Wow! It's awesome .... really very interesting for me. Looks like a creative job.

Thanks! I was really impressed with the production considering it was an amateur thing. Some of the props were deliberately unconvincing because above all, they wanted people to laugh!

I often get that kinda look, it's a wonder I'm still living.
Great shot under difficult lighting.

Thank you! In this case I was photographing people on stage, so they kind of expected people to be watching. I am just amazed by the quality of the photos at high ISO. I haven't really had the chance to take these sorts of photos with the K5iis before. Somehow, under stage lighting, the noise is lower than when taking photos outside at (or after) sunset. I guess it's the contrast with the black background rather than the muddy light of twilight. Given this sort of result at 1600 ISO, I'll be less worried about using that speed with people on stage. Actually, now I think about it, another setting change which probably helped was to turn expanded sensitivity off.