Last evening I again enjoyed one of my favourite annual photography sessions, covering the finals of the New Zealand Aria 2015. Having covered it for the previous 6 years, I can pretty much relax and enjoy it as I have the technical side well sorted. I attend the rehearsals in the afternoon to get a preview for each performance and anticipate where the best moments will be to get a still image so I can limit the number of shots taken during the finals.

Last night’s performance was special as the winner from the first New Zealand Aria that I covered in 2009, Pene Pati, was the guest artist and his brother, Amitai Pati, the eventual winner. If the names seem familiar, the brothers, along with cousin, Moses Mackay, make up Sol3 Mio. The standard of the competition seems to lift every year and it is fantastic to hear such talent locally. For all the photos see the NZ Aria 2015 Gallery.

I have previously used Nikon D700 and D3s bodies but from last year started using the D810 due to it’s remarkably quiet shutter and excellent dynamic range. Using a tripod mounted 70-200 lens, ISO 800, f2.8 gives me 1/250s and a file that retains detail in a white shirt and a dark suit under the light that I can batch process out of Lightroom very efficiently.