The Kecak Dance, also known as the Ramayana Monkey Chant, is a traditional Balinese performance that reenacts a battle scene from the Ramayana. In this story, the monkey Vanara assists Prince Rama in his fight against the evil King Ravana. The performance features around 50 or more male dancers who wave their hands and chant “chak,” symbolizing fire.
Capturing this moment was quite challenging. I used my Canon 5D Mark II with a 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II lens. The image stabilization was crucial as it got very dark after sunset, requiring me to slow down the shutter speed slightly. You might notice some motion blur. Fortunately, I had a prime spot in the front row and took bursts of shots whenever something interesting happened. This situation highlighted the limitations of the 5D Mark II compared to the 7D or 5D Mark III, particularly in burst speed and autofocus. Despite these challenges, I managed to get some good shots, so there’s no immediate need to upgrade my camera.
For post-processing, I used a few of my presets in Lightroom and applied final sharpening in Photoshop.
