Kelly Chen 陳慧琳 Love Fighters Concert 08

Kelly Chen held a series of concerts at the Hong Kong Coliseum during June 2008. This concert was special for a few reasons. The Hong Kong Coliseum is due for major renovation soon and it was the last concert held in that venue before it closed down for renovation until it reopens in 2009 after renovation work is finished.

It was also special because Kelly chose to announce her wedding to her long time boyfriend Alex Lau during the last concert on 18th June 2008. If you don’t know Kelly Chen, here’s a short introduction.

Kelly Chen is a Hong Kong Cantopop singer and actress. She is also credited as Chen Huilin, Wai-Lam Chan, Kelly Chan and Wai Lun Chen.

After graduating from Parsons The New School for Design in New York City, USA, she returned to her homeland in Hong Kong to be with her family. Kelly’s talent caught the attention of an agent and soon got her first big break in the film Whatever Will Be, Will Be (仙樂飄飄) in 1995, and was featured as a singer for the soundtrack of the film. Later that year, Kelly released her first Cantonese album, “Dedicated Lover” (醉迷情人). The album was a success in Hong Kong and furthered her acting and musical career. In September 1995, she performed the song “Mou Tian” composed by world renowned composer Steve Barakatt.

In 1997, Kelly performed her first ever concert, “Starry Dream of Love” (星夢情真) and released the partner CD in June. In July, she released “Morning”, another Japanese single and her first Japan-based hit. Kelly also provided the voice of Madame Trunk in the animated movie “A Chinese Ghost Story”. In the course of five months Kelly would release four albums. With the releases of her 2nd Mandarin album, “Insight” (體會), the compilation “Kelly’s Best Collection 97″, the live CD “Starring Dream of Love Live in Concert”, and her next Cantonese CD “A Movie” (一齣戲), Kelly had established herself as a popular singer and actor. source: wikipedia.org

I was lucky to have attended her last concert 18th June 2008 before her wedding later this year. Besides being a wonderful concert, it was a warm and touching moment when Kelly announced a wedding plans. She did categorically say that she did not plan to retiring after her wedding and that she will still be working.

All shots were taken with Canon EOS 40D. Most shots were taken with Canon EF 300mm f/2.8L IS. It was the first time I have used this lens for concert work. It was an amazing lens and outstanding optical quality. It was not a easy lens to use for concert photography, but the results is certainly worth the effort. I really like th results and I hope you will enjoy it too. I used shutter priority mode and spot metering. It was also the first time I have used auto-ISO mode for concert work and I think it was quite effective. All photos were shot in RAW and converted by Adobe Lihgtroom and then further processed with Adobe Photoshop CS3 before final output.

You can see a full collection of photos at my new gallery at smugmug.com or my gallery at fotki.com.