November 23, 2007 - Hawaii’s Karl Noa kisses the WAC trophy on the field after Hawaii’s win over Boise State at Aloha Stadium. Hawaii clinched the WAC title with the win. Exposure details: Canon EOS 20D, EF-S 10-22mm f3.5-4.5mm (at 10mm), Manual, 1/500 sec at f/3.5, ISO 3200, Fluorescent white balance

That UH/Boise State game was wild. One of the best games I’ve been fortunate to shoot.

The hype leading up to the game was epic, and once I got onto the field before the game I knew it was going to be something special. It was like “real football.” The crowd was loud, the action was good, and the place was rocking.

It was nice that the game started early, giving us two hours of nice light on the field. Especially nice, since I always use the 600mm f4 at the games, which is on the dark side (of the moon) during night games.

As usual, Colt was gonna be the dude, so I wanted to try and get something of him reacting to throwing a touchdown. I usually stand in the endzone since the sidelines are so crowded during games. It’s seems every Tom Dick & Harry is on the UH sidelines, and this game was especially bad.

Wonderfully crowded sideline.

I wanted to be on the side towards the UH bench, since I figured Colt would look that way when something happens. Of course the sideline was stuffed with people just standing there. I needed the photo, and the light was nice (good backlight), so I just forced my way up front. Most were understanding, but some gave me some not-nice-looks. Sorry dude, I’m actually working here, not just “enjoying the game.”

November 23, 2007 - Hawaii’s Colt Brennan reacts after throwing the first TD against Boise State in the first quarter. Exposure details: Canon EOS 1-D Mark II, EF 600mm f4, Aperture priority, 1/1300 sec at f/4, ISO 800, Auto white balance

Colt threw the TD and made a small reaction, but it lit my candle. Of course it fueled the fire in the stands, and the place went nuts. It’s way cool to hear Aloha Stadium going insane. It’s been a while since the fans were this fired up.

November 23, 2007 - Hawaii’s Jacob Patek slips by Boise State’s Jeff Cavender after Patek intercepted the ball in the first quarter. Exposure details: Canon EOS 1-D Mark II, EF 600mm f4, Aperture priority, 1/1000 sec at f/4, ISO 320, Auto white balance

While the light was nice at the stadium in the afternoon, there are chunks of shade all over the place. So you never know what any given lighting condition is when the action comes your way. I just threw the camera on Aperture, and let it do the work. I was just shifting the ISO as plays moved down the field. Once less thing to worry about.

November 23, 2007 - Hawaii’s Jason Rivers pulls in a pass over Boise State’s Brandyn Thompson in the first quarter. Exposure details: Canon EOS 1-D Mark II, EF 600mm f4, Aperture priority, 1/1300 sec at f/4, ISO 800, Auto white balance

Of course, all good things must come to an end and in the second half, it was back to the darkness of an evening football game.

November 23, 2007 - Boise State’s Jeremy Childs couldn’t hold on a pass after being hit by Hawaii’s Gerard Lewis in the third quarter. Exposure details: Canon EOS 1-D Mark II, EF 600mm f4, Aperture priority, 1/800 sec at f/4, ISO 3200, Fluorescent white balance

As the game wore on, it was becoming clear that UH was gonna win the game. The tenor had changed from a nail-biter to elation. The crowd was starting to froth.

Then in came the riot police.

Huh?

I was looking at them as they filed in, wondering “what’s this all about?” Giant mace cans, zip-tie handcuffs, Kevlar helmets, shields, rubber bullet shotguns. It was bizarre. Are there hooligans I don’t know about? “They’re there to guard the goal posts,” I heard someone mutter. Darn, I always wanted to see goal posts get torn down. Oh well.

HPD at the ready

With about 3 minutes left, I took off the 600mm and got my wide stuff ready and headed over to the UH bench. During the game, we’re not allowed to shoot in that area, but once the celebration starts, it’s pretty much free game.

November 23, 2007 - Hawaii’s Jacob Patek hoists Myron Newberry as Karl Noa, right, cheers in the closing seconds of Hawaii’s win over Boise State. Exposure details: Canon EOS 20D, EF-S 10-22mm f3.5-4.5mm (at 10mm), Manual, 1/500 sec at f/3.5, ISO 3200, Fluorescent white balance

I saw an empty water cooler, and some wet coaches and realized the “soak the coach” shot was down the toilet. Oh well, better luck next time. There was still plenty to shoot.

Then the game was over and the players all started running on the field. I took off after them shooting the fun. Then I heard more shouts and screams behind me. The fans were spilling onto the field like ants. It was pandemonium. Nobody was getting tuned up by the cops, so I didn’t have to worry about that angle. I just kept shooting the rabid fans. They were all over the place.

November 23, 2007 - Hawaii fans rush the field after Hawaii’s win over Boise State. Exposure details: Canon EOS 20D, EF-S 10-22mm f3.5-4.5mm (at 10mm), Manual, 1/500 sec at f/3.5, ISO 3200, Fluorescent white balance

Off in the distance I saw the trophy being hoisted above the crowd. I plowed through the roiling masses to get in close. I was holding the straps of the 600mm and my Mark II (all I needed was someone yanking those off me) and one-handing my 20D. It’s times like these that it’s nice to be tall. I got in close and jammed my camera over the heads of everyone rushing the award area. It was like a mosh pit. It was sweaty and wild.

November 23, 2007 - Herman Frazier and June Jones hold up the WAC trophy on the field after Hawaii’s win over Boise State. Exposure details: Canon EOS 20D, EF-S 10-22mm f3.5-4.5mm (at 10mm), Manual, 1/500 sec at f/3.5, ISO 3200, Fluorescent white balance

After I got what I wanted, I plowed my way out of the scrum and went back to transmit the photos.

Good times, indeed.

November 16, 2007 - Hawaii’s Kareem Nitoto goes to the basket over Illinois’ Bill Cole as Mike Tisdale (54) defends in the first half at Stan Sheriff. Exposure details: Canon EOS 1-D Mark II, EF 50mm f1.4, Manual, 1/640 sec at f/2.8, ISO 1600, Fluorescent white balance

Hoops time again. For me anyway, since I was on vacation last weekend.

I enjoy shooting basketball. Lots of action, and possibilities.

Those moments in basketball frozen in time look cool, too. It’s like strange sculpture. Wild expressions, bodies flying. Makes for good stuff.

The photogs all huddle on the baseline, crammed up against those tables set up by the basket. We get run over by sweaty players, stepped on by refs. A good time indeed.

I like to shoot with a 50mm under the basket. Some might say it’s a little loose, but I personally prefer that feel in basketball. I’ll use a 70-200 or a 300 for stuff on the far side of the court.

It’s still early in the season, and I’m looking forward to seeing what lies ahead.

November 04, 2007 - Hawaii’s Julia Siljestrom stands in heavy rain during a soccer game against Idaho in the second half just before the game was called at Waipio Soccer Stadium. Exposure details: Canon EOS 1-D Mark II, EF 400mm f2.8, Aperture priority, 1/2000 sec at f/2.8, ISO 3200, Fluorescent white balance

I had a bad feeling about the weather at yesterday’s soccer game in Waipio.

For the most part, the day was relatively dry, but as I headed out to the stadium, the skies started looking angry. I had my rain gear at the ready.

For years, rain gear for me meant the Deluxe Garbage Bag rain cover for the lens and some flimsy jacket for me. I’d recently upgraded to the El-Swanko pant leg cut from a pair of pants from a rain suit, and the jacket top for me.

There were some preliminary tests done at Aloha Stadium during UH football, and the rig worked well.

Turns out last night would be the true test of its mettle.

The pant leg fits snugly over the lens and there’s enough to cover the camera, too. Good protection for cheap. My kind of deal.

As I walked on the field, the skies were dry, but they soon opened up and I got a good soaking. But the gear (and the top half of me) stayed dry. Good deal.

Just before the end of the first half I went up to the press box to edit and send some photos from an assignment I had right before the game.

While up there, it really started to rain. Cats, dogs…. horses…. elephants….

It was crazy. “Glad I’m not out there,” I thought.

The rains slowed a little, then got harder. And harder.

“Hey, they might call the game!” someone in the press box mentioned.

At this I gathered my gear and headed towards the door.

“You’re going out there?” someone asked.

“I got to. This is crazy!” I said, and headed into the wall of water.

When I got to the field, the rain was off the hook. My glasses were drenched and fogging (I longed for little windshield wipers) and the viewfinder on my camera was filled with water. The players on the field were doing what they could, and I was aiming my camera at what movement I could see. I had no clue if anything was in focus.

Then I saw a lone figure in the rain. It had a moody look, and would make a good summary of the deluge. So I aimed in that direction, and hoped what I was shooting was in focus.

Then the game was called, and I ran back upstairs to start sifting through the murky photos.

Turns out things were as in focus as could be, and I had a picture.

****

And with that, I head off on vacation for a while. Wish me luck at the Vega$ craps tables…

Inside my car editing and transmitting after the HHSAA Div. II girls volleyball championship…

With all this digital photo business, we are able to send our pictures direct from the event venue. Which is great, we can spend more time shooting, and can still make the paper’s deadline. This works well for spot-news stuff and sports which usually run pretty late at night.

Every photographer has his or her own way of working under deadlines, but I’ll share how I go about it.

As I’m shooting an event, say last night’s v-ball championship, while I’m shooting, I’ll take mental notes of good plays, etc., as they happen. When everything is over, I’ll run out to my car (or sometimes, depending on the event, run to a corner in the gym) and get started.

I download my CF cards to my laptop, and then open the files using the Photoshop browser (a lot of people use Photo Mechanic, too), and start sifting through looking for pictures. At the same time, I’ll fire up my wireless air card, and open an FTP client. After I find a picture, I’ll crop it, do very light (if any) exposure/color correction (our laptops aren’t the greatest when it comes to doing corrections — it’s best left to the person working the desk in the office), add the caption to the File Info dialogue box in the file, and toss that image into the FTP bin.

Lather, rinse, repeat…

…until I’ve sent all I need to send for the night. It usually takes me about 15-20 minutes to edit/send 5-10 photos (saved at about “8″ or “9″ in the jpeg quality scale).

Once everything is sent, I call the photo desker in the office, who will then take the photos off the FTP, and put them into the system at the office.

Of course, sometimes I have more time, and other times I have less, but the workflow is generally the same for most situations.

November 02, 2007 - Word of Life’s Janna Kaupuiki goes up to try and block Seabury Hall’s Kaipo Rocha. This composite shows pre- and post-color and exposure correction. The image on the left is how it looks “right out of the box.” The image on the left has been corrected. Exposure details: Canon EOS 1-D Mark II, EF 70-200mm f2.8 (at 200), Manual exposure, 1/320 sec at f/2.8, ISO 3200, Fluorescent white balance

I went to McKinley High gym last night to shoot the HHSAA Div. II girls volleyball match between Word of Life and Seabury Hall.

Most high school gyms are notoriously dark, but I had recollections of McKinley not being too bad. But when I walked in last night, it seemed darker than usual. I took a test shot at 1/400 sec. at 3200 ISO and it was dark. Way dark. Gloomy. Oh well, shoot at 1/320 and hope for the best. I was worried a bit about subject movement, but there was nothing I could do. At least with volleyball, the players kind of “hang” in the air for a split second, so I figured I could get a shot somewhere along the line.

Of course, 1/320 sec. was still underexposing, but nothing too awful. Canon cameras yield good files even if underexposed, and the noise isn’t too bad. In the above photo you can see what came out of the camera, and how I adjusted the exposure and color in the end product.

A tale of two rosters — These two images are right out the camera. The color cycling of the gym lights is painfully obvious. Exposure details: Canon EOS 1-D Mark II, EF 70-200mm f2.8 (at 150), Manual exposure, 1/250 sec at f/2.8, ISO 3200, Fluorescent white balance

The color of light in gyms are also hard to work with. When you walk in a gym, and look at the light, it appears to be a constant color and brightness. Alas, it’s not really that way. The lights are like fluorescent lights, and are actually flickering at a rate fast enough that you don’t notice it. And the color temperature is constantly changing.

As you can see in the above composite of rosters (which we shoot photos of to ID players later), sometimes the light is a true fluorescent balance, while other times it’s not.

I used to try and set a custom white balance, but that doesn’t make any difference since the color is constantly shifting. It’s a sad fact that some frames are just going to look weird.

I’m going back there again tonight, looking forward to wrestling with color and light.