December 17, 2007 - Haunani Apoliona, Office of Hawaiian Affairs chairperson, delivers the keynote address for the State of OHA and the Hawaiian Community held at St. Andrews Cathedral. Exposure details: Canon EOS 20D, EF-S 10-22mm f3.5-4.5mm (at 15mm), Aperture priority, 1/200 sec at f/4, ISO 1600, Daylight white balance

I’ve been fortunate in the past month to be assigned to shoot events at St. Andrews Cathedral. It’s a beautiful church, and I got to see it both in the day and the night which provide very different views.

A few weeks back OHA held their State of OHA thing at the church. It was held late morning and there was really nice sunlight coming in from the windows.

When I got there I talked with one of the OHA folks (former S-B writer Crystal Kua) who said I could pretty much go anywhere as long as I stayed out of the way of the TV cameras. No problem.

I wandered around before the thing got started, looking for angles. Apoliona would be speaking from a podium to the left of the church. And luckily when it came time for her to speak, there was a nice shaft of light coming from above. I tried various places, but the best turned out to be right beside her where I could see the windows. Good stuff.

I’m not really the religious dude, so I always get a little nervous when shooting in churches. I’m not really to tuned in on what’s going down during services, etc., so I try to lay as low as possible. Not easy when I’m 6′2” with cameras dangling from me. I’m always worried I’ll stand in the wrong place or something, and then I’ll be “that camera guy.”

Once when I was shooting at Our Lady of Peace Cathedral, I was trying to do my “lay low” thing. I got there early for whatever it was that I was shooting, and was looking around for somewhere to hide. I noticed a little fountain kind of in the middle of the place. “Ooooh, a fountain!” I thought, and sat next to it. Turns out in the middle of whatever was going on, all the priests came over to get some water, apparently holy water, out of the fountain. Of course, I was sitting right in front of the thing. I was wondering why they were walking right towards me, kind of shooing me away… hmmmm… learned something new that day.

January 03, 2008 - Choir members rehearse under the direction of John Renke for the Festival of Lessons and Carols at St. Andrews Cathedral. Exposure details: Canon EOS 20D, EF-S 10-22mm f3.5-4.5mm (at 10mm), Manual, 1/30 sec at f/3.5, ISO 800, Tungsten white balance

Then last week another St. Andrews assignment came my way. Shoot the choir rehearsing. Cool. Plus it’s at night. They’d have all the lights on, they said. Great.

Got there and it was looking pretty sweet. I talked with the choir director and he said I could go anywhere I wanted. Of course, visions of holy water fountain faux pas danced in my head, so I kept it pretty low key. The church speaks for itself.