There were two assignments the other day at the same time. Both at UH, both at the athletic department, so I took them thinking, “ah, no problem.”

Shoot the band prepping for their trip to New Orleans, then zip over to the practice field to shoot some FB practice.

Well, I showed up at Cooke Field a little early, and noticed a few band members doing what appeared to be sectionals. I opted to wait for the full band, and went back to my car. When I came back a bit later, not a soul was on the field.

“Whoa, they disappeared. Like magic,” I thought.

I called the band office. Nobody there. I called the features section at the paper. No clue.

Hmmm…. I guess I’ll head to the football field and get Lafaele, as requested by sports.

Of course, when I get there, he’s off in some remote nook of the practice field. Since the media is only allowed on the strip mauka of the field, it was impossible to shoot him where he was. I kind of “wandered” near where he was, but was promptly shooed away by some security guard.

I hemmed and hawed as I pondered my fate.

Then I heard the band off in the distance.

They had arrived.

Okay, I’ll head over there and shoot them and come back to the practice field afterward.

I got to the swank black rubber glory of Cooke Field, and started to soak up the band ambience.

I was in the UH band (symphonic wind ensemble) back in my collegiate days, but alas never joined the marching band. I instead often found myself on the football field as a photog for Ka Leo O Hawaii, the student paper. So it was nice being around the band this time. I felt myself reliving my musical youth vicariously through them.

The light was nice, since it was late in the afternoon, and I decided to milk the low sun and shadows.

DECEMBER 14, 2007 - Janice Kunishige conducts the band at Cooke Field as they rehearse for the upcoming Sugar Bowl trip. Exposure details: Canon EOS 20D, EF-S 10-22mm f3.5-4.5mm (at 10mm), Aperture priorityl, 1/640 sec at f/9, ISO 200, Daylight white balance

I wanted the sun behind the conductor, so I was hunched down behind her, about four or five feet behind. I was using a super-wide lens, so I had an expansive view of what was going on, but it probably didn’t look that way to others. Here’s some dude with a camera at posterior-level taking pictures… looks real… uh… interesting, I’m sure. Luckily I’ve long gotten past worrying what people think of me.

I noticed the tuba players had some cool shirts on, so I followed them around for a while.

It’s all about the Tuba Love.

Then it dawned on me I still had to get something from football practice. So I took off for the practice field.

As I walked on the scene, all the players were walking off the field. Oh geez, practice is over. I have no photo.

I started thinking of excuses I could feed the sports editor.

I was starting to sweat at this point, but noticed my man Lafaele in the back of the mob of players walking my way. Hmmm… I’d better try and pop something off of him, I might be able to grab something after all.

DECEMBER 14, 2007 - UH football player Michael Lafaele walks amongst teammates at practice at the UH practice field. Exposure details: Canon EOS 1-D Mark II, EF 300mm f2.8, 1.4X teleconverter, Aperture priority, 1/800 sec at f/4, ISO 640, Daylight white balance

Luckily I found this. And although practice wasn’t really over, that photo ended up being better than the stuff I later got of him running drills.