DAY IN A LIFE OF THE LAHAINALUNA SPORTS SHOOTER - August 30, 2014

Photo Credit: Denton Johnson



Welcome back to crazy Saturdays! Usually it doesn’t get this busy for me during the Fall season, but today was an exception. On my plate today was shooting Lahainaluna and/or Lahaina-based teams participating in the following events:  MIL Cross-Country at Keopuolani Park in Kahului, Maui Sparks Basketball Tournament at War Memorial Gym in Wailuku, the Seabury Hall Volleyball Jamboree in Olinda, then MIL football at War Memorial Stadium. At least there wasn’t a JV football game today due to Kamehameha Schools Maui not fielding a JV team this year – otherwise, my schedule would have been really nuts.

 

Photo Credit: Jake Ryan

My wife asks me all the time why I do this. Sometimes I find myself asking that very question. Trying to get to events, taking photos, editing photos and posting photos obviously take up a lot of my spare time. Nevertheless, it has become a passion from which I have derived immense pleasure and satisfaction. It satisfies my desire to give back to my community. In a weird way, doing this is stress-free and relaxing for me when compared to my real world career as a personal injury attorney.

Photo Credit: Denton Johnson

  Taking sports photos is as easy and fun as you want it to be. Me? I think I am borderline obsessive-compulsive. When I do something, I go all the way. And the sense of fairness that I have compel me to give equal coverage to All sports, and All athletes, whether they are all-stars or on the bench. My limitations are, however, self-imposed. Lahaina-only with high school given priority. If I were to shoot all sports on Maui – central, south, Upcountry, Little League, soccer, Pop Warner, etc., I would go nuts. Since I do not do this for money or for a living, I feel comfortable with the limitations I have placed on myself.

Photo Credit: Joanna Aceret

But before you think that doing what I do is easy, consider this. My schedule on Saturday, August 30^th, went something like this:

 6:30am                 Wake up

7:00am                 Put bike in back of truck, drive to Keopuolani Park

7:15am                 CROSS-COUNTRY. Utilizing the Nikon D300/Sigma 50-500 combo, shoot Lahainaluna cross-country team warming up; scout the race route and find good locations from which to shoot

8:00am                 Shoot the opening of the girls race and the first 10 minutes. Strive to get as many individual shots of the Lahainaluna girl runners as possible. Fortunately, there are only 4-5 girls on the squad.

8:10am                 GIRLS BASKETBALL. Drive to War Memorial Gym. Utilize the indoor gear combo of Nikon D7000 and Nikon 24-70 f/2.8 and 70-200 f/2.8 lenses. Shoot first half of girls basketball game between Lahaina Girls 14-and-Over and Kahului Sparks #1. Sparks’ tournament schedule already 30 minutes behind. Need to make appropriate adjustments to my schedule.

8:45am                 CROSS-COUNTRY. Return to truck. Put D300/Sigma 50-500 into backpack with monopod. Ride bike back to Keopuolani Park.

8:50am                 Shoot Boys Cross-Country race. Shoot the finish line. Get a team photo.

9:25am                 GIRLS BASKETBALL. Ride bike back to War Memorial Gym. Put D300/Sigma 50-500 back in the truck. Take the indoor gear combo and shoot the second half of the Lahaina Girls Under14 team’s basketball game against Kahului Sparks.

9:45am                 Drive home. Get a light breakfast at McDonald’s. Leave the Nikon D300/Sigma 50-500 combo at home. Take bicycle out of the bed of the truck. Upload pictures from memory cards. Post a few pictures if possible.

11:00am               GIRLS BASKETBALL. Drive back to War Memorial Gym. Shoot the second half of the Lahaina Girls Under-14 basketball game against Kihei. Get a team photo.

11:35am               Drive to Seabury Hall.

 12:00pm               GIRLS VOLLEYBALL. Arrive at Seabury Hall. Locate the schedule for the volleyball tournament. It is a round-robin of  7 teams.  Find out that Lahainaluna is the only school entering their JV team – the other teams from Kamehameha Schools Maui, Seabury Hall, Baldwin, Maui High, St. Anthony and Maui Prep entered their varsity squads. Games are scheduled 45 minutes apart. Two games playing simultaneously. Game is to 25. Coach Trixy Ganer asks if I can take a team picture. I am more than happy to oblige!

12:20pm               Lahainaluna’s match starts 10 minutes early. The Lady Lunas put up a valiant effort but lose.

12:50pm               Decision time. Lunas have a supposedly 45 minute break before their next game. Matches are against St. Anthony and Maui Prep – two possibly winnable games. Plus, shooting the St. Anthony game would help out Mr. Fillazar. However, both Lahaina Girls have games going on at War Memorial, including a game against Lanai, which would help my other friend, the Lanai HS AD Rod Sumagit. Do I stay or do I go? I decide to go back to Wailuku. I will shoot the games there, then come back to Seabury Hall for the duration of the Jamboree. There is no JV football game today, so I don’t have to be back in Wailuku by 3:30pm like I would if there was a JV game. My rationale? Try to give equal coverage to both the basketball and volleyball teams.

12:55pm               Drive to Wailuku.

1:15pm                 GIRLS BASKETBALL.  Shoot the second half of the Lahaina Girls Under-14 game against Upcountry. Then shoot first half of the Lahaina Girls 14-and-Over game against Lanai.

 

 

2:20pm                 Drive back to Seabury Hall.

2:40pm                 GIRLS VOLLEYBALL. I apparently just missed the Lunas’ game against Maui Prep. Girls team have a break before their next game. Shoot a little bit of the St. Anthony –Maui Prep match. Shoot Lahainaluna’s upset over Baldwin’s varsity squad 25-24. During the break, finally figured out a way to upload photos from my Nikon’s memory card directly to my Samsung smart phone. Upload a few photos to Facebook. Shoot the volleyball game against Seabury Hall.

4:25pm                 Drive home to Wailuku. Eat a banana, drink a Diet Pepsi while on the road.

4:50pm                 Arrive home. Upload all photos to computer. Take a shower. Clear and format memory cards. Prepare camera gear for football game:

                                 My Gear:

·         Nikon D7000 DSLR

·         Nikon D600 DSLR

·         Nikon D300 DSLR (to use in lieu of D600 if it RAINS)

·         2 16GB SDHC cards (overflow) for D7000

·         2 32GB SDHC cards (overflow) for D600

·         Sigma 120-300 f/2.8 lens

·         Nikon 24-70 f/2.8 lens

·         Sigma 70-200 f/2.8 (for Denton’s senior project mentee to use)

·         Manfrotto 680B monopod

·         Rain jacket / rain sleeve

·         BlackRapid Rapid Strap RS DR-1 Double sling camera strap

·         2 extra EN-EL15 batteries

·         Frozen Gatorade for hydration

·         Mustard packets for cramps

·         MIL Athletic Pass

·         2 Tylenol to minimize aches and pains from carrying all this gear

                                Ariana’s Gear

·         Nikon D7000

·         Nikon 70-200 f/2.8 lens

·         Manfrotto 679B monopod

·         16GB SDHC and 8GB SDHC cards (backup)

5:45pm                 Drive to War Memorial Stadium. Meet up with Ariana to set up her equipment.

6:00pm                 VARSITY FOOTBALL . Lahainaluna vs. Kamehameha Schools Maui. Shoot Lahainaluna warm-up. Since I shot the defensive backs last week, I will focus on the running backs, linebackers and wide receivers during their drills. Using the Sigma 120-300 on my crop sensor D7000, attached to monopod. The D600 is attached to my RapidStrap with a 24-70mm f/2.8 attached for quick, close shots. Work on getting tightly composed individual action shots, especially of players who may not get much playing time.

6:50pm                 Captains at mid-field, coin toss.  Lahainaluna boys JV team did not have a game, but they come down to the field in jersey tops for National Anthem and Alma Mater. Was not prepared for that . . . would’ve brought my Tokina 11-16 f/2.8 super wide angle. Wished I could get everyone into the frame.

 

7:00pm                 Kick-off. I will shoot with the Sigma 120-300 f/2.8 for the first half.  Make a conscious effort to get shots of cheerleaders and fans.

8:15pm                 Halftime. Reassign lenses. I gave the Sigma 120-300 to Denton for his use. He returned the Sigma 70-200mm to me, which I will put on Ariana’s camera and put the Nikon 70-200 f/2.8 on my camera. Drink the Gatorade.

9:30pm                 Game over. Lahainaluna wins. Collect all gear and pack it. Give Ariana one of the memory cards to take home. Make sure everything is accounted for. Go home. Stop off at McDonald’s near Sack N’Save to get something to eat.

 9:50pm                 HOME! Unload gear. Change clothes. Upload all 3000+ photos to computer, including Ariana’s. Open up Picasa software program for editing. Sit and eat my McDonald’s while checking out posts on Facebook, messages, texts and voice mail. (During my day, I hardly have time to look at my phone and send/respond to texts or messages because I am either driving or shooting).

 10:30pm               Take a shower. All photos finally uploaded and ready for viewing. Review photos. Edit, crop and make adjustments to several photos for posting immediately with a quick summary of the game for Facebook and Twitter. If possible, edit all photos and post on Facebook and Lunasports/Zenfolio. Do laundry.

2:45am                 SLEEP.

 What a day. Wanna try it? I didn’t think so!

It is not always like this, but believe it or not, it is fun for me. I enjoy it. It is actually relaxing for me.  And you know what the best thing is? The next day is Sunday and Monday is a HOLIDAY!  More time to edit and post photos! Best to do that as soon as possible. Worse thing is to let the photos sit. The event becomes stale as the days past and by the time you post it, it’s old news. Moreover, the more back-logged you get as the days pass and more events are shot, the more stressed you will be.