While I certainly had plenty to do in the freelance world in 2018, most of my work since the fall has been with WRAL.

It's been a combo of things: reporting stories for Football Friday, college football, college basketball and the Carolina Hurricanes as well as editing for WRALSportsFan.com and producing Fox 50 Game Night.

The fall kept me busy enough that I haven't had the time to save and post a lot of my work.

So let's try to be better about that in 2019.

Last week, I had a couple of cool assignments. On Friday, I covered the Hurricanes vs. Ottawa Senators. I researched all these storylines before I went just so I could be all caught up, but until I walked in and saw a giant Chewbacca taking pictures with fans, I realized I forgot the most important thing: it was Star Wars Night.

Confession time. I never have been a Star Wars guy. But when reporting on a game, my number one goal these days is to make the story unique. Make it memorable. Any hook you can find to do that other than just showing highlight, highlight, highlight, sound bite…jump on it.

This game was also a 7:30 start, which is a half hour later than usual. It's tough enough to make deadline for the 11pm sportscast for a 7:00 game so I knew I need to be writing this one is my head as the game went along.

As the Senators jumped out to a 4-1 lead after the second period, I typed out as many Star Wars references as I could muster during the intermission. Fortunately, nothing changed dramatically during the third and final period so I was able to make deadline with ease. Watch the story above and count how many references I worked in. Plus the postgame sound was great for a team that just got smoked. 

The next day, I was the beneficiary of some scheduling shuffling in the sports office by getting assigned the Duke-Virginia basketball game.

What a matchup. Duke was ranked #1 in the AP Poll and Virginia was #1 in the Coaches Poll.

This one was a challenge because I was there covering it by myself in a media room of about 100 people (Virginia media travel in droves) and I had to worry about posting to instagram, live streaming Coach K's press conference and adding all my video to the website…in addition to the TV story on deadline.

Hopefully, I did it justice. Watch just for the Zion Williamson dunk and his interaction with teammate RJ Barrett as they gave it a 1-to-10 score.

I also featured Zion a few weeks ago. Good kid and a physical freak who will probably be the first pick in the NBA Draft.

We'll see what the rest of the season brings. It could be a busy March!

For most of the weddings I shoot, the couples want a highlight video of the day plus an edited together version of the ceremony and extended highlights from the reception (like the entire first dances, all the toasts, etc.).

But for couples who might want to cut a few costs on what can be an expensive day, I do offer cheaper options.

In the case of Catherine and Ella Corbett, they decided to forgo the highlight video and just take extended cuts of the ceremony and reception. I didn't shoot much less video than I normally would, but it made for a much quicker editing process.

I actually got the recommendation to shoot this wedding from their friend Tracy Hollister, whose wedding I'd shot the previous year. 

This was a relatively easy wedding to shoot. For the ceremony, I carried a Canon 5D Mark III on a monopod, had a Canon 70D off to one side on a tripod, another camera up top on a tripod (that angle was a life-saver) and a GoPro Session near the altar that I didn't use much.

It was the first time I used an external monitor with my camera (a Lilliput A7s), and that really helped me keep everything in sharper focus, so I'll never shoot a wedding without that again. But it's also the last wedding ceremony I will shoot without a 70-200 zoom lens. I just couldn't get as tight as I would like, but fortunately my new Sony gear will solve that issue.

The ceremony was held at Pullen Memorial Baptist in Raleigh and the reception was held at the same place my wife and I had our reception: Caffe Luna!

Yes, it can get a little dark in the restaurant, and dealing with the low-light was one of the main reasons I made the switch to the Sony camera.

On a happy note, this time I actually got to eat a little of the Caffe Luna buffet that I barely got a chance to enjoy on my own wedding day!

The new year has brought new toys.

I'm now a Sony user!

For someone who shoots video primarily (especially in low-light settings), this was a change that was a long time in the making. Nothing against Canon. I like Canon, but Sony's recent video cameras were pumping out a much higher quality for my tastes (again, especially in low light).

As for my purchases, I went with the Sony A7III for the camera. I found it to be the perfect combination of usability, affordability and performance (again, especially in low light…if you can't tell, that's important to me). When shooting weddings or any event that required a run-and-gun shoot, it seems to be a extremely easy to use, right down to the autofocus touchscreen. Oh, and it's 4K! That's not nothing.

As for lenses, I'm sure I'll be adding to the arsenal, but I've started with two for now: the 24-70mm f/2.8 G Master and the 70-200mm f/4.

The 24-70mm will be my all-purpose lens, and while it is a bit more expensive to go for the f/2.8 over the f/4 for that size, all the reviews point to the extra cost being worth it. After playing around with it for awhile, I have zero regrets so far. The only caveat is this lens is quite heavy.

As for the 70-200mm, this is a lens length I've needed for awhile. It became more and more apparent when shooting recent indoor weddings that I needed that extra zoom for the ceremonies. Outdoor weddings are easier to get closer because there is so much more room to maneuver without being a distraction. That's not the case for indoor weddings. You're locked in to only a few spots and those can be an unfavorable distance from the bridge and groom.

Now, don't take this as a complete knock on Canon. My 70D was the perfect camera to introduce me into the DSLR world, especially for the price. But there is so much noise in low light, which if you couldn't tell, was starting to annoy me.

The 5D Mark III was fine in the times I used it too, but it lacked that great autofocus when shooting run-and-gun style video. So when it became obvious that it was time for me to upgrade, I was deciding between a Canon Mark IV or switching to Sony.

I've made the switch.

​I'll let you know how it goes, but I'm confident it's for the better.

Better late than never, here is the wedding video for Stephanie Beck and Louis Sheridan!

This was a shoot that—if not for the easy-going demeanor of the couple—could have been extremely stressful.

Why?

Because Stephanie is the producer of the 6pm news at WRAL, the station's highest-rated newscast. Plus, she's been my co-worker off and on since 2005. So as a videographer, it's easy to feel a little more pressure when you're shooting the special day for a friend or co-worker. It's another thing when that bride is in TV.

Again, thankfully, it became clear early in the day that there was nothing to stress about. She was one of the most relaxed brides I've ever dealt with.

Plus, the venue at Historic Market Hall in downtown Raleigh was gorgeous, and it's always a bonus when the entire event is under one roof. 

It was the still photographer, Jessica with Three Region Photography, who led the couple through all the locations around downtown before the wedding, and it added nicely to the final video (By the way, I can't recommend Jessica enough. My family hired her to shoot some family portraits.).

But the more I think about it, there was one other possible reason to be stressed. Stephanie and Louis (and many of their friends) are amazing dancers. It's their main hobby. So they can cover a lot of ground, which isn't always easy as a DSLR shooter when trying to focus on the fly. Hopefully, I was able to do it justice.

More weddings and other stuff to come in 2019!