A long first day at the Quail Hollow Championship is just about over for me.  As my daughter Madison would say, it’s almost “nite nite” time.

And a nice rest will be welcome because, well let’s just say today didn’t go as I thought it would.

After more than three hours of driving and perfect timing to get to number one in time for Curt Sanders to be announced, my camera wasn’t recording audio.  %^$&!

But, first things first.  Before I even tried to get Sanders on one, I decided to shoot my standup.  You know, that piece of video that really doesn’t add much to a story but to show a person is actually where they say they are.  I wanted to get it out of the way early because it was a bit sticky in Charlotte today and I’m a sweater.  Figured lets get it out of the way while I’m dry and presentable.

I plug my mic in, see the levels bouncing on the audio meter.  One take.  Done.

Or so I thought.

When I played it back to check it like a good photographer, there was no sound.  There was also no natural sound (the sound that comes off of the microphone that is attached to the front of the camera).  This isn’t good.

After three calls that went unanswered to the station I finally got through to my news director who passed me off to our Chief photographer Ryan.  He was just as clueless as I was, but he was able to give me an 800 number for Panasonic. 

This is where I meet Wayne, or at least the voice of Wayne.  Sadly, Wayne didn’t have much to offer.  After trying everything, including a re-boot (which will mean there’s more work when I get back to Wilmington) still no sound.  At this point my day was pretty much a wash.  I decided we are a ‘visual’ medium, so I can at least shoot video for Kevin, which I did.

After several holes I edited my video, sent it to Kevin via the magic of the web, then went back to work on the audio problem.  After a couple of setting changes to the internal menu I stumbled on the right thing.  If you watched tonight’s 10 and 11 pm newscasts you saw the result.  Curt Sanders and I, audio included.

Not the day I had hoped for, but in the end I felt a bit of resolve.

Hopefully day two will go better.  Stay tuned.