In Memory of Mark Copeland

I never met Mark Copeland, but his reputation and steadicam preceded him. Pictured here at the outset of his career, Copeland discovered his knack for television at a Tennessee station in 1981. From there, he went nowhere but up, working at North Carolina powerhouse WRAL for years, winning Emmies and admirers alike before leaving in 1999 to focus on a bustling freelance career - one that took him to foreign countries and movie sets with increasing regularity. Today that career came to a tragic halt when the helicopter he was shooting video from crashed in the Gulf of Mexico near Sarasota, Florida. Mark was 44, at the top of his game and no doubt doing what he dug when it all went black. He will be missed and remembered and by all of us who a heft a lens in the Carolinas and beyond.