Written By WRAL-TV News Photographer John Cox
You'll have to forgive me because for the last 36 hours I really haven't known what to think, do or say.  As I've sat down to put my thoughts into inadequate words, they've just come pouring out.

I guess it's probably true that opposites attract.  Mark and I were definitely opposites in a lot of ways.  The bedrock of our photography careers lies in Knoxville, TN, but Mark started at WATE, Channel 6, the #2 station in the market and I started (full-time) at WBIR, Channel 10 a dominant #1. 

Opposite #1.  Mark worked at the bad station and I worked at the good one.  Anytime I kidded him about that, he'd point out WATE was #1 until after he left, maybe there's something to that.  Mark left Knoxville shortly before I got there and headed east to WRAL.  I moved to East TN and settled in about 10 miles from Mark's parents but I never met them in the 6+ years I was there.  Having the common ground of time in TN was the bedrock of our friendship.  Friendly station rivalry, but friendly was still the key word.

Opposite #2.  Mark loved Ikegami cameras.  While I appreciate Iki's, I hate the tripod mounts on the bottom of the camera.  They are really, really unstable on flat surfaces, and you'll see why that's important in a minute. 

When I got to WRAL, we didn't become fast friends at all.  We were fine with each other, but nothing more than co-workers for a good while.  Our friendship really took off when I blew up his camera. 

Don't laugh, yet.  Mark was extremely particular about his gear - extremely.  His reputation for how he kept things preceded him as I was doing my first freelance shoot with his equipment. 

It was with the brand new savior of the Carolina Hurricanes, Ron Francis.  Since this was a big shoot, I had to do everything right, so I wanted to avoid shooting through the glass at the hockey rink.  I traipsed across the ice to the benches to shoot without the glass - no slipping on the ice, everything's great. 

I got to the benches and the floor was wet.  "I can't put Mark's camera down on the wet floor.  He'll kill me."  So I carefully put the camera on the bench. 

I started to set up the tripod and flipped it over and bumped the bench....no big deal right?  The camera wobbled right, wobbled back left, tilted right and then flopped left off the bench onto the wet floor.   ARRRGH, wet camera! 

I quickly picked it up to see that the viewfinder was cracked - a few water spots were sounding pretty good to me right then. 

I thought, "I've got to get it together here, there's a shoot to do and Mark is counting on me to get it done.  The viewfinder looks pretty bad, but I'm hoping it'll still work." 

When I flipped the power switch to check it out, fire shot out of the side - I kid you not, actual flames!  I probably ruined that shoot, and that client probably never called Mark again, but the way he reacted when I called him earned a friend for life. 

He didn't raise his voice, he didn't get mad. 

It freaked me out that he wasn't going to make me wax his news car every week for the rest of my life - that's "the cleanest car in the news business" by the way.  I would have reacted completely differently than he did and I'm grateful that I was on the receiving end of his mercy and forgiveness.

Opposite # 3.  He had the cleanest news car in the business, and his personal cars were even neater.  If you've ever seen the back seat of my news car I don't need to say anything else.

Opposite #4.  His shooting style was what I dubbed "Move and Groove".  He was on the shoulder, followed the action and was in the right place at the right time.  He was great at it.  He was the master, but every time I shot like that, it would look good, but I would get burned in editing - it just didn't work out for me.  I tend to go for my steady sticks, wide, medium and tight.  I appreciated what he could do with a camera, and I think he respected my work, but he'd tell me, "I like whatcha did there, but you need to get off the sticks more."  I may do that, but I won't do it as well as he did.

Opposite #5.  He loved being in the middle of news.  This may not be the proper thing for a news photographer to admit, but I really don't need to be in middle of 20 other cameras all trying to get the same thing to feel like I've accomplished something.  He wanted the Big story, and I just want a great story with great pictures.  The fewer cameras to fight with the better.  I don't need hurricanes and presidential visits - I can do 'em but I prefer heading home to be with my wife, daughter and cat.

Opposite #6.  He was wary of kids and animals.  He didn't have plants or pets because that'd be something for someone to have to take care of if he had a shoot that kept him out of town for days.  He was like the 82nd Airborne, he could be anywhere in less than 24 hours and he didn't want anything holding him back.  Our cats seemed to know that he didn't really like them, so they'd make a special point of hopping in his lap or rubbing against him when he was here. 

When Mark came to the hospital the morning after our daughter was born he brought my wife a bag of M&M's to perk her up, and then looked at Emily like she was a little alien with fangs or something.  "Ya wanna hold her?" - He says, "No thanks" and looks at her like he might break her or she might poop on him or something. 

We convinced him that she was tough and it'd be OK, so Mark was the first person outside of our family to hold Emily, and they became tight. 

He became our official family videographer.  Apart from my work camera, I didn't even have a camcorder, so Mark has most of the home videos of my daughter.  He taught her how to make a "T" with her hands - Tennessee Vols ya know.  He picked her up from places several times when we were tied up, like from gymnastics when I got stuck on a shoot. 

Seeing Mark with a child seat and a bouncy 4 year-old was about as funny a sight as you'll see.  I'm sure he was glad when we'd leave his house after she'd been there awhile, but I'm confident he loved her in his own special way, and I know for a fact that Emily loved him like an uncle.

Opposite #7.  He really didn't like to do much of anything I liked.  He wouldn't waterski with me although he did come and take pictures and even drove the boat a couple of times.  He said he'd look fat on a bike, he was scared to try snow skiing with us, "I can't afford to get hurt!".  He loved his SeaDoos, XBOX 360, reality shows and NASCAR, and I really don't have a lot of use for any of them, but none of that really mattered, we still had our common ground.

I've mentioned that Mark loved being in the middle of everything, especially the big story, so he was excited about a couple of opportunities he got with the Carolina Hurricanes - the friendship comes back to another shoot with Ron Francis. 

This time he's retiring and Mark is running an on-ice camera for FSN during the ceremony.  The RBC Center is PACKED!  It's as loud as a playoff frenzy, the lights are down, everybody is on their feet, Mark scurries across the ice - he didn't slip much either - he gets near center ice in the middle of the biggest event in the hockey world that night, turns and looks up at our family and waves with that goofy grin.  "Hey, can you believe what I'm doing - that's Ron Francis over there....." 

He got to shoot several games from between the benches, as "in the middle of things" as it gets without being ON the ice.  We'd always get a phone call before the game to see what was up - I could look down from the upper deck and see him waving. 

Man, I'll miss that now.  Just like I miss talking to him about this stupid accident that took my best friend away from me. 

We always talked about helicopter crashes, what happened, the coverage.  He loved anything that flew, he was fascinated by anything in the sky, birds, airplanes, helicopters, lightning, watching the space station and shuttle fly overhead, anything up high mesmerized him.  Recently we were both sitting at our computers watching the online coverage of the crash in Phoenix.  We were trying to get every tidbit of info we could, seeing which reporters we had worked with or knew. 

Being news junkies, that's what we did.  Anytime something was going on I'd get the call, "did you see....?"  Now I've got something I need to talk to him about and he's not here.  Ya know, I really don't like it at all. 

Mark was generous, forgiving and helpful.  He always had a gadget I needed to borrow, probably because he had every gadget known to man and a few that most men didn't even know about.  I'll miss those calls from between the benches, from the cruise ship off the coast of Chile, the emailed pictures from the dirty tractor pull in Iowa, the waves from center ice and Emily's gleeful cry - "Mr. Mark's here!" when he'd pull in the driveway. 

We were very different, but we were the same. 

We both needed a friend and now I need a new one.