Videographer who called Beaufort home earns a moment with the president

It's ironic that Chip Baysden's most memorable Washington, D.C., moment happened in front of the camera, not behind it.

The irony stems from the fact that the former Beaufort Academy student is a videographer -- his life is lived behind a viewfinder, with a thin, plastic lens separating him from the places and faces he documents. But when he won a White House Press Photographer's Association award for a sports story he did on bicycle polo earlier this year, it was time to step into the bright lights of the Oval Office.

Wearing a nice suit and a smile, Baysden froze in place, politely, as his colleagues snapped away at a posed shot of him shaking hands with President Barack Obama.

Most of us dream about winning an award -- any award -- for our jobs. If we get the recognition from the president of the Kiwanis Club or the owner of the local car wash, it doesn't matter, a win is a win is a win.

But Baysden got an "atta boy" from the leader of the free world.

That's hard to top.

"I had never been to the Oval Office," Baysden said. "I had been in the press room there. We call it 'Pebble Beach.' It's where everyone does their live shots every night. It's outside the doors of the Oval Office."

Baysden lived in Beaufort for only two years, in the early '90s, but still considers the Lowcountry home.

He attended 10th grade at Beaufort Academy before finishing his high school career at a boarding school in Virginia. He went to College of Charleston and after graduation took a job at WCIV.

From Charleston, he moved on to Greenville and WYSS, a Hearst-owned television station.

The Hearst Company eventually promoted him to the Washington, D.C., bureau. He now works for the Fox affiliate in the capitol, WPPG, as a sports photographer, covering a bit of everything, particularly the Redskins during football season.

"In 10 years, I've seen enough murder, fire and car accidents," Baysden said about the career that led him to the sports desk. "I felt I maybe deserved to move to a topic that was not so hard to cover."

His parents, Cindy and Tommy Baysden, live on Lady's Island and are active in the community.

Cindy Baysden recently retired as head of the Beaufort County Open Land Trust, while his father is the executive vice president of Crescent Resources, a development company that oversaw the creation of Palmetto Bluff in Bluffton, among others.

"My mother is in conservation, and my father is a developer," Baysden said with a laugh. "But, ironically, they were able to work hand in hand."

Perhaps it is his parents' Zen-like approach to the duality of life that has helped Baysden rise in his field.

He says he is drawn to stories that focus on people. In a visual medium, where 10-second sound bites and quick-edited short pieces are the increasing norm, his love of the simplicity of journalism has served him well.

The piece that won White House Press Photographer's Association award on bicycle polo stemmed from his patience behind the camera and his love of detail.

"Every now and then a story will come along, and it will all sort of line up," he said, describing the award-winning piece. "It was late afternoon, and the lighting was spectacular. The story itself is very visual. There's a lot of action. I'm looking for great video and great natural sound, whether it be the spoke of the bicycle clicking, or the mallets hitting the balls."

Baysden met the president in mid-March. It was a brief meeting, a "grip and grin" (to use the photographer's term), really. Although Baysden did manage to squeeze in a few words: A lifelong University of North Carolina basketball fan, Baysden thanked the president for taking it easy on the Tar Heels when he scrimmaged with them the previous summer. Obama laughed and referred him to Reggie Love, the president's assistant and former Duke basketball player.

It was one of the biggest moments of Baysden's life, and the journalist extended it for a few seconds more.

He hopes that persistence for longevity will help him in his day job, as well.

"It's a very physical job," he said about videography. "It's demanding. I could see at, maybe, age 50, the back would be a little more sore after the shoot. ... But if everything goes correctly, I'd hope to continue this into the twilight of my career."