I know that, technically, this is not the best video I have ever done, but it is a favorite of mine because of how it came about.

I had gone to the small town of Alton, Kan., one Saturday to do a feature story on the Highway 24 Garage Sale that spanned several towns. Alton was where the garage sale had begun a year before, so I talked to the couple who started it and then cruised the town for a few other people to talk to.

Deanna was the first person I encountered. Word had spread that a Hays Daily reporter would be in town, and she seemed prepared for me. She led to me to where she had her father’s accordion and began playing. I had the newspaper’s Cannon EOS with me and took a quick picture as she started playing. I wasn’t really prepared to shoot video — it was a windy day and we don’t have a proper mic with wind guard as you can hear — but something told me this could be interesting. I switched the DSLR to video mode and held the camera as steady as I could.

Deanna is a great storyteller and as she talked and sang, I knew this could be a fun video. She later shared some photos of her father with me to include in the video. I was concerned the wind noise might drown out her voice at times, so I learned how to do captioning on YouTube.