Years ago, I covered local radio and TV, a beat that often found me writing profiles of local radio and TV personalities such as Don Weeks and Liz Bishop. Profiles are always a challenge, but I found radio stories difficult because how the people sounded was such a big part of who they were. And how they sounded was difficult to nail down in words.

The written word can powerfully describe the world around us. But the Internet is giving us new tools to help us enhance the stories we write.

Video is our newest tool. Gazette reporters this week learned terms such as B-Roll and voice-over as they got their first briefing on using the simple video cameras we’ve acquired.

Reporters are generally open to trying something new, especially if it makes for a better story. They may grumble a bit, but not usually for long. When it comes to video, for example, they’re worried about how they’ll be able to do their traditional job — which involves writing in a notebook — when they’ve got a camera in their hands.

They see the possibilities as well. Sportswriters Mike MacAdam and Phil Janack will have video cameras with them throughout the upcoming Saratoga racing season. And today we’re posting our seventh video, of fun-spirited Schoharie County officials playing longball, a traditional American Indian game, after today's Board of Supervisors meeting at the Iroquois Indian Museum.

To view all the videos, go to www.dailygazette.com/videos.

I’m just sorry we didn’t have our new cameras last year, when the supervisors dressed in Revolutionary War era garb and pretended they were back in 1777.

Judy Patrick is managing editor of the Daily Gazette.