By Les Bowen for Genesee Country Express | Sept. 17, 2011 | Original source not availableThis was one of my first video projects. Coverage of the Springwater Fiddlers Fair had always been a challenge since the experience is all about sound. Though the camera’s microphone quality was less than I would have liked, this was a great first step into video.
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Genesee Country Express
Sports opinion: Sportsmanship is not just for players
By Les Bowen for Genesee Country Express | Sept. 8, 2011 | Original sourceSports columns aren’t my forte as the lede explains. But as I covered a football game the weekend prior to writing this, I observed some blatantly unsportsmanlike conduct by the home team’s coach. Though I didn’t intend the outcome, this column sparked interest from the school’s superintendent and disciplinary action against the coach.
I am not one to generally comment on sports. I admit, I am not the biggest of a sports fan. I don’t religiously watch college or professional sports and if you asked me whether the Bills have a shot against the Chiefs this weekend, I couldn’t tell you. In fact, I had to look up the schedule just to write that sentence and I had no idea until looking that this is the first week of regular season.
However, I do enjoy the part of my job that gives me a sideline pass to high school sports and I’m actually disappointed that none of the three teams we cover at the Express have a home game of football Friday night. Continue reading Sports opinion: Sportsmanship is not just for players
Recreation program brings Nunda kids together
Features are a key element for small weeklies. Here, I covered a routine summer recreation program.
Each weekday morning this summer, as many as 125 school-age children meet at Nunda’s Kiwanis Park. For three hours, they enjoy a range of crafts, organized sports and games.
The published schedule, available at Nunda town and village offices, lists each day’s organized activity. On Monday, when the Express stopped by the pavilion at Kiwanis Park, more than a dozen participants were creating caterpillars and other bugs using cut up egg cartons and chenille stems — commonly referred to as pipe cleaners. Continue reading Recreation program brings Nunda kids together
Rockets’ red glare
I’ve shot hundreds of fireworks. This image is one of my favorite and demonstrates my ability to use a camera’s advanced settings to capture the shot I intend.
Weekly paper changes state policy
Few stories excite me more than document-driven stories stemming from public records requests. Combine that with an angle of advocacy journalism favoring transparency in government and it’s even better. One such instance happened in the spring of 2011, when I exposed and successfully saw the change of a policy in the New York State Comptroller’s Office that forced local governments to violate state law. It took almost three months and close to 3,000 words in print, but transparency prevailed.
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