It was lucky that we ran into Jan, because otherwise we wouldn’t have backtracked and spent the afternoon crawling through stalagmites hundreds of feet under Montana.

I think any more weight from so many tourists might force the Yellowstone caldera down into the magma that powers all those geysers.

Capitol Reef is like a mini Zion. Not as tall, not as wide, but also fewer people to muck up the scenery.

The 1500-year-old Bristlecone Pine trees tumble into the slowly eroding limestone breaks at a pace measured in centuries.

It takes most people five hours to complete the five mile journey to the top of Angel’s Landing and back. I did it in half that and still took a bit of video now and then, while sucking in much-needed oxygen.

Had I stumbled onto a sales pitch for the Mormon church, disguised as a ranger talk?

I’ve now spent the last two Julys tucked in a car, traveling hundreds of miles a day for weeks on end.

I’m happy with the video learning experience, considering it was a quick-and-dirty interview in a noisy lab that was really just a glorified closet full of fish tanks.

I’ve mentioned before that shooting video during still photo assignments has become a habit of mine. During a roller derby bout I had plenty of time to take some clips, so without further ado, here is Battle on the Bank III featuring the San Diego Derby Dolls vs. Team Legit.

Recently I had the privilege of helping judge the San Diego CityBeat annual photo contest. It was fun despite being conducted through Flickr so that no one could hear my snarky comments. It was also a welcome excuse to ponder photography theory: How does one compare unrelated photos and ultimately choose one over the other, and just what exactly makes a successful photo anyway?