Vertical Scope, the Canadian-owned giant that touts a whopping 30 million unique monthly visitors amid its 300-plus web properties, according to its Google Analytics report March 2011, announced yesterday via Twitter that rumors of its acquisition of what is purportedly the largest off-road website upon the web, Pirate4X4.com, were in fact true, adding to its massive portfolio of automotive, powersports, power equipment, sports, action sports and technology websites.

Found this skateboarding video on Vimeo, which happens to be one of my favorite video hosting websites for its HD video file size capabilities. Vimeo's general reach isn't as great as YouTube. But its branding capabilities through its pro accounts is fashionable for marketers looking for a professional social video platform. This skateboarding video features a testicular torture test that takes place on the ski slopes. Skateboarders negotiate rail slides and grinds during during half time of a Canadian snowboard competition.

Shred or die. Skate or die. I remember the days roaming the San Gabriel Valley in the back of Chris Sanchez' pickup truck and hunting down the sweetest skate spots of the SoCal skate scene. It was grungy. It was on the fly. And it was no big time action sports marketing venue in the making. The average day of the SGV skater was not web casted onto YouTube. And it wasn't promoted by the X-Games might. It was raw and in the flesh. Wounds ran deep. Broken bones snapped to attention like the hard core scene that it was.

Here's a link for photographers, videographers and radio reporters alike. It's one of my all-time favorite companies for photo, audio and video equipment. And they have a great selection of used goods. I have been using them since the early years of my career as a photographer, dating back to the early-90s. Back then, B&H Photo distributed a regularly-published newsletter crafted from stapled paper. I purchased tens of thousands of dollars of equipment from that publication throughout the years. This link was inspired by Twitter friend JustinBrown17, specifically his reply to my post regarding photojournalist camera equipment and my prized Domke Camera Bag for working the newspaper scene. The photo used for this post was ripped from his Twitter page. Direct any photo credit therein. The kid's got motocross game. Just needs to begin branding his Twitter page. Check it.

I had mentioned I squeezed the trigger on a Gallery2 open source photo gallery install. Installing Gallery2 was quite simple. Though, integrating Gallery2 into the Joomla CMS was a bit more difficult but not like pulling teeth on a angry bear. I used the JFusion bridge component.

It's been a while since I've been in the swing of things and catching up on a whole lotta races. Don't get me wrong. I love racing. Get me the aroma of race fuel and some sort of camera (preferably a pro still or video camera), and I'm there. We had the opportunity to scout out the layout of the land and develop a strategy we're engaged at this weekend at the Lucas Oil Off Road Racing Series season opener in Las Vegas. It was a one day deal. We slammed some photos in as well as managed to post some updates upon various social media channels.

I grabbed hold of this shot through the lens of one of my favorite Nikon cameras. Navigating to the Southern Nevada Off Road Race Enthusiasts (SNORE) race was an effort to capture some 2010 SNORE Battle At Primm photos. The job is done and will prove to be one of the greatest off-road races of the season.

It was inevitable. I called it out the day I left. I understood full well, as managing editor (or "Managing Partner" =), who was taking reigns and how little they understood the dynamics of the industry and the core lifestyle of its community. It may have taken two years longer than I and many others had anticipated but it's official. Advastar Communications gave up Off-Road.com, selling it to (perhaps) a more formidably savvy web publisher, which appears geared to make gains on its investment straight way after squeezing the trigger. Off-Road.com, the once off-road industry mega site that was rumored to shut down its doors and even its web servers, sold to VerticalScope.

Do I stream? Do Ustream? Well, if you're considering launching a web cast that seeks to stream a live audio or live video show, then Ustream is an excellent platform to place your web streaming efforts into. I love the social media channel for its compartmentalized embed options, which can be easily tailored to your website's design layout. If you're not familiar with Ustream, a decent place to begin delving into how the platform works is found within the embedded video upon this page.