Early in the year, Race-Dezert.com was approached for the purpose of initiating an advertising campaign. A fraction of the initiative was unconventional and something I had yet to see upon the web. I wanted to park a brand's Facebook and Twitter widget in the direct line of site and embed it above the fold of editorial and community-created forum content. The conventional banner ad was a no-brainer. But the direct engagement social widget advertising was a request that seemingly fell upon death ears.

Here's what we're browsing today. For those looking to hookup with some slick social applications, this post may not be the best of the best. I don't even think it ranks amid the top 100. There may be some nuggets of note. And it may even be worth a read. Or perhaps I'm burned out on the latest and greatest Twitter apps that don't own up to the fervor. Nevertheless, here's where I wasted my time today. Proceed at own risk. And enjoy.

It's rare that I make my way over here to RDC (Race-Dezert). But after a brief review of a Mint photo thread and seeing some good shots, I thought it a good idea to have a photo showdown. While I'm not going to offer any dough, until we can garner some form of sponsorship, I will offer a tweet or two to the winner's URL of choice and offer some web links to the three nominees referenced here.

This race photo is the second shot in a four-shot sequence captured at the 2010 SNORE Mint 400 desert off-road race and features the Orange County Motorsports Trophy Truck. The truck is seen dropping down from a hairpin turn that quickly developed into a silt bed. Much of the race course, which was located just north of the Las Vegas Strip, consisted of rough rocks and deep silt beds.

It seems as if every time an industry convention or some business mixer emerges, my calendar shuns the event and any hope of mixing it up with forum friends and community colleagues. And when it comes to this year's inaugural Open Camp, which takes place this August 27-29 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Addison, Texas, there is no exception, as it conflicts with one of my favorite stateside desert off-road races, the 2010 Best In The Desert (BITD) Vegas To Reno on August 19-21.

Of the many explosive moments that went down in the during the legendary 2010 SNORE Mint 400 desert off-road race was captured in this shot of the Langley Productions Cops Class 12 car late in the race. The race photos at this location were amid the best of the race. But of all the Mint 400 photos taken, this was by far one of the cleanest of locations, when it comes to keeping the Nikon cameras clean.

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.