Geo bee in the beehive

"Elliot Goble (far left) looks to the scoreboard as Justin Warnick, Thomas Martineau and Kylie Pearson dreadfully wait their next chance to answer questions in the preliminary round of Utah's 22nd annual National Geographic Bee in The Gardens at Thanksgiving Point in Lehi, Friday, April 9, 2010."

When I was in fourth-grade, I remember participating in a geography bee. I don't think I made it very far, but oddly enough I remember my good neighborhood friend Brad winning the entire thing.

I am not sure what he won, but that was the last time I even remember attending or talking about a geography bee. And the more I think about it, I wonder why I never majored in geography. I love learning new things about the world and I love traveling.

Anyways, fast forward more than a decade later, here I was at Utah's 22nd annual National Geographic Bee in The Gardens at Thanksgiving Point in Lehi.

I wasn't too thrilled to be there although it seemed to be the hot assignment in the state. Other shooters from the other pair of newspapers in town talked about how they had requested the assignment.

The first part of the morning was dull and slow. I did my best to try and answer the questions (quietly in my head obviously) and capture the anxiety of the contest.

As the day progressed, the emotion vanished. I thought it would have been more heartbreaking to lose in the final round than the preliminary one. Yet that wasn't the case.

So most of the frames I moved were from the first round.

On a side note, the winner (not pictured) had trouble getting out of a room at one point of the day. Announcing aloud that he couldn't get the pull door open. It was a push open.

Conversely, he could answer just about anything relating to geography.

Ah, the irony.