Sunday Surprise! A bit later for 16th August 2020 (take 2)
Aug 16, 2020 3:25 pm
Hey hey !
Welcome to another edition of the Sunday Surprise from a relatively sunny Sunday (even though the forecast said it was going to be cold & rainy). This week, there's a sneak peak into a new PxR project that I'm really excited about among all the usual random surprises. Hope you like them and as always, I'd LOVE to hear your feedback!
Also, this is a new newsletter and if you've enjoyed it or found any of it useful, please let your friends know so they can subscribe to it! And also, thank YOU for reading along too!
Anyway, on to this weeks surprises...
Watch
The Invisible Centre of our Solar System
Continuing on with last weeks mind-bending science theme of watching light in slow-mo, here's another fact that blew my mind: The sun IS NOT the centre of our solar system!
The link above shows a short video into how the other planets (mainly the gas giants) and matter in our solar system contribute to form the "barycentre" that the sun itself orbits. Well I certainly learnt something new when I saw this.
Listen
https://open.spotify.com/album/2TghiPoSkmltDnGNFrepFV?si=ejZbuTkETuqO3YLNtiinHg
So you may already know that BT is one of my favourite artists and this week I couldn't help but feature the newest album that's come out just a few days ago! Called the Lost Art of Longing, it combines his disparate styles into a cohesive album that has a much more "mainstream" slant than his more esoteric works.
If you haven't heard of BT, he's widely credited for inventing the genre of "trance" music, has scored many films including the first Fast and the Furious and even has done the soundtrack to the Shanghai Disney World.
He's dabbled in everything from classical, EDM, ambient and down right experimental and all those traces are in this album but in a MUCH more accessible form. The stand out tracks for me are "1am in Paris", "The Light is Always On" and one of the singles "No Warning Lights".
Hope you enjoy!
Gadget
Didn't see any cool gadgets this last week to be honest. I did fund a small EDC multi-purpose tool on Kickstarter. I haven't done enough due diligence on the company to write any more about it. In case you missed it, here are the gadgets mentioned previous:
PxR update
https://youtu.be/-QIsj2JH928
This week has been all about PxR projects. Firstly the link to the left is for the new intro that will be used on the videos going forward. It's only 8 seconds and there are no videos using it yet.
Secondly, I made a "How I edit" tutorial video using one of my own pictures this week. It's nearly done and will be out for my Patreon followers first. I'll link it in the newsletter for you guys after 2 weeks and then eventually release it to Youtube much later (here's a sneak peak!).
Jigsaw Puzzle Kickstarter!
Ok ok... I've spent the better part of the last 72 hrs trying to get this done so I could link to it here but sadly, the review takes a while and I there's no links to it yet, but I'll be starting my very first Kickstarter campaign in the next few days!!!
It all started as a chat with some of the staff at work (some who maybe reading this!) as a request to convert one of my Antarctica photos into a 1000 piece jigsaw to do during these lockdowns. After looking through the options, it looks like we would need a minimum order of about 100 to bring the price down to $50. We easily found enough people for 30 but for the last 70 I'll turn to Kickstarter and see if I can find some kindred souls wanting some jigsaw action!
The margins are slim but if there's a profit, we'll use it to fund a drinks fridge for the healthcare staff where I work. I'll hopefully have this up and running by next weeks newsletter.
Am definitely a bit excited by this!
Quote I'm pondering
"We are always complaining that our days are few, and acting as though there would be no end of them."
― Seneca
This quote I sums up the impetus for this week: make use of all your days. During these lockdowns I had the luxury of being able to relive the travels from the past few years and found folders and folders of unedited images and half finished projects.
Like everyone else, I find that life is getting busier and busier but that quote does remind that the extra episode of Netflix or scrolling through Facebook takes away from what we recognise is too few days in a lifetime.
Is there a project you've been wanting to start for a while? What is it? As they say, no time like a present...
With that thanks for joining me on yet another week of randomness!
Hope you're staying safe!
- Raffy
PS - Did I mention I'm excited about the Kickstarter?!