Hello friends!
This week’s email comes to you from Washington State. We’re covering travel plans, a little life update, some behind the scenes projects, and our new video! Let’s get into it.
Woah, woah, woah. I forgot something, didn’t I? Yes! Happy Father’s Day! Us kids are all thankful for all you amazing dads out there.
Now we begin.
Travel Plans
Next week, after my friend Charlie’s funeral on Friday, me and a bunch of high school friends are going on a camp trip together! We’re taking some of his ashes along with us, and we’re all very excited to reconnect, celebrate our friend, and explore the beautiful nature of Washington’s far west. I’ve been to most corners of this fantastic state, but this is a new one. And it looks breathtaking.
Shi Shi Beach, Washington. We’ll be camping nearby. |
Despite the sorry circumstances, we’re all ecstatic to be coming together. Adulthood has swept us all up in a wave of work and responsibilities, so to spend a few days throwing sticks in the ocean, setting up tents, sharing stories, and hiking sounds like a truly special time.
Reyka will be flying back to Ohio when I leave for the camp trip, and I will be following along close behind next Tuesday.
After that, we spend a week or two in Ohio with Reyka’s family before heading south again!
Where are we going? El Salvador and Nicaragua! With volcanos, pupusas, and lakes, El Salvador seems like an absolute gem. It’s gone through quite the transformation these past few years, modernizing and becoming a lot safer than it used to be. Nicaragua’s been on our list since 2021 when we met a traveller who said Nicaragua was his favorite country. Just look at this lake and tell me it doesn’t look insane. 🤯
Life Update
What’s that old saying – “no news is good news?” Well, if that’s true then boy, do we have good news! Lol.
These past two weeks have been simple. Family time, exercising, editing videos, filming on our new camera….
Oh, yeah! I guess we do have real news. We got a new camera! We got the Sony ZVE1 with a 16-35 MM Zoom lens. If that sounds expensive to you, you’d be correct!
It was quite the investment and our pockets are a lot lighter after, but just seeing the preliminary videos has confirmed that this purchase was long overdue. The colors and clarity, the stabilization and range – we have high hopes that this full frame sensor will level up our video quality. We are still working out the controls, but we can’t wait to start filming with it.
We also got a new drone! Flying it the other day, I could feel that my skills had gone rusty. The last time I flew a drone was back in February in Uruguay just before the hawk nabbed it, and it is so fun to capture those aerial shots again.
Our equipment has officially been upgraded.
Behind the Scenes Projects
When traveling and vlogging, there is always something to do. Laundry, editing videos, trip planning, cooking, etc, etc. The list goes on. However, whenever we are at home, it frees up time to focus on projects we’ve been putting off!
One such project has been to get a video sponsored. A video sponsor pays creators to recommend their product or service to the creator’s audience. Many creators seem to earn a lot of income from it, so we’ve been meaning to prioritize it.
As a rule, we’ll never recommend something we don’t use and love. But there are many things we do love, made by companies who often sponsor videos.
- Ebags – Both our backpacks
- Owala – Waterbottle
- ENO – Hammock
- Manscaped – Travel face shaver
- SafetyWing – Traveller’s insurance.
To get their attention, we filmed some videos for them and we’re going to send them over, as a sort of, “Hey! Look what we can do for you if you sponsor a video!” Only time will tell if it works. Reyka is editing up those videos now, so if all goes well we’ll have some sponsorship commitments by next week’s newsletter!
New Video
Last week’s video is an absolute gem, all about the world’s southernmost city – Ushuaia. If you’re curious about penguins, prisons, trains, and life in a remote location, look no further.
This week’s video is coming out tomorrow, instead of yesterday when it should have. We are trying something new by posting a full length video, combining all of our smaller Argentina videos into a longer documentary Anthony Bourdain style video.
But our laptops are struggling to handle all the data. The final video clocked in at 28 Gb, as we filmed Argentina in 4k, and it’s been an admittedly quite frustrating struggle to export and manage all the data. It’ll be the longest video we’ve ever posted on our channel, and you can expect it tomorrow at 12PM NOON EST. Of course, I’ll also share it in next week’s email.
Anyways, that’s about it.
If you got this far, thanks so much for reading this entire email. It’s genuinely a gift to be able to share about our little lives with you. But I’m curious. What fun plans do you have this summer? Going anywhere cool, local or further away?
I want to hear about it!
Love,
Wyatt (and Reyka)