Marrakesh
Beautiful Cities of the World Collection
Here is another image from the special animated creations for the recent drop on OpenSea.
Here is another image from the special animated creations for the recent drop on OpenSea.
Hey awesome blog reader… you’ll probably be aware that I’ve been delving into the world of NFTs in the past few months. So far, it’s been both a success and an interesting adventure. That continues today with my 2nd drop on OpenSea. This set of NFTs is based around 50 of my favorite cities spanning all seven continents. There are a wide range of configurations (and prices) available and I’d love it if you’d check them out. If you thought an NFT mixed with physical art was odd last time then how about several NFTs, wrapped in an NFT… mixed with some Aave tokens which should appreciate over time??!
The first drop on OpenSea did better than expected and broke $100,000USD in the first three days. This second one already has a lot of interest as more and more collectors are getting into the NFT world. Jump on in! I’ll make a detailed video soon that talks more about what I’ve learned, mistakes I’ve made, some new ideas, and other interesting stuff from this wild wild west of cryptofun.
Also, if you’re an NFT curious artist, be sure to sign up for Passport where I’ve been sharing videos about my NFT experience so far. If you’re thinking about listing your own, you may find those helpful. Speaking of your own NFTs, I’m now starting to invest back into other projects so if you launch something cool tag me on Twitter and I’ll be sure to take a look. 🙂
I ordered it here in New Zealand, so I might be the Last Person in the World to actually receive it. But, no matter, I am beyond excited anyway. I don’t really buy stuff for myself… I’m the least materialistic person in the world. I drive an old pickup truck now. However, that car looks like so much fun (and so much more efficient) that I could not say no!
My memory is SO BAD. I really can’t believe it. I remember going to this amazing restaurant in Morocco, but I can’t remember the name, or even the city. There’s a 70% chance it is Marrakech, a 20% chance it is Rabat, and a 10% chance it is Fez. I’m pretty sure of that, although that’s like being sure of nothing. And, of course, I don’t remember the name of the restaurant, because it would be pretty easy to look up. Anyway, at least I got an interesting photo of a mysterious place!
I have never seen this video before. It’s 80’s redonk…
Don’t forget you can click on “Morocco” up just above this area to see all the photos from my recent 3-week trip to Morocco. I love that place so much! 🙂
Isn’t this a civilized place to have a glass of wine at the end of the day in Marrakech, Morocco? I certainly think so! I was still taking photos, processing, and watching the amazing evening. In fact, I was so excited about taking this photo, that I immediately moved it over to my laptop and processed it. What an amazing evening… I think one of the best things about this place is the lighting. It’s sort of a little surprise that appears as soon as the sun goes down.
One of the coolest things about being in Marrakech was being up high when the mosques call their faithful to come pray many times per day. From the top of every mosque you hear all kinds of sounds and songs… I have no idea what they are saying, but it does sound kind of awesome.
It was a long and windy drive from Aït Benhaddou to Marrakech, but it was totally stunning. There were about ten other places I wanted to stop in the mountains, but I didn’t have the time. But maybe this one mosque was just enough. I was surprised there was still snow on the mountains, and it made for the perfect background.
If you’re B&W-curious, I recommend this software from Nik. It can do some amazing things to photos to give them a special kind of pop. I tend to like some of this high-key stuff, but my tastes are also changing a bit… maybe not changing… evolving? Is that the right word? I don’t know… maybe I am just moody and my tastes pop around randomly with little rhyme or reason!
This is one of most scenic mosques in this area. They would not let me inside, me being a non-muslim and this sort of thing. So I would just stay outside and take photos of interesting people as they passed by. I got many photos of the mosque by itself, but it seems more interesting with people.
I hung out around mosques quite a bit in Morocco and would see men come in multiple times throughout the day for the call to prayer. One thing I noticed that I thought was a bit odd — is that everyone came out looking quite serious and dour.
As you may know, we are currently in an early testing phase of The Arcanum, but one question we often get is “How do critiques work?” Well here is a how-to video of everything that happens up to and including the critique. Another cool thing about these is that every single critique is saved on YouTube and submitted to the Grand Library inside… so you can just sit there and watch critiques all day if you like!
This video comes from the Arcanum Leveling Guide for levels 1-10.
This is a good example of why it’s nice to have a fast, prime lens at dark situations! Many experienced people will already know this, but I’ll explain it for those that don’t! When you shoot at night, it’s hard to get a lot of light into the camera quickly to make a good photo. But if you have a wide open aperture, in this case, f/1.4, you can take very fast shots that are not blurry without too much noise. The other nice side-effect (or maybe even, the main-effect) is that you get this nice depth-of-field effect where only one bit is in focus as the foreground and background fade away into bokeh.
We are excited to announce this very first public stage of The Arcanum! This is an early beta, but we are rolling with Masters and Apprentices to test out the system. The video below shows what is happening behind the scenes as well as some bonus info. Enjoy, and thanks again for your enthusiasm! 🙂
What a dream come true it was to get to this place! Ever since I was a kid, I wanted to go to Morocco to see what it was like. Actually, I was kind of confused by all the Indiana Jones movies and I thought that all the Africa scenes were here in Morocco, but that wasn’t entirely the case! Anyway, I was not disappointed. On this particular night, I found a good high spot over the market area and felt lucky to have an amazing sunset falling over the old city…