We attended my cousin’s wedding yesterday. It was a scorchingly hot day, but it was so fun to catch up with family.

Growing up, my cousin was one of my closer friends. He’s a few years older than I am, but our interests always aligned. Even today, you could put us on the same golf cart and we could talk business for four hours straight.

Congratulations goes out to the handsome groom and the beautiful bride.

Great Reads

How a Canadian U2 Tribute Band Got Onstage With the Real Thing — If you’ve got three minutes of stage time, you have to own it. And this Toronto tribute band did just that.

Kudos to Bono for letting these guys steal his show for a few minutes.

How Your Favorite Baseball Team Blows Its Money — Growing up, I cheered for the Blue Jays and the New York Mets. Year after year, both teams found their way to the bottom of their divisions. After a while, I became lukewarm for both.

In their place, the storied Yankees, heavy-spending Dodgers, and equally-heavy-spending Angels took ahold of me. No, I don’t just cheer for perennial winners. I cheer for teams whose management has upped the ante and doubled down on their investment in the team. Without a salary cap, management squads who want to win can win if they dig deep enough into their pockets. Salary caps equalize the playing field, sure. But teams who want to be the best and who want to win should be allowed to buy wins if they choose — just like every other industry on the planet.

The Art of Price and Value — Wise words and a spot-on visual from Shawn.

The Work We Do While We Sleep — Many people I follow and talk to on a daily basis swear by waking up early and getting less sleep. If I wake up with less than 7.5 hours of sleep, I feel like I can’t function. By the time the 2:30 coffee break rolls around, I’m sprinting around the office, slapping my own face, and guzzling a cup of coffee in order to wake up.

Luckily, research suggests my brain is working during those extra hours of sleep. I no longer need to feel guilty.

The Death Of Conversation — Romero’s photo essay shows something we’ve all grown used to over the last decade.

Since the beginning of the year, I’ve found my phone has morphed into a work device. If my phone beeps or vibrates, 90% of the time the notification is work related. So recently, when I get home at the end of the day, I plug in my phone beside my bed, put it on vibrate, and leave it there for the rest of the night.

My evenings have become more peaceful than ever before.

However, I’m still incapable of being entirely unplugged every evening. The moment my phone is plugged in at the end of the day is the moment my iPad is unplugged to start the evening.

It’s a work in progress.

Photography

Nepal with the Leica Q — I’m not obsessed with the Leica Q, but I am obsessed with the colour of a Leica photograph.

The Best Wedding Photography on 500px — Another Edition, another link to the 500px blog.

The photograph crew at my cousin’s wedding yesterday had incredible amounts of gear. At one point during the ceremony, they had seven DSLRs (three for video, four for stills) running.

After coming across this lengthy list of the best wedding photographs on 500px, I know where the crew finds their inspiration.

Photographing Butterflies with the Olympus 40-150mm f2.8 — I’m in the middle of reviewing the 40-150mm f/2.8 Pro and I’ve made a note to discuss the lens’ macro capabilities. If you’re able to shoot with the E-M5 Mark II’s 40MP high resolution mode, you can crop these macro photos down and still have incredible detail.

Must Sees

Star Wars: The Force Awakens - Comic-con 2015 Reel — If you’re looking to avoid any spoilers or shots of any Star Wars set, don’t click on this link.

Floating Along the Milky Way — You may not watch the entire video, but it’s hard not to be amazed by just how far we humans can see out into the abyss.

Montmartre, the quiet hour — Jaclyn’s eyes lit up when we walked into the Montmartre area of Paris a few years ago. The buzzing shops were right up her alley.

However, catching those shops and those roads without tourists or native Parisians was an impossible dream. I’m not sure how this video was captured, but I’m impressed none the less.

Great Stuff

Kaweco Brass Sport: Fine Nib — I was told this is the new hotness in the fountain pen world. I can’t wait to get my hands on it.

Nock Co. DotDash Spiral Pad — There is no better paper pad for a desk than this new Nock Co. DotDash pad. I’m in love with mine.

Dyson DC65 Animal Upright Vacuum Cleaner — This is a bit of an odd way to cap off an Edition, but this tool played a major role in our move last week. We bought our Dyson vacuum after we got married, and my vacuum cleaner has been my absolute favourite piece of technology we own to this day. My home is filled with devices and gadgets, but this vacuum cleaner is far and away the best thing we have.

Our new condo still isn’t wired for internet, so this morning’s Sunday Edition has been crafted with a wireless keyboard and an iPhone 6 Plus.

What a pain.

Nobody can say you can’t produce content from an iPhone, but this morning’s work has been far more difficult than I care to admit.

Happy Sunday.

Great Reads

A Most Dangerous Game — Street fighting, football, and stretchers: There doesn’t appear to be a more violent sport than the one played on Florentine streets.

(Via Audacious Fox)

The Perfect Workspace (According to Science) — I love this Albert Einstein quote:

If a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, of what, then, is an empty desk a sign?

(Via The Brooks Review)

GTD in 15 minutes – A Pragmatic Guide to Getting Things Done — As its name suggests, this is a fun look into the surprisingly complicated process of GTD.

On Apple Music — Kevin’s take on Apple Music appears to be shared by many people. Discovering new music and new artists has become far easier than ever before.

But when Jac and I headed to Grand Forks yesterday to join in some American Independence Day festivities, I had to switch my phone into Airplane Mode and rely on locally stored music for the trip. This may not have an impact for everyone, but it immediately scared me away from switching to a subscription-based, streaming-only music library.

We seriously need a cellular communications company to make waves in the international sphere.

Travel

Exploring Mount Pinatubo — A photo essay with next to no words. These are my favourite kind.

I recommend following Jelito on Instagram as well. Every shot is a work of art.

A Turtle’s View of the Great Barrier Reef — It’s time to strap a couple GoPros to the back of a shark and see Mother Nature at work.

Switzerland on film, Part I. — Switzerland just took a leap to the top of our “Must See” list for next year’s Euro trip.

You can find Part II here.

Made in Oakland, part I — Like the 500px blog, VSCO Grid is full of great photo essays. Granted, all are made with VSCO filtered-photos, but it doesn’t make not buying a plane ticket any easier.

Photography

Fun On The Street with E-M5 Mark II Titanium — Long story short, the titanium coloured E-M5 Mark II is the same as the other E-M5 Mark IIs.

However, there are a pile of images here and most are shot with the Panasonic Leica Nocticron 42.5mm f/1.2 lens. I’ve been obsessing over this overly-expensive lens for some time, and this article doesn’t help.

Micro 4/3 Portrait Lens Shoot Out! Leica Nocti vs Voigtländer Nokton vs Olympus — As I said earlier, the Nocticron appears to be an overly-expensive lens. I’m impressed to see how these other lenses measure up.

A quick aside: Tyson’s product photography is absolutely admirable. I watched a short video of him putting a black and white filter on his product shots in Photoshop and then colouring the colour back into the photo. Brilliant.

Juuso Hämäläinen on Instagram — This photo came up in my Instagram timeline this week and my jaw literally dropped. Here’s the link to the Instagram contest Juuso entered.

Other Cool Links

Audacious Fox — Kyle took a bit of a hiatus over the past few months, but I’m glad to see AF back and better than ever. Kyle has brought a contributing editor on board as well, so I’m looking forward to the body of work to come.

Chicago’s ‘cloud tax’ makes Netflix and other streaming services more expensive — Seems like Chicago’s city council is keen on implementing tax laws swiftly. This isn’t the first time the city has been quick to adopt odd tax laws.

MKCA’s 5:1 Apartment — I would need to learn the patience to rearrange my home every few hours, but the thought of needing so little space to enjoy a high standard of living is enticing. I can see why these kind of apartments could become popular in major urban centres around the world.