Considering a 5th consecutive year of watching every sunrise…

TL;DR:

Introducing BugsyLand™. For just 28¢ per sunrise we can put a whole lot more sunny (and cloudy) content into the world. Think of it as Bugsy+ or BugsyPrime, or my personal Patreon. This membership model offsets the growing financial cost of sunrise travel, server costs, and helps justify about 30-40 hours/week on this project.

You can subscribe Monthly ($10 USD), Yearly ($100 USD), or Lifetime ($1,000 USD) if you really want to shock me. New membership perks are coming!

The truth is, after 1,613 consecutive sunrises I’m not ready to be done sunrising. It is also true that I can no longer justify the time, energy, and cost of continuing Year of the Sunrise as it presently stands.

For the first two years years I chased the sunrise for myself, and found so much of what I needed from these sunrise years. For the last two years, after hearing so many stories of what these sunrises mean to others, it’s been time to do it for for you.

Here’s one of my favorite examples. This is what I want to inspire more of.

But I’m going to need a little help for this to continue.

Why, what’s changed?

Since YOTS began in 2019 the project has grown in scope.

• Through all of 2019, it was rare that I made a social media post other than the monthly release of photos. Now, I make an effort to post to Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok daily. Social media is the first thing to go when time is limited.
• For over two years now, I have committed to taking video each day in addition to still photos. If this project can become successful financially, I would love to publicly archive these into what I’ll call SunriseTV.
• I now manage the Sunrise Gallery which requires upkeep, restocking, and staffing. This gallery has changed everything, it has been such a joy to see countless people interact with the gallery.
• Life has also changed. In the middle of a pandemic, my rent increased 61%. Ouch. While also losing my business partner.

Chasing sunrise is expensive

• Hard drives are full
• Servers need to be migrated
• iCloud space is maxed out
• Web services such as image storage, newsletter management, ecommerce management, have increased in cost
• Blew through another pair of boots, rain pants, rain jacket, gloves, tripod, and gimbal in 2021 alone
• I also fear that my decade old camera and 20-year-old lens could give out on me any day

Let’s talk time, energy, & commitment

An inspired sunrise is easily a one hour commitment, if not more. Followed by 1-2 hours of social media management, journaling, and photo editing, a sunrise morning can easily consume 3-4 hours. That alone is equivalent to a half-time job.

Add in time to manage photo editing, prints, products, web development, project requests, correspondence, all without a single day off and YOTS quickly balloons into the equivalent of a full-time job, minus the income to match.

I hope to lean into sunrise even further, creating the largest collection of sunrise photos, paired with data in a way never before done.

Immediate Project Plans

• Edit a backlog of 25,000+ photos.
• Produce the first iteration of a book, which I will call the Sunrise Almanac for now.
• Send out thank you notes and pay acknowledgements to what’s gotten me here so far
• Write more sunrise musings

Future Project Plans

• Publish a series of books (that’s right, the goal is to do more than one)
• Launch SunriseTV
• Open a brick & mortar Sunrise Gallery
• Continue releasing Watch More Sunrises gear
• Build the Sunrise Library
• And of course there are countless web updates here, such as building a search feature, include additional data, showcasing more outtakes, etc.

Introducing BugsyLand™

BugsyLand™ is my membership model for all things Bugsy. Think of it as Bugsy+ or BugsyPrime, or my personal Patreon, where many artists, podcasters, etc. are moving to a membership model to sustain their content. Turns out, I create a lot of content.

This goes well beyond Year of the Sunrise and helps me to investe more time into other community efforts such as 906 Day, Plaidurday, Fresh Coast Film Festival, and of course, encouraging others to watch more sunrises.

The goal, is to continue to inspire more moments like this, this, this, this, this, and more. And if you read the comments here, I would love to inspire more of this in the world while setting out to document sunrise in a way that’s never been done.

For as low as 28¢ per day we can put a lot more sunny (and cloudy) content into the world.

What do you say? Let’s create more, together.

Looking to make a simpler contribution? Consider a monthly coffee to fuel more sunrise content. You can also find me on the Cash app at $BugsySailor.

Not ready to commit? I understand. Considering subscribing to my weekly YOTS newsletter or making a one time contribution with a publication request.

BugsyLand™ Membership Perks

• 10% discount on all Upper Peninsula Supply Co. purchases
• 20% discount on all Year of the Sunrise purchases
• First dibs and discount on any future YOTS books
• Access to exclusive content including sunrise outtakes
• Downloadable mobile and desktop backgrounds
• An small annual token of appreciation
• And much more to come

Most importantly, your membership directly puts more sunrise into the world.

Financial Goals of BugsyLand™

1. Make a living wage (This will require about 320 members, that’s a lot!)
2. Cover increased expenses of web servers, etc.
3. Get back on health insurance for ease of mind
4. Cover my rent, which would be a significant offset for costs at UPSCo.
5. Justify more sunrise travel
6. Financial independence of UPSCo., where the shop can hire a full-time manager

In conclusion…

I’m not ready to be done sunrising, and as your stories of inspiration come in, my motivation continues to grow. But as things stand, my time needs to be accounted for, as my landlords do not accept sunrise photos as payment. But most importantly, more joy and sunrise need to put put into the world.

Let’s keep creating, together.