About

Hi there! 👋 My name is Mitchel Lensink, and I am a photographer, writer and walker from The Netherlands. You can call me Mitch. I mostly use my photography as a reason to explore and my exploring is mostly done during long walks, both around my home and during my travels. I capture those explorations in my monthly newsletter ‘Dialogue’, as well as the videos I create for my YouTube channel.

I document daily life as it happens in front of me. Mundane scenes, exciting events, sweeping (urban) landscapes and small details, everything can be beautiful to me. Though even when things aren’t beautiful, they can still be interesting and worthy of documentation.

Other than that, I try to delegate as much time as possible to creating (photography) projects, walking and cycling around the Dutch landscapes, and getting better at writing. I love to travel and see new places but staying in and making room for some deep thinking is also fine. Oh and I have a master's in Psychology, which might explain my fondness for the latter.

One of my current aspirations is to walk the entirety of the Dutch coast and document it as I go. Perhaps I can even find some socio-economic relevance with that walk when combined with climate change and a rising sea-level in a country fighting for land since its existence. I dunno, I’m still working on the details but at least you’ll have an idea of where my head is at.

I don’t like social media and messaging apps that much but I do read my email.

You can also watch this video if you want to learn a little more about me.

Travel

An overview of my past and upcoming trips can be found below. Feel free to send me a message when I'm in your area and you want to connect. You can find an overview of my trips on my Nomad List profile.

Publications

2020 The Silence Around
2021 One Two One
2023 The Efflorescence

Exhibitions

2015 No Days Off @ Voltage
2017 Wildlife @ Tjommies
2018 Larlboro Might Release party @ Tjommies
2020 The Silence Around @ Blauwdruk FLUOR
2020 The Silence Around @ Public Library Amersfoort
2022 De Ontluiking @ Stadscafe
2023 De Ontluiking (Extended) @ Oost West
2023 Dialogue @ Blauwdruk 033, Kunsthal KAdE

Gear

I know, I know, gear doesn’t matter right? On the other side, knowing nothing about gear isn’t helpful as well so you can find my most used pieces of equipment below. Feel free to reach out if you have any further questions about my experience with certain kit, I’m always happy to help.

• Fujifilm X100V
• Fujifilm X-Pro3
• Fujifilm XF18mm f2.0
• Fujifilm XF35mm f2.0
• Fujifilm XF50mm f2.0
• Fujifilm XF16-55mm f2.8
• DJI Action 2
• MacBook Pro 14 Inch 2021 (base model)

Tech Stack

Running a solo business as a photographer and writer (creator, entrepreneur, whatever you want to call it) is as easy as it’s ever been but still benefits from quite a few tools. You can find the list of my essentials and the money I pay for them below.

Some of these links pay me a small commission for your purchase that keep this website going at no additional cost for you.

Ghost(Pro)

My preferred website CMS and newsletter tool. It’s simple, fast and easy to use. There are cheaper options but Ghost allows me to focus on creating stuff, instead of endlessly tinkering with unnecessary details. I use a slightly modified Galerie Theme by Eduardo Gomez.

Smugmug

I’m building an extensive online archive of all my work and to do that, I use Smugmug. The lowest tier, which is weirdly called the ‘Power Plan’, is sufficient for my uses. Pretty much all my photos are properly named, dated, (geo)tagged and uploaded into dedicated folders. Most of the images from my archive are also available for licensing.

Backblaze

Every serious creator needs a backup strategy so my MacBook and LaCie HDD gets backed up constantly to Backblaze’s unlimited storage cloud service. The Personal backup plan is fine for most solo-creators.

Plausible

My website analytics service of choice. Although Google Analytics is free and Google usually are great in delivering exactly what you want at the right time, I’m not a big fan of their services. The reason they are so good inherently comes with a loss of privacy and control over your online data. Instead, I prefer to pay a small yearly fee for my analytics. This allows me to keep track of the performance of my content and the privacy of my users safe at the same time.

Lightroom Classic CC

Believe me, I’ve looked at the other options but Lightroom Classic CC still is the best editing software for me. The small monthly fee in combination with the features I need, makes it the only option for me. Competitors either don’t offer the required features or have higher prices. I’m still open to recommendations though so feel free to send them in.

iA Writer

The pricing I mentioned above gives a slightly distorted image of reality because I actually paid for this app twice. iA Writer is priced at €49,99 per platform and I bought it for both MacOS and iOS. A simple folder in iCloud keeps both libraries in sync so I can easily start writing on my phone and finish on my MacBook. It’s a beautifully minimal experience and the plaintext markdown files are future proof, which is a big plus for me.

Obsidian

Just like iA Writer, Obsidian is nothing but a glorified folder of plain text files but, just like iA Writer, it's a perfect way to work with those files. Where iA is mostly used for long(er)-form writing like my newsletter and other essays, Obsidian is used for my personal wiki and note keeping. Random thoughts, ideas, project overviews, everything is tracked and organized here.

Final Cut Pro

I'm no video-editor yet but I've purchased the full version of Final Cut Pro, so the intention is definitely there. It's intuitive software that allows me to make my newbie-edits quickly, but also leaves room for more advanced workflows. I hope to update this paragraph with better insights soon.

Shopify Basic

I run my store on Shopify for its ease of use. I'm on the Basic plan and don't use any additional plugins. The €28 per month might sound steep but is worth it for the service they offer. I sell my books, zines, and wallpaper packs at this time, but plan to add multiple products of different kinds soon. Shopify gives me the peace of mind I can do so without any constraints so I can dream without limits.

Music

One of my less serious ventures is curating playlists. Mostly for my own enjoyment, though I also enjoy it when other people do. I’m not a self-proclaimed music tastemaker, snob, critic, whatever you want to call it, by any means. I’m merely an enthusiast, a consumer if you will, that likes to create playlists so that I don’t have to think about what I’m listening to every time.

Endless Cycle

I currently have two playlists I’m sufficiently happy with that I dare to share them here. The first one is called Endless Cycle and mostly contains songs that are way too long and monotonous for most people but that’s exactly what I like. I update it semi-regularly.

The subtitle is ‘songs to ride your bike to’ and, in my opinion, this is the perfect background music to keep you going on those long bike-rides. It’s endless tunes that never get distracting while always remaining pleasant. Though those two go hand in hand most of the time anyway. Oh and don’t feel obliged to ride your bike while listening to this playlist. You're allowed to play it during a variety of other activities as well. It’s okay.

After the party

The second playlist is called After The Party and is mostly down-tempo R&B, Hip Hop, Soul and Electronic music. It’s a little bit of everything but it’s always slow and mellow. I update it only when I come across a proper addition.

If that’s not your type of thing, try listening to it on an afterparty. You know, those ones where you actually need to go to sleep but you just don’t want the evening to end. Alternatively, this works as very good background music as well (you see how a trend for background-able music starts to emerge here).

So that’s it as far as music goes for me. Of course I listen to many other things but I think these two playlist sum up quite well what my day-to-day vibe is. If you can relate, perhaps we should vibe (sorry I went there) sometime as well.

Contact

You can use the form below to send me an email. I usually have a reply ready within a day or so.

I am also on Mastodon

De Lens
Chamber of commerce: 64135276
Van Obdamstraat 42
3814 TD
Amersfoort
The Netherlands