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What do you do when you realize that none of it really matters and the whole point is simply to enjoy yourself? What do you do when the sun continues to bless you with rays of warmth and happiness? I guess you can do a multitude of things. We specifically decided to spread our beds (read: towels) next to the water and read a book. Or at least give it a try. It didn’t take long before we were surrounded by groups of teenagers having the same idea as we had. Though they didn’t plan on reading an

Okay so here we are. My first impressions of the Pergear 35mm F1.6. A lens I bought from Amazon for the insanely cheap price of 70(!) euros. There isn’t much else out there for your Fujifilm X-system that costs you less money. While researching the lens online, I couldn’t find much out there that talks about the lens in depth so I’m considering writing a proper long-term review. It’s too soon for that now though so here are a few of my earliest impressions and thoughts: * It’s heavier than my

I wanted to write about something today but I can’t because the thing that prerequisited the intent to write that thing only happened late in the day, therefore my thoughts weren’t granted the blessing of maturity at the time of this writing which means I’ll get back to you tomorrow.

I woke up this morning feeling rested for the first time this week. Perhaps it was the sudden heat we got to experience (and enjoy!) but my quality of sleep had been severely lacking. This morning though, I felt the clarity of mind that I’ve been searching for all week. This sadly didn’t benefit my energy levels at all that afternoon. I could hardly keep my eyes open enough to stare out the window to the sunshine. Thankfully (thankfully!) The moment my feet touched my bicycle pedals to ride ho

So eum… Viewfinder Magazine? Yeah I started working on it today. Here are the rules: * 13x20cm trade book * 24 pages (the minimum) * Go as crazy as possible with the page design * Just a few intro words. No large essays. * Keep it as cheap as possible * Give it away for free to whomever wants it It’ll be a while before it’s finished though. I need to place testing orders which take time as well. In the meantime, I’ll be talking endlessly about One Two One [https://mitchellens.ink/one-two

I switched out my contactlenses for a fresh pair and it has been absolute bliss all day. Perhaps that’s why I could hardly keep my eyes open yesterday [/i-was-having-trouble-keeping-my-eyes-open/]. But that’s not what I want to talk about right now. In fact, I don’t have much at all to talk about. except this one thing... Are you guys familiar with Poolside FM [https://poolside.fm]? If you’re not, I urge you to take a look at it at your earliest convenience. Go ahead and do it right now, I’ll

I was having trouble keeping my eyes open. Perhaps it was the hayfever. Maybe it was because I didn’t sleep too well last night. Nevertheless, my day was filled with many appointments, which felt like hurdles to overcome at the time of my rising in the morning. All I wanted was to sit on my balcony, enjoying the sun. Little did I know that didn’t happen. Not today. After I finished work at 1 PM (technically 10 minutes earlier as I couldn’t sit inside any longer), my first appointment was aroun

The sun! Finally! As a true Dutchman I wasted no time firing up the ol’ barbecue. After a beautiful afternoon of basking in the much-too-late-in-the-year-first-showing-itself sunlight, I’m now patiently waiting for the coals to heat up to the perfect roasting temperature. I know it’s a Monday but a glass of thirst-quenching (an probably later thirst-inducing) white whine could not be missed. Charlotte whipped up a gorgeous couscous salad. Tonight we feast! Everyday is a treasure. Everyday is

Today I went far nor fast. But we did get burgers so I got that going for me. We then watched both Charlie’s Angles movies (the 2019 one doesn’t count). Yeah, it’s one of those types of days.

Another ride today. Another quick one. And it’s a good thing I do these! The moment I drove off my chain fell off one of the tiny sprockets on the derailleur. Can you believe that? It never happened to me before. I was a little confused what happened at first but noticed the culprit soon enough. I guess the combination of sprockets I chose caused it to fail. This probably means there’s too much room inside there but I didn’t have any issues further in the ride. Let’s treat is like an incident f

I drove off in the wrong direction. On purpose. I just had to do it, I couldn’t help myself. After a full day of staring at the first day of beautiful weather outside, I would never forgive myself if I didn’t enjoy it a little bit as well. So the moment I set foot outside the door, I drove off. In the wrong direction. Without a clear plan or destination, I rode by newly restored bicycle through the sunny Dutch landscapes. A landscape I had seen many times before [https://mitchellens.ink/the-si

Yesterday was a pretty well thought out Monologue from my side. Accompanied by the third issue of Dialogue [https://mitchellens.ink/dialogue/003/]. It was a busy day. Today I feel like rambling a little and share some random thoughts. Here it goes. I updated the fonts on the website (Lora and Open Sans). I sorta had to do that, as I want to keep a consistency between my online and my offline work. I plan on making the next few offline works through Blurb, which limits my options for the fonts

I feel kinda bad when people unfollow me online or tell me in real life they aren’t really into my stuff (though I prefer the second one). I know I shouldn’t care but sometimes I can’t help myself. I work so hard on the things I put out and I truly believe in them. I do not think my work is the greatest (yet) but I do think my perspectives are at least worth checking out. Wether that’s written perspectives on a myriad of things (like this Monologue) or literal perspectives on the world that I

An office. A proud tenant of one I am now! I’m sharing it with other people, sure. But that’s one of the features. An environment that breathes inspiration and creativity. A place to share ideas and get work done. A place to hang out. This evening marked the initiation of a new era. Keys were exchanged. New doors were opened. Dimensions have been measured. All that remains to be done is filling these barren spaces with personality. Very soon. But tonight, I sleep a happy man.

The last day of a vacation, what do you spend it on? What can you use it for? Pick out new pillows for the couch? Edit all the photos you’ve taken during the week? Update the photography archive you’re maintaining? Go for a quick ride on your new bike? Run a few errands so you won’t have to bother anymore when other duties are calling again? Write a wall of text structured in questions? All the above?

Sitting down. Laying around. Major headache. Maybe again tomorrow.

Answering the question I posed two days ago [https://mitchellens.ink/here-i-go-again-fujifilm-jpegs/]: is a Fujifilm JPEG image good enough to fulfill my needs? Yes, it just might be. I shot a bunch of photos in different conditions the past two days in RAW+JPEG Fine.1 I then imported them into Lightroom treating the JPEGs as separate photos next to the RAWs.2 Editing the RAW to my liking first and then comparing it to my SOOC JPEG, the JPEG might benefit from some light editing to create tha