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It’s not difficult to be exceptional, all you need to do is persevere when others would’ve quit. As I’ve mentioned multiple times before, these Monologues are mostly notes to self. A note to self is basically a reminder for yourself in the future. A message to future-you, if you will. Today’s Monologue is specifically a message to future-Mitch. I want to make record of what I currently think is a good way to approach my role, you know, in life and society and such. The trouble is, I haven’t be

Almost forgot to write a few words today. Why? Because I was at work all day. Then had a meeting immediately after. A good meeting. One that might be a good start of something beautiful. One that inspired me. A meeting that pushes me to be better. To search for new boundaries. Explore new territory. Expose people to my work. And other superlatives.

I’m sitting in a chair with a very content cat in my lap. I can’t be bothered to walk to my computer to write a thoughtful piece about my progress of today. Part of that can be attributed to the fact that I haven’t made much progress. That’s on purpose. I keep repeating to myself that downtime should be part of the discipline and today I’m adhering to that advice. It’ll make me a better, more productive, person tomorrow. Until then, I have a very content cat in my lap.

As you probably know (probably not), as a photographer I make a filthy amount of money (no I don’t). Therefore I have actively decided (everybody else in my surroundings started doing it), to teach myself (listen to a podcast) how to start investing my money. It immediately became clear to me (I slowly started to realize), that it’s smart to spread your investments over different types of assets. As I worked my way to becoming an expert (I’m almost a novice now), I might be well on my way to st

today will be just a quick update. I have added the miniature photo project I shot the other week to my Projects page [https://mitchellens.ink/projects/]. It also has a separate page [https://mitchellens.ink/winter-allotment/] of course. I also decided on a name1: Winter Allotment. It’s not a fancy name but the project itself isn’t fancy as well and it’s descriptive of the exact contents. I think it works. I’m also working on an idea for my next issue of my newsletter, Dialogue. If you havent’

I have this bad habit of piling up my editing work until the point that I can no longer take it and go through it all at once. Sure, I do a few edits here and there as I keep everything synced to my phone. This allows me to make some progress in those empty moments during the day. The final revision and proper export need to be done on my computer though. This is where it gets tricky for me. I just can’t bring myself to export all that work all the time. It’s too much time in front of a screen

The first ‘DO YOU REGISTER? [https://mitchellens.ink/do-you-register]’1 is online since yesterday. This is exiting because it means that I actually followed through with the idea. It’s now an actual thing, rather than just another thought in my head to endlessly ponder. Now for further development, I plan to stick to the exact same concept and format. Just in different locations. I hope to create a collection, an overview even, of common modern day settings. Perhaps for future reference. Maybe

Even when nothing happens, so many things happen. Despite an image being static, its subjects can never be. In a time where everything seems to have taken up an unbelievably fast pace, we can all benefit from a little peace and quiet. But even then, in the most boring settings, the most serene scenes, the movement of daily life is untameable. Luckily, the joy of waking up early and witnessing the sunrise is not lost. We can still enjoy a quiet moment to ourselves. It’s beautiful, yes. Serene,

This morning I gave the videography idea a go. It required me to get up pretty early but that hasn’t been an issue for me at al lately. My day-night rhythm has skewed quite a bit to early mornings and early nights. Is that part of becoming older? Anyway, the videos were a success, I think. As I still have to take a good look at them. One thing I can tell you is that they are extremely boring. Which is a good thing. They’re pure registrations. As soon as I figure out what my plan with these is

I have a new idea involving video that might become an important contribution to my over-arching purpose as a creator1. I might be able to find some alignment with my photography, my writing and whatever else I’m working on at the moment. It won’t be much, but it might be fun enough and that’s enough. Speaking of purpose, I think I’m able to formulate something resembling one for the first time ever. This will obviously go through numerous iterations as I progress but for now, I might be on th

I was so excited about yesterday’s miniature photo project [https://mitchellens.ink/a-miniature-photography-project/], that I started mocking up a little Zine today. Why? 1. This is a good opportunity to further experiment with printing my work. Experience it in a physical form. 2. It’s the perfect time to play around with Affinity Publisher (an Adobe InDesign alternative) for the creation of the layout. 3. I need to fill my portfolio with more projects. It doesn’t matter that th

The moment I turn around the corner, all I can see is this beautiful light. It hits the tiny little rooftops straight on, as the afternoon slowly fades. Time is waning and I have to move quickly. I park my bike and run up the stairs of my apartment building. I need to unburden myself from these groceries. Trade them in for my camera. As I’m in the process of unpacking, I make a decision on the lens I want to use. The Tokina 135mm f2.8 that I use through an adapter. “The extra reach will be nece

Okay fine, I concede. Yesterday’s photos are turning out pretty great in the edit. That makes me feel pretty great as well. Maybe, just maybe I was making a fuss for nothing again yesterday. Move along, nothing to see here.

Today I had my first client shoot in months. It’s been a while and that has been a good thing. When I say this I’m not counting the work I still do for the local paper. That’s routine at this point though so it’s not as mentally challenging as other shoots. Which also reveals my point, I find it quite a bit harder to work for other people these days. This has always been the case when compared to personal work. I just notice that I used to enjoy doing this type of work way more than I do now.

> I’m just sitting around charging my camera batteries, waiting for the snow to fall. — Mitch (@lensinkmitchel) February 6, 2021 [https://twitter.com/lensinkmitchel/status/1358048386759467009?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw]

You might’ve deduced it from previous stories but I also have a part-time office job. It’s a golden combination with my artistic ventures as I can freely pursue my photography, without having to worry about possibly having too little income. The job has been a little busy lately though. I won’t have time for much story writing other than what I just did. Sometimes the things happen as they happen.

The layout of the black & white squares project (still no name for it as of yet) is now fully up on my wall. It’s not quite there yet. Or not at all? But at least there is a visual representation of what direction the project should head into. I did notice that, even though I try to approach photography in a different way for this project, I still tend to do certain things in certain ways. Though concurrently I can definitely start to discern some trends here and there. Last weekend I went out