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Photography confessions. I used to be obsessed with the images that came along with The Weeknd’s House of Balloons mixtape. And I’m talking about the photos that were on the original Tumblr page before he had an official website. The images that set the tone when listing to the songs on YouTube because the music was on Spotify. They images were all in black and white and had this super gritty feel to them that I just couldn’t get enough of. I’m sure they were digital images but they looked lik

I sent out my first newsletter yesterday. On accident. It’s not a big deal but I do feel like I could’ve sent out a more proper first email to my subscribers. Oh well… Anyway, I did figure out a good format for the newsletter, which is called Dialogue by the way. I also realised that refusing to call it a newsletter and instead referring to it as a mailing list wasn’t constructive and unclear communication. So I folded and now I call it as it is: a newsletter. Next to that, I worked on the Di

Photo projects, on projects, on projects. Lately I’ve been enjoying an increasing amount of ideas. It’s a blessing and a little bit of a curse. The blessing being that I now have sufficient reason to go out and shoot. A curse because I don’t know where to start. So I’m asking myself questions: Are all my ideas good enough? Are they worthy of a project? Does any of that matter? I find comfort in the thought that any of this is just practice. I explicitly choose to be patient with my work and

Today’s story might be even more uninteresting than usual (at least to people that aren’t me) but I’m writing it specifically for documentary purposes. I set off last year with a goal of becoming a zen master. Not that I wanted to join a monastery and become a monk (not at this time) but I wanted to experience more inner-peace. I haven’t quite reached that goal in 2020. I did have some moments where I felt more centered than I’ve ever felt. I also had some moments where the challenges overthrew

Yesterday’s story [https://mitchel-lensink.ghost.io/make-something-for-a-group-of-people-not-everyone/] wasn’t that good. I knew it when I wrote it and I know it now. It took me longer than usual to complete and the quality was a little more lacking as well. I still posted it because I promised to write something every day. It did not feel good though. Then I got to thinking. The fact that I choose to write every day does not make me a writer. It means I’m trying to become one. That takes tim

I find myself staring in the distance as I hear the sound of a new email coming in. It’s another one of Kyle McDougall’s ‘Field Notes’ emails. I manage to bring myself back to the present and open the email. The e-mail contains a list of DOs and DON’Ts for 2021. Interesting. I quickly scan the email as I notice my eyes linger over point number three in the list of DOs > Make something for a group of people, not everyone. Funny. I was just thinking about that. I continue reading the email but f

A new homepage for my website. Finally. After 115 revisions and iterations, I think I have settled on a new homepage design for my website that I am happy with. Why did I change it? The old design was nothing more than a gallery of images. It looked nice but it did not serve its purpose anymore. It was a leftover from the time I did nothing but host images on my website. Maybe a contact form. I had nothing else to show to people. Or at least I felt like I had nothing to show. That has changed

I was blessed enough to help a friend out with stripping down their new home today. I spent my entire afternoon peeling down wallpaper. Not something to look forward to? Maybe. I found myself thinking about absolutely nothing the whole day. Not even felt the urge for any thoughts. Not even shallow ones. A blessing. Indeed.

> Ah, it’s past twelve. I’m tweeting this just in case so I can post on my blog tomorrow (today) and say that I’ve written something to keep my 365 days project going. — Mitch (@lensinkmitchel) January 9, 2021 [https://twitter.com/lensinkmitchel/status/1348043924569518086?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw]

I sit down after a long day at the office. I open my Heineken and drink it straight from the 33cl can. Today is not a glass-type of day. I take a first, refreshingly invigorating, sip. I turn off Night Shift and True Tone on my iPhone to let my eyes adjust for what I’m about to do. I need proper color accuracy. I open the Spotify app and type in ‘Frank Ocean Cayendo’. I hit play on the top hit and set the song to repeat. I let it all pour out of the tiny speakers of the tiny computer I’m hold

My afternoon was marked by de- and reassembling a vintage Voigtländer Color-Ultron 50mm f1.8. You might think I’m crazy dismantling such intricate and technical objects but I think it can be quite fun! To me it’s a little challenge and it’s nice when it works out as you planned. What was I to succeed in though? To understand my goal, I have to tell you about how this lens works. To avoid making this a history lesson, an important trait of many vintage lenses is that they have a little pin on

Today marks the day that I sold my first fine art photo print! I’ve made and sold many prints in the past whenever people requested it. This time is different though. This print is made on a very high quality photo paper. The type of paper that museums use. The colors look amazing, the print does not fade or yellow over time and the texture. Oh the texture. I have never seen a print like this before. I’ve signed and dated it on the back to complete it as a proper art piece, directly from the a

I’m keeping today’s Monologue short on purpose to temper the expectations a little. I wrote a few hundred words each day now and, though allowed, that was never the point. I did write this new elevator pitch for my mailing list though. I also decided on a name for it. I’m calling it: Dialogue. I’ll get into more depth about why I chose this name but you should be able to digest it from this short version too: “Dialogue is a no fuss mailing list about photography, its philosophies and an open

This is a cliché. As creatives, we need to make more physical products. Photographers in particular can benefit a lot from printing out their work. Looking around, I see many people making photos with the sole purpose of posting them on Instagram. I used to do that too. The reason for that was I had no other place to put them. I was constantly looking for other outlets though. In my search for a better, more worthy, place for my photos, I grew a bigger and bigger resentment of social media. No

It’s day number three and I already don’t know what to write. That shouldn’t matter though. The goal is to write down anything, so I could just call it a day with these four lines. Most of these daily updates are just notes to self and they should be treated as such. Okay a few more then. I’m thinking about adding a separate email campaign that will deliver these daily writings to your mailbox. Until I figure out how to do that, you can use an RSS feed to stay updated. Not that anybody still u

I find myself thinking out loud a lot recently. Sure, it’s something that I’ve always done. Haven’t we all, on occasion? Though in recent times it has transformed into rule, rather than exception. Why is that? To start, I’ve noticed that saying my thoughts out loud help me structure my inner dialog. This is especially true when there is a lot of it, as it quickly tends to get messy then. All these words flying around in my head, bouncing off each other, without a clear trajectory or conclusion.

Photography is easy when you know where to point your camera. Finding those things might be the biggest challenge.