Writing

looking back on one month of daily writing. January by the numbers Total words written9184 words Shortest story30 words [https://mitchellens.ink/short-of-breath/] Longest story1526 words [https://mitchellens.ink/the-new-fujifilm-x-e4-my-first-impressions/] The things I noticed The past month has been challenging and exciting at the same time. As I go through the 30 stories I’ve written the past month, I can slowly start to make out some general tendencies for myself. The first thing I noti

I don’t have much to say today other than that I plan to write a ‘looking back on one month of daily writing’ story tomorrow. I’m also currently arranging my cheap photo prints and sticking them on the wall. More on that later.

There’s this tendency I have that I need to make record of. Here it goes. I can only chill when I know that other things are in motion. To be able to relax, I need to hit start on something and let that run in the background. Then, when that thing is chugging along steadily, that’s when I can sit down and enjoy a moment of tranquility. This can be as simple as installing a game on the PlayStation while doing the dishes. Or writing a good blog that now finds its way around the internet. Or post

I don’t, technically, have to write a whole Monologue today as I’ve written my first Dialogue. Yes, that’s right! I officially sent out my first newsletter today! To be fair, it is only an introductory story so I haven’t gone into depth yet. Still, it’s a first step so I hope I will feel more inspired to send out more stories in the future. Dialogue #001 is live on my website as well [https://mitchel-lensink.ghost.io/dialogue/001] as future stories will be. If you wish to receive a notificatio

I take my bike and go for a ride in the rural areas around the city. The sun is out, the ride is smooth. My camera accompanying me. I shoot a photo. And another one. Then some more. I return home, a little tired but content. I sit down at my desk and edit any and all outstanding work. I finish things. Then I decide it’s time to take it one step further. I export everything I’ve just finished. Even everything I have produced so far for my B&W Squares (working title) project. I want to start la

I’m listing to this Dan Milnor podcast [https://soundcloud.com/shiftermedia/shifter-for-what-its-worth-episode-050] where he mentions how social media is about “conning people into believing something most often you are not”. It’s an interesting quote that requires some thought but then he continues: > “My suggestion is to disconnect and drop out for two years. Two years, [to go and] learn how to make something good. Something unique. […] two years of not sharing, not talking to people about

I believe that being a well-rounded individual is one of the highest goals you can achieve as a human. That might sound hyperbolic1 but I think it’s important to be able to see, feel and do multiple things that all benefit each other. Dabble a little in this, find out a little about that. Take away some lessons, apply them somewhere else. Stuff like that. This does not mean I think you should do everything imaginable. Just do everything that makes sense for you as an individual. What do you en

Lately I’ve been feeling short of breath. Normally that means I’m high on stress. Not to say that I’m actually stressing. I’m just quick to learn a lesson. Inhale, exhale.

A year ago. Only a year ago. Already a year ago. We were posted up on a tropical island. Taking photos of the blue ocean water and sharing them online with captions like “Blue Monday isn’t that bad this year”. Ha, who would’ve thought we’d be here a year later. Blue Monday was past Monday so it’s technically already 4 days removed. Or 361 days removed, depending on if you believe in the linearity of time or not. I’m doing pretty well these days but I could do with a little more sunshine and a

Sometimes I worry I’m too focussed on the peripherals and not enough on the goal. Then again, you can’t go anywhere without proper infrastructure. A good question to ask yourself1 is: Are you doing the work or are you just... working? I’ve been so busy refining my website the past few weeks, that I forgot to take any photos. How can that be while the only reason the website exists in the first place is because I need a place for my photography. The website I itself does not serve a purpose at

In my quest for artistic growth and my search for topical meaning, I figured I rekindle my connection with academic literature. I’ve made great use of scientific writing during my studies[1] but after graduation I never read another article again. A shame, really, as I could still use a source like that to deepen my understanding of the things I now care about. Not everything you read has to come from another person’s blog, you know. Or, even worse, social media. I hope that more thoroughly res

I posted this tweet yesterday that got me thinking: > I shot so many photos of my cats the past few months I might as well make my first photo book about those guys. No deep rooted social issues exposed by me. I’m a pet photographer now. — Mitch (@lensinkmitchel) January 17, 2021 [https://twitter.com/lensinkmitchel/status/1350881156821118987?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw] because I imply that the end goal for me as a photographer should be to document and report on deep rooted social issues. I’m not su

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