Monologue

Check this. You know how I made those circles for The Silence Around [/the-silence-around/], right? Do you also know I had the honour of displaying those for over 5 months in the local library? That’s quite a long time! The original plan was to leave them there until December 31st 2020 and then move them to a new location. And a new location after that. Covid 19 changed that swiftly, resulting in the installations still being in their second location as I’m writing this 1. Well, in hindsight I

Look at that. Progress. It was an uphill struggle today but I managed to squeeze some time out of the day to work on my B&W Squares project. Of which I have come up with a title by the way. That I’m not ready to share. But anyway. Behold this first outlay of the page design, which is probably subject to quite a bit of change. I’ve strayed off my initial planning significantly but that no longer matters. Taking my time to go through the whole process is more valuable to me now. The groundwork

I’m a little sad because I couldn’t find proper time to work on some personal work today. I mean, it’s 7 PM right now and I could technically work on some stuff but I’m just too tired to come up with something creative by now. Perhaps tomorrow.

The other day somebody asked me how my photography business was doing. I didn’t know what to tell them. My business is doing terrible, I’m doing fine? Do I want to get into explaining why that is? Do I care to elaborate? Of course I could just say that taking corporate portraits made me miserable and weren’t the reason why I started taking photos in the first place. I also don’t want to sound like some slacker who quits the moment things get a little difficult. It’s a balancing act but I should

A square? No, a more traditional shape. And then create my own design from scratch? Or should I just use the software that comes included? I mean, there’s nothing wrong with a template if it improves the result. Right? Maybe I shouldn’t worry about the shape so much and think more about the contents. But I also want it to be perfect. Or well, not necessarily perfect but I want to give it my best shot. See what obstacles I can overcome and learn a think or two. I guess I’m just a little scared

Sleep. Play videos games. Watch YouTube videos. Repeat. Monday.

Today was a day of self-study and wandering. Of the mind but also a little of the body. Though the latter wasn’t much more than a back and forth to the supermarket. I took a little detour so I think it counts. Regarding the self-studies, I enveloped myself in Alec Soth’s Youtube channel [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHIxfgu7HE9_Tok9OGNrQ_g] where he talks about photography books and their meanings. It’s good stuff if you’re into that stuff and if you’re not it’s probably very boring stuff.

You know those days when your hay fever surfaces and all you can do is sneeze all day? Those days when your eyes start to hurt from constantly being watery? When you are just so tired of having to deal with this all day? So much so that you can’t be bothered doing anything else? Yeah, today is one of those days.

As I began writing these stories, I focused on using as little words as possible. My writing style has always been… wordy. That was something I disliked. But, it added personality. I know many words, why not use them? Therefore I recently allowed myself to be more free with my writing. Add some more spontaneity. Still, I dislike it when people need many words to convey their opinion. I sometimes catch myself searching for words and therefore residing to fillers. It’s a waste. Of energy, of time

It’s a good thing I don’t make daily vlogs but stick to daily blogs. Most of my days aren’t that interesting. That’s totally fine but how do some people manage to create interesting videos every single day? Then again, I don’t know any examples where people managed to stick with it. Anyway, it’s a good thing these are simple blogs. If you insist on reading all of these, at least they allow you to skim over the story and be done with it quickly. The stories that I do put more thought and energy

This afternoon I hopped on my bike and drove off without knowing where exactly I was heading. I usually only do this when I want to shoot some photos somewhere. This wasn’t the case this afternoon. Of course I brought a camera because you never know what you run (or cycle in this case) into. But it didn’t bother to take it out once. The ride was all I cared about this time. Which brings me to my next point. I’ve been doing pretty much all my rides to the tunes of the same playlist I’ve made a

Good news, I just sent out my second issue of my newsletter Dialogue! When I decided I will try to keep its frequency sort of monthly, I immediately started thinking about a topic I wanted to discuss. I been thinking quite a bit about what the hell I want to do with my photography and how I want to position myself as a creative. Or, you know, as a person in general. That’s why I wrote a little short of 1000 words on the topic of finding purpose and alignment. Yes, to vague concepts that are mos

I don’t feel like writing anything today. So I won’t. I don’t have much to say anyway. All I did today is hang around the house and play Red Dead Redemption 2. A pretty good Sunday, if you ask me. See you tomorrow!

I wrote a whole bunch of things today but it wasn’t a Monologue. Okay so what did I write then? Ahhhh, I’m glad you asked. It’s another Dialogue. Yes, I have something to say that matters enough (to me) to send out to a list of subscribers. I need a round or reviews to finalize the story and then I’ll send it out. In the meantime, you can subscribe [https://mitchellens.ink/subscribe/] if you like.

This morning I took a little diversion on my way to work and filmed the second installment for ‘Do You Register?’. It was yesterday when I found the location I wanted to document but failed at my attempt to do so at that time. This morning I got my revenge. The video is perfectly boring again, with a slight hint of movement that makes it just interesting enough. That is, if you have the time and inner peace to watch a single scene for 10 minutes. Nevertheless, I’m happy with this video. Now on

You know what I just did? Well, not ‘I’ but rather, ‘we’. We’ve sent an email. Yes, you read it here first. The first draft of a long term project-proposal has been written. Some first ideas. A pitch, if you will. Though, to be completely honest, those first ideas are rather extensive. We’ve talked it over quite a bit. There’s some good stuff in there. Yes I’m being intentionally vague right now. I realise this is yet another project I’m talking about in these Monologues. All the other ones I’

It’s February 24th, 18 degrees Celsius, and as a true Dutchman befits, I’m sitting on my balcony in a t-shirt. I don’t need much distraction from that right now. Which means I don’t want it. I’m ordering in tonight. Sushi, because why not? I just finished a podcast about investing. I’m almost ready to take the plunge. Or maybe not almost, but I feel like I’ve made some progress. I cleaned the house, which means I vacuumed it. That counts as cleaning in my book. Okay, maybe I wiped off some thin

I came up with a nine step plan for the next two photo projects I have in the works. 1. Make a photography project. 2. Print one copy of it for myself. 3. Shoot really good marketing material of it. 4. Create a very nice page for it on my website. 5. Show it to people. 6. Only go to print if I get 10 or more orders. 7. Set a deadline within which the 10 orders need to be placed. 8. Don’t go to print and be fine with it. 9. Move on.