3 Creative Photography Projects I Am Trying This Month - ISSUE 41

My Upcoming Creative Plans...

Housekeeping

Hello my photog friends! I hope everyone is keeping well. Today I thought I would share some of the creative plans I hope to execute this month. I would love to know what plans or rolls of film you hope to shoot in May and beyond. 

I have some spaces in June for 1:1 sessions so if you are interested get in touch and we can see if it’s the right fit for you! A few things I can help you with include: 

• Composition and/or finding your style or visual language 

• Cultivating and growing an audience for your work 

• Mindset shift towards photography working through your barriers and blocks as well as making you a plan to feel and stay motivated and inspired 

• Talk through a project idea and get my feedback along with next steps 

If any of these are resonating with you then let’s have a session to really get yourself on the track to achieving what you had hoped for this year. Hit the button below and email me for more info. 

Double Exposures

Last week on Instagram I shared a few double exposures that Lux took while we were shooting for a local Jewellery brand and you guys went nuts for them! 

I had been holding off sharing them as I thought I would wait until I had more of them under my belt but I just couldn’t resist posting them. So I did! 

These shots were taken with our NikonFM2n which has a multi exposure feature and makes it really handy. I haven’t had much experience with shooting doubles and I think that is because I am worried they will look messy and won’t fit my usual style which are both valid concerns, but are also just excuses. Whenever I feel myself resisting or avoiding something I try to ask myself “why?” 

In this instance it’s 100% down to the fact that I am scared I will make work I don’t like and that will shatter confidence. It’s also a fear that I will uncover an area of photography I’m not good at and that will make me second guess the areas I am good at. All of these thoughts point to me biting the bullet and doing the thing already! 

So that is what I will be doing this month on the next photo outing. There will be a video to document my results and thoughts and feelings of course so stay tuned for that. 

If you love these first few doubles then you can make them your own over at my print shop where you will find them as a limited edition run. The favourite seems to be this one below which a few people have said looks like a movie poster or the moment in movies where one scene dissolves into another. I see that and I love that! So thanks for all the love guys and do tag me on IG if you experiment with double exposures in the future. 

Retrochrome

So after watching Jason unpack his whole film fridge and freezer on his channel grainydays I decided to hit the guy up for some Retrochrome in 35mm as he seemed to be in possession of what some would say is an obsessive amount and I thought he might want to ship some down under for me considering I can’t seem to find any in stock here or online. Thanks Jason! He also sent me a really nice note and some other fun stocks and also lot’s of Lomochrome purple. Lol. Clearly he is not a fan of that one. 

So now I have a couple of rolls of this film stock I have never tried i am excited to use it. I have heard and seen that the reds in particular are the best thing about Retrochrome and if you know me, you know I love myself a bit of red action in my photos. 

I am hoping I can create what Jason would call “Portfolio shots” with these gifted rolls as it always feels special to make great work with rolls that people take the time to send you. Any tips on shooting this are most welcome in the comments. 

Colour plus 200 pushed 1 stop which I was a huge fan of and I think I would do it again as sometimes colorplus can be a bit basic

Pulling Film

So i see people push film and i myself have pushed a few rolls in my time, but I don’t see much pulling going on? Or am i not looking in the right places or talking to the pulling loving community?  

After sending a few examples to Lux of what I thought looked pulled we then got to talking. What is pulling? What is pushing? What is really going on here? 

Naturally we turned to the man with all the answers when it comes to film, Peter Davison of Ikigai Film Lab, who handles all our processing and scanning and regularly sponsors videos for the channel! We like to come up with videos that will combine Pete’s expertise and knowledge with my exploration of a topic with a classic Lucy Lumen delivery that will be helpful, useful and entertaining for the community! 

So if you haven’t guessed it, this next instalment from LL and Ikigai will be all about pushing/pulling film. Most likely more on the pulling side of things since I am yet to give that a go and have a vision I’m looking to execute with it! Exciting stuff!

Cinestill 400D pushed three stops

Photography Adjacent Projects 

I feel like I have a million ideas on the go all the time and it gets really overwhelming. I have all these lists of things that I want to create, do, execute, plan, practise and not all of them are creative, sometimes it’s self care in the form of cooking healthy meals or getting outside more, finishing a book i started or working on how to better provide for my family. 

This year has been quite a challenge for the Lumen’s and whilst it may not seem that way online I just wanted to acknowledge that often it’s the best foot that is put forward on these platforms and that isn’t an authentic depiction of life. So in an attempt to break down the barrier between the produced life you see on YT and the sometimes chaotic, always messy, fun but fucking hard side of being a parent, a partner, a daughter, a granddaughter and so many other things all whilst striving to carve out a space for myself in my creative field, I will be bringing more daily life into the content I share. I am excited to build more and deeper connections with so many of you who I know are also in a similar boat and share more than our love for photography. There is more to Lucy Lumen than a camera and a roll of film and I can’t wait to share that with you. 

Thank you for spending this time with me. I will see you next week. 

Love Lucy xx