Different Is Better Than Better - ISSUE 35

What makes you, YOU?

A recent half frame shot on the Pen FT

Housekeeping

Wow, what a week! We are now approaching Easter and I am busy organizing Easter hunts for my little man amongst working on various other projects with Lux in our spare time.

In case you are wondering what we do when we aren’t working on YT content I thought I would share a bit of the goings on this week…

• Shooting products and resources from the amazing StartUp Creative

• Taking the latest issue of Swill Mag out for spin in the wild to get some cool shots to promo the release of this new issue on socials

• A 1:1 coaching session with the amazing Brian who wanted some composition tips as well as discussing utilizing color in his work and what to focus on moving forward. If you would like to enquire about sessions send me a DM or email!

• Putting together an interview with my friends at Cantina for Frankie Magazine’s Strictly Business section

• Working on mood boards for an upcoming shoot at a local plant boutique called Vessel and Green as well as a very cool Korean BBQ joint!

• I am currently waiting on scans from a fun stylized group shoot at Joe’s Deli who I have worked with before. I will share more on that soon!

This is a lot more than I am used to doing but I am enjoying every minute of it and embracing all the opportunities. I am however taking stock of what it is I love most in my practice and I have to tell you, it’s definitely YouTube!

I said to Lux last night “I just love creating content for people to enjoy” and that is truly where my heart lies guys! The reception on my videos lately has been HUGE and I love that the content is spreading far and wide and is available to so many people in the global photography community. Thank you so much for watching and following along on my journey.

If you missed my latest half frame video you can catch it below. A big thank you to Ikigai Film Lab for sponsoring this one and for answering all my questions about this format!

Finding Strength in Your Weakness

So Lux and I watched the movie Whiplash the other night and a lot of things came up in the process for us. Lux had already seen it, I hadn’t but had heard many good things and was intrigued to see what all the fuss was about, admittedly pretty late to the party here I know.

I will say one thing straight off the bat - the color grade on that film has really aged it and it made me very aware of the fact that I was watching a movie from that 2014 period but that has nothing to do with anything else so let’s get back to the point…

So I didn’t resonate at all with the main characters, which was in stark contrast to Lux who really identified with the student drummers unrelenting urge to master his craft and be the best. The question that came up for me the most throughout the film was “WHY?” why would people want to all learn a piece of music and how to play it perfectly in key and on time (can you tell I can’t play an instrument to save my life) with nothing stepping out of sequence or being wrong?

To me that is like everyone in the room striving for perfection and to fit into one teachers idea of what music and musicianship is meant to be. The issue there is, if they all get to that point and all stamp out their own flare along the way in order to achieve this perceived “greatness” then won’t they all end up playing and sounding the exact same?

A collective desire to all be the greatest based off rules and formulas seems clinical and problematic to me. The thing that makes us human are our mistakes, not our perfect moments. I’m not even going to give you the spiel about “mistakes are what we learn from” because that further cements the attitude that mistakes are bad things - which they aren’t. A mistake can uncover a hidden talent, an inherent quality you didn’t know you possessed or bring upon opportunity for you to create a style and vibe all of your own born out of the very thing we are taught to be ashamed of and want to hide. Mistakes. Failures. Shortcomings. Weaknesses.

Tyler Durden once said “self improvement is masturbation” and whilst I don’t really live by that quote like I did when I was a disenfranchised youth there is some truth and power to it, even now at the ripe age of 30.

Everything doesn’t need to be improved upon all the time. I think we should lean into what makes us, us. The parts of us that make us unique are often the ones that are kind of weird or maybe even a bit inept, for lack of a better word. I haven’t been happier since I fully embraced who I am as a photographer, which is someone who shoots on auto, can’t deal with rangefinders, is kind of lazy and just wants the camera to do the work so I can create the image, and is terrible at anything even remotely technical when it comes to the world of photography.

But you know what - all those things are the things that make me…Lucy Lumen. The girl with the point and shoot and bucket loads of built in flash, or the girl that shoots at midday pretty much exclusively despite the myriad of reasons why we “shouldn’t” do that and opt for golden hour instead.

What I’m trying to say is this - we should lean into the crutches we have made for ourselves that are born from our insecurities, lack of skill, limiting beliefs etc. and really own them! Take them back and use them in your creative endeavors, because I guarantee you they are the thing that makes you different from everyone else.

Okay I will get off my motivational soap box now and let you get on with your day. I basically just can’t stand the hierarchy in so many environments and how it’s drilled into us from such a young age to score the highest, be the best, and fall into line. Ignoring the parts of people that make them special when that is where the real genius lies.

I think believing in yourself despite the parts of you that you aren’t so confident about will help you to flourish as an artist and a person. It will build resilience and also surprise you in how much others value those parts of you that maybe you never have.

Fell free to comment below or DM me if you have any other thoughts on this.

P.s I am by no means discounting the massive amounts of effort people go to to achieve high levels of greatness like the ones shown in Whiplash, I just have a different relationship to success. In fact a lot of my process and how I have come to be is problematic in that I want to point out my flaws before others can as a way of protecting myself from possible criticism, which could also be considered as unhealthy. We all have our issues, that’s for sure.

So those are my thoughts for this week I hope you enjoyed. In the coming weeks I will bring you an interview with the folks over at NOICE magazine who have sent me a copy of their incredibly brilliant photo book which I will be doing a little review on here and on IG soon. You can get a head start on that by grabbing yourself a copy of the book which is not only beautifully made but consisting of marvelous minimal compositions and images to instantly inspire you! While you are there check out their submissions page too if you are wanting to get your work out into the world.

Thanks for reading guys - see you next week! Love Lucy xx