I remember the first photos Lucian and I shot together. It was early in our dating relationship back in college and, now that I think about it, it was actually during our first hike. Lu took me to a small conservation area and rented a camera from Webster University where he went to school at the time. We hiked to the top...of the hill (we’re in Missouri remember) and attempted to be photographers. Little did we know that one day we would be married, climbing actual mountains, and making actual videos together. Life's neat like that.
Technically one of the earliest O Beautiful Project photos, before we even knew there'd be an OBP.
We have so many ideas written down for this project. Some of them are literally scribbled on the blank spaces of parking passes and receipts. The hard part is finding the time to put our ideas into a finished video. Planning an episode usually involves brainstorming sessions, reading books and articles, and watching other videos. Lucian's the main “scriptwriter” - he gets a good start on it and then we sit down together and refine it. At some point, we realize that we just need to get out and shoot it. But, that's easier said than done.
I usually grab whatever paper I can find while Lu is driving and start jotting down our ideas. Road trips are great for brainstorming sessions.
Lucian and I are both recovering perfectionists. We wanted to start the O Beautiful Project for a while but kept putting it off because it wasn't perfect (...we didn't have all of the answers, the footage wasn't good enough, we weren't comfortable talking about something we couldn't fully explain, we didn't have every episode planned in advance, etc). Perfectionism is a wall we put up thinking it will protect us, but it actually prevents us from making progress. We’d like to think perfectionism drives us to be better, but it's really more about earning approval than self-improvement. It's more about perception than internal motivation. We want the OBP to be the exact opposite of that - we don’t want it to be perfect, because that’s not reality. Our hope is that we can make each episode honest and real. It’s not about putting up some flawless perception about who we are, it's about sharing our experiences of beauty, learning together, and fostering a desire for genuine connection.
So, instead of waiting for it to be perfect, we’ve started shooting our next episode. The script is written and we’ve been to a few locations so far. Last night, we went up into this (extremely) creepy attic and set up an old 16 mm film projector that Lucian bought a long time ago at an estate sale. It came with a bunch of old film including newsreels from WWII!
It was just a little creepy up there, but totally worth it!
Here's a shot from up in the attic. It was one of those times where you set up the camera, take the picture, and what you get back is much more than what you can even see with your eye. We’re super excited to share the footage with you. This next episode will go a little deeper into the idea of beauty saving the world. Basically, we are trying to figure out how that could be possible. If you have any ideas, please let us know! What do you think - is it possible?
