THE EARTH DIARY: SLOW, CREATIVE LIVING AND BEAUTIFUL INSPIRATION WITH LUCY


25 August 2020 - Posted by The Sisterhood of Sustainability

Lucy's spontaneous, adventurous and creative lifestyle has us entranced. She captures stunning images that make you feel as though you're standing right there next to her and we're in awe of her creativity. Be inspired by her beautiful lifestyle and her journey on the way to slower, more meaningful days...

ABOUT LUCY CHAMPION


Lucy grew up on the eastern shore of Tasmania where she still lives to this day. As a child, she spent a lot of time boating, camping and fishing around the Tasman peninsula and the eastern shore and from a young age, Lucy has always enjoyed adventures, exploring, the outdoors, crafts and making things. Lucy said that it is all of those attributes of her younger years have shaped her into the person she is today and made her realise the lifestyle that she wants to lead.

Lucy recently quit her full time job to focus on a slower paced life as well as continuing to build her freelance photography career and shared with us that she is still trying to get a grasp on this new found freedom. After seven years working in a job that was both mentally and physically draining, Lucy has been enjoying the time to relax and adjust to her new lifestyle. Her current focuses are creating her print shop, working with some local Tasmanian businesses to create new content for them to draw customers back to their business post pandemic and trying to book out a complete first wedding season with her business partner and lover, Lochie as part of their photography business LU + LO.

Lucy makes the most of every day by trying to create a flexible routine, ticking to dos off a list but not placing time restraints on each job, and says that it helps having the balance of productivity and then not feeling guilty for not achieving. Her advice for other women wanting to slow down and focus on creativity is "Be creative when you feel creative, don’t force it"

SUSTAINABILITY & ETHICALITY


​Lucy spent a long time working for a company whose business made money from fast fashion, cheap homewares, plastic toys, unhealthy confectionery and appliances made to last a few years maximum. There came a time where she finally realised that her personal ethics didn’t align with the company that she was working for.

​Lucy says "since this time I've started making small conscious changes to my day to day life. I’m guilty of being a impulse buyer, so now I only buy items off a list of things I want/need on my phone, I wait a few days to see if I still really want items I’ve wanted to impulse purchase, I limit fast fashion, shop at second hand shops, use reusable cups and carry a cute tin of cutlery in my handbag. It’s important to me to create good habits for years to come and pass those on to future generations, so that we look after our beautiful earth and think about the environmental impact we are having on the planet."​

-  -  -   A NOTE FROM LUCY   -  -  -
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“After everything you have been through, you have something to say, your story will ignite hope in others who long to be where you are today - Morgan Harper Nichols. Morgan knows how to put feelings into words so beautifully. This quote resonates with me so much and I hope that my story inspires others to chase similar dreams. You never really know who may take inspiration from what you do or post, and it's so rewarding when someone reaches out to you to say you’ve helped them"

A CREATIVE LIFESTYLE ON THE SHORES OF TASMANIA


​When we asked Lucy what her most valuable tips are for other women wanting to lead a slow and creative lifestyles, she replied with "do what you love and do a lot of it. Envision what you want your future lifestyle to look like and work towards that every single day and moment you have free. It took me three years to be able to build my creative skills and services up enough to walk away from the busy, stressful and miserable life I was living. But each of those days I did something to get me closer to that goal of leading a slow paced life doing what I love. There will always be unexpected bumps along the road, it's inevitable. Each day try and do one thing that’s creative or will slow down your fast paced lifestyle. A walk along a beach, writing notes down, goals, to do lists or spending half an hour to an hour a day focusing on being creative in some form, whether that be drawing, a craft, cooking, building a website or even watching youtube videos about creatives, business, developing skills or just a basic craft. All of these things helped me each day when I thought that lifestyle goal was so far out of my reach."
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Lucy said that she used to laugh when people referred to her as a 'creative' and thought that she didn't have a creative bone in her body. But looking back she always has been creative. "I was never an intelligent student with high marks that enjoyed reading, writing, numeracy etc, I was the one that was happy to learn while doing things. I liked making jewellery, knitting, using a camera and helping dad build stuff. As I’ve gotten older and been in positions in life where I'm unhappy, I look back on things that made my childhood so special and all of those things had creative aspects to them. Not only do I find creativity in photography, editing, printing, making websites and anything digitally creative, but I enjoy making things, like macrame hangers, plant propagation stations, earrings etc. I want to enjoy a lifestyle with many creative aspects."
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"My work is a  reflection of the journey I’ve been on through life, the things my eyes have seen, the places I have travelled and I'm really proud to tell that story through images"
To Lucy, photography has been such an incredible journey of not only creativity but self discovery and says that when she was younger, it was just something that was fun and that she used her camera to document adventures and beautiful places that she was travelling to, it was never arty or creative as such.

​ But as she started to refine her style and think more about what she was capturing, Lucy started to focus more on details of life, nature, love, happiness, anything she was surrounded by that really spoke to her. Whilst talking about creativity and photography, Lucy stated "the images I create are what I’ve seen through my own eyes, which I think is pretty incredible. People may be able to capture similar images, try to recreate or even use your work as inspiration, but it’ll never be the same. It’s the same with editing, it's such a huge journey you go on to develop your style, tones and the look of your images. It's something special you have created yourself, the range of pre sets I have developed from scratch over the past two or three years have changed significantly and continue to change as I develop as a photographer."

SLOW LIVING, INSPIRATION & DREAMS


​When we asked Lucy what her biggest dream is, she replied with "I’ve always dreamed of a slower lifestyle, one where I work for myself, create my own hours, say yes to opportunities that align with my values and work with like minded people. Dad once said to me “if you love your job, you’ll never work a day in your life” that's always stuck with me and has been my ultimate goal in life. It's never necessarily been photography that I wanted to be my career, it never felt like a job but a feeling I hoped to one day achieve. Photography was something that I'd always enjoyed and documenting trips with my family. But it was looked at as a joke in high school by those who liked to push all students towards a university education. Since finding my passion for photography again a few years ago, my dream was always to leave my job to work freelance, but never something in my wildest dreams expected to happen and so soon. So I guess you could say I’m starting to live this big, wild dream of mine!!"
Lucy finds inspiration in her surroundings - Tasmania, nature, positivity, the people and creatives that she surrounds herself with, the small connections she's built with like minded adventurers and creatives and says that all of these things inspire her to do more, to be more and to help inspire others. Lucy says "If one of my photos inspires someone to get out of the house and explore a new place they’ve never been to before and change their mood, then I’ve done my job. That inspires and empowers me to continue to share the world through my eyes."

Lucy has spent years dreaming of a slow lifestyle as the past four have been highly stressful with long working hours, early mornings, late nights, no sleep and anxiety attacks. All of these things were the opposite to what she wanted her life to be. Slow living to Lucy is morning walks on the beach, embracing nature and her surroundings, working on projects with intentions and meaning behind them and enjoying family time. It’s the little things in life that matter the most and those come from who and what you surround yourself with. "I’m so passionate about living a slower paced, more fulfilled life, not one that's full of stress, competitions, money, deadlines, demands and not having time to stop and smell the roses, to enjoy what is most precious in life."

ABOUT THE EARTH DIARY SERIES


The Earth Diary blog series was created to highlight the importance of reducing your environmental impact, adopting a slow and sustainable lifestyle and appreciating the small moments in every day. 

We’ve chosen beautiful women from within the creative and earth friendly community whom we believe have something inspiring and empowering to share with you and have dedicated each of these blog posts to these amazing women, their stories and their beautiful photos.  
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