Month: September 2018

Something super powerful I’ve come across in visual science– the notion of a ‘hypercomplex cell‘:

Dear friend, This is a call to arms. Let us break free from the shackles of consumerism; let us embolden ourselves with the new ethos of ‘producerism’.

Dear friend, I am a huge Aldous Huxley fan, and one of the most influential novels I’ve read is BRAVE NEW WORLD — a future dystopia which is very very accurate in terms of …

ARS is so fun. I’m on a comment and critiquing spree, and wanted to share some tips on how to give a constructive critique in photography:

Dear friends, We just launched ARS BETA VERSION II yesterday, with insane growth and feedback. We introduced the ‘constructive critique’ function; and I can truly tell you– this is a revolution. I wanted to …

Dear friend, If you are sick of social media– say hello to ARS; the first productive online learning community for photographers and visual artists.

Give us what we need, dear fearfeeds.

How can we shoot better monochrome pictures?

Dear friend, What is the solution to a lot of our problems in life? Simple — art (art).

Hi friends, I want to share the greatest personal breakthrough I reached today and how you can apply this to reach your full potential past your wildest dreams.

Dear friend, I wanted to write you an essay about social media. Is social media a wall that is dividing us, or bringing us closer together? It is a curious question that has gnawed …

Dear friend, A thought– Think of yourself like hydra. You cut off one neck; and three will sprout out from that stump!

HAPTIC hand makes limited edition creative tools. Here is an inventory update of our most popular HAPTIC tools soon to be sold out (ships worldwide from California). Pick one up before it’s too late! …

Dear friend, We are currently undergoing a phenomenally exciting time in photography– the marriage of (human) photographers and AI (artificial intelligence):

Some simple photo composition tips:

Dear friend, A very simple yet powerful idea: Dictate your own purpose in life. There ain’t a “right” or “wrong” purpose in life. It is your duty in life to dictate your own purpose …

Dear friend, Simple idea: If you want to be a better photographer, be a happier person! In simple words: First seek to be happier in your life (via studying philosophy and taking more real-life …

Dear friend, I wanted to pen a quick essay on some personal thoughts on freedom, free will, and how you have (more) power than you think!

Dear friend, I remember when I was a kid– really into modding computers. There was this concept of ‘over-clocking’– you would push your computer processor to run faster than the ‘stable’ specifications. For example, …

Dear friend, A simple question: Who do you desire to become in life?

With photography, we become super-human with our vision.

A fun idea for your photography: For a month, experiment just shooting only JPEG (no post-processing) — and see if this helps librate you in photography!

Dear friend, A simple idea: Whenever you click the shutter, you’re just taking an attempt.

You are great Dont seek to placate the masses or the herd Seek your own personal apotheosis; give yourself your own self-hyping hypnosis

We have all heard the saying, ‘Fortune favors the brave.’ I like the saying, but it ain’t accurate or specific enough for me:

I’m pretty excited for the new VENOM movie, and started to do a little philosophical musings on the concepts of: Symbiotic relationships Parasitic relationships

Dear friend, I have been studying a lot of algorithms, AI, etc — and came across this concept of ‘naive’. For example in machine learning, there is a concept of ‘naive bayes‘. Now how …

I’m an Elon Musk fanboy until I die. Here are some practical lessons I learned from him, from his recent interview with Joe Rogan:

Disrupt normal, be unique Be you and smile, cheek to cheek

Dear friend, A simple and funny idea: Why have a brain? In simple words: why have humans evolved to have a brain? And what is the best way we can use our brain?

Dear friend, A practical idea: In order to become the most epic you, play against yourself!

Steve Jobs: one of my heroes. He has taught me the importance of staying true (and stubborn) on your creative vision, the importance of combining the liberal arts and engineering, and the importance of …

To live a better life, embrace the extremes. Avoid the boring middle– either relax 100%, or go hard 100%. “Sleep hard, or work hard”. In this essay, I will try to combine personal thoughts …

Dear friend, A practical idea I have for you: Treat your photography like a blank slate (tabula rasa). When you start off in photography, be totally ignorant of the outside world, and learn on …

My buddy Nassim Taleb posited a question in his book, ‘Antifragile’ that regarded ‘post-traumatic growth’. I think I’m one of the lucky few who was actually made stronger because of trauma– not weakened. I …

Wipe the slate clean What new ideas can you glean?

Dear friend, A basic idea: the future of photography is going to be editing (the art of selecting your best work, and not showing your weak work).

Set the bar higher, high-flyer Don’t mind if you don’t reach the top— just keep hustling hard, and don’t you stop

Check out the Stanford ‘Image Painting‘ demo to see how AI and deep learning can re-construct your photos; helping you better judge your own picture compositions!

Dear friend, I’m studying a lot of AI, and have been philosophizing (my entire life) about technology-human integration. A realization today: We are seeking to ‘augment our intelligence’ with technology, yet what I think …

Authentic Whatever life has given you, you’ve been blessed with

What if we lived a life without fear and anxiety — how much more of our potential could we reach?

To live a more epic life — go hard, and supersede (your self-perceived) limits

Dear friend, Simple question: What is your dream in life, and what are you willing to sacrifice in order to achieve it?

Dear friend, Some practical ideas on realizing your potential (recognition of your talents), as well as having the strength to turn these skills into reality!

Should we augment reality?

Dear friend, A lot of us want to be “motivated” (Latin means, ‘to move’). Some of us are self-motivated, and some of us lack motivation (the energy necessary to work, or act). In this …

Dear friend, Do you remember when you were a kid, and you had to deal with ‘lag’? To me, lag (or latency) is one of the worst things as a gamer. But how can …

Dear friend, Something I realized– it ain’t enough just to shoot nice compositions of things. More importantly, we need to know how to recognize potentially interesting scenes BEFORE we shoot them. Or in more …

Dear friend, I think I am currently one of the most productive bloggers on the internet (and the world). I want to share how I do it– and perhaps a little on why I …

“I’m an alien.” – Elon Musk Dear friend, Philosophical question — why do so many of us want to be ‘normal’? Wouldn’t it be more fun and interesting to NOT be normal? Wouldn’t it …

Dear friend, I got a question I want to work out with you: what is visual intelligence, and what does it teach us about being human?

To impress… literally means to IMPRESS (leave an indentation) upon someone else. I think what we are trying to do as photographers is to impress our viewers. Not necessarily to “show off”– but we …

I just watched the 2006 Werner Herzog documentary on the origins of the internet (“Lo and Behold: Reveries of the Connected World“) and found this concept of a “log” interesting– specifically the concept of …

Dear friend, A philosophical epiphany I had: We need friction in life in order to do or accomplish anything. Why is this? Let me explain.

Dear friend, What is the future of photography? My opinion: image-selection, editing (choosing your best pictures), and curating your portfolio of your best pictures you care about.

I love shooting JPEG. Why? It simplifies my photographic workflow and life.

My buddy Josh White is doing an artist talk at Leica Korea this Saturday, September 15th, 2018th. Don’t miss your chance to meet Josh, ask him questions about photography, and get inspired!

Make elegant pictures Create your own visual scale; break it off the Richter

Dear friend, In today’s modern world with AI, smartphone cameras, and automated cameras– what is the function of the photographer? Why take pictures? To me, photography is visual poetry.

Dear friend, A practical life philosophy: live in a straight line.

Dear friend, For us to become better visual artists, we must undergo ‘visual training’.

As photographers, we make pictures and photographs of reality. But a difficult question to answer is: Why make images? And also, why are images important to society? Let’s reflect.

Dear friend, Something I’m curious about — what would a “post-like” society look like?

First of all, let us play with the Google Vision API and test it out:

Dear friend, consider this your visual gym — strengthen your visual muscles:

Just tested out the new iPhone 8 camera, and I’m super impressed. All photos are straight out of camera, with no processing. Some personal thoughts:

Dear friend, I’ve been philosophizing a lot about AI and studying AI (especially AlphaGo– just watched the Netflix documentary and was super inspired). Anyways, the question I have is this: What can AI teach …

Dear friend, A basic idea: why make better compositions in your photography?

Dear friend, Simple question: what is your end-game in life?