Month: October 2018

John Wick: I can’t believe I haven’t seen this film until now! Probably one of the best action movies I’ve ever watched. I love the action, cinematography, color palettes, and of course– the ultimate badass Keanu Reeves:

Dear friend,

A practical thought:

Let’s upgrade our stuff, only when the gains of the upgrade are 10x better (something totally brand new, revolutionary, etc).

Dear friend,

A basic idea:

In life, pursue/possess/create what you LOVE — not just what you “like”.

After deleting my Instagram about a year+ ago, and not using social media anymore (post-like society in photography), I’ve discovered some new truths in photography:

What is the point of photography? To create forever; until your dying day.

Like a child, let’s take our play very seriously.

Dear friend,

I wanted to write some personal thoughts on willpower. Specifically —

1. What is “willpower”?
2. How do we get more “willpower”?
3. Why is willpower important?

As photographer-artists, we all strive to make beautiful photos. But how do we do it?

Dear friend,

A thought —

Let us avoid pettiness (smallness) in life.

Ghost in the shell (original anime) is so epic and phenomenal:

Dear friend,

A practical idea–

Competition is good. The best competition? Self-competition.

Life isn’t fair
But don’t you despair

Dear fellow streettogs,

If you ever find street photography difficult, scary, or hard– don’t fret. It is precisely the difficulty of street photography which makes it fun and rewarding.

Let me explain:

Simple idea:

Let’s seek to make beautiful photos, according to our own aesthetic tastes and judgement!

The Melancholy of Finality: Why is it that we always enjoy the process of doing/making/creating something — more so than the final result?

What makes a great photo? By how profound it is — or deep.

When is weight good… and when is it bad?

Love the elegant compositions of Bruno Barbey from Magnum:

Dear friend,

If you need some inspiration in your street photography; here is some ideas I offer:

Dear friend,

I want to share some thoughts with you on ‘inspiration’. Specifically —

1. What is inspiration?
2. Why is inspiration important?
3. How can we get inspired?

When in doubt, live more dangerously:

I am me, no need to be anyone but yourself.

Composition in photography is this:

To construct, to build, prepare, and put together/arrange an image.

A tip from my friend Alexander Morgan:

For inspiration or ideas to make better photography compositions, let us study comic books.

Dear friend,

Guilt is bad, shame is good. Let me explain:

Dear friend,

A practical tip in life:

When in doubt, optimize for lightness.

Dear friend,

An idea:

Life is about kinesis (movement).

Let me explain:

Dear friend,

A simple idea:

There are no rights or wrongs in photography. Seek to make perfect photos for yourself. And never forget– there are no rules in photography!

Dear friend,

We are currently living in an insane world. There has never been a time in history where our minds and senses have been hijacked to the extent they are now. Let me explain.

What is photography? Why is it important? Let me synthesize why I love photography, how I define photography– and why photography is essential for society:

A thought:

Success is nothing — it’s about endurance.

Endurance is simply “not dying”:

Dear friend,

A thought:

Employ every moment to the maximum in becoming you.

What does that mean? Let me explain:

Venture new seas,
Do you feel the favorable breeze?

Dear friend,

I’ve been living on the road with Cindy the last 2.5 years; “location independent”, “digital nomadically“, professional house squatting, couch surfing, or intermittent living; whatever you want to call it. What have I learned since then? A simple idea:

Never settle down.

Don’t mind if people like your photos or not. Make photos for “autotelic” reasons (make photos as an end in itself, and for yourself!)

Dear friend,

Why is procrastination seen as a disease that needs to be “cured” or overcome?

Archilochus: one of my new favorite philosopher+poet+warriors:

Final cinematography lessons from Citizen Kane:

Photos look best when they look unreal. “Realistic” photos are boring to look at!

Dear friend,

A philosophical idea I’ve been contemplating is on “human augmentation”:

How can we augment ourselves (increase our physical and mental strength), should we augment ourselves, and what are the ramifications of human augmentation?

Basic ideas:

My buddy Steve Jobs taught me:

You can shape, mold, and poke life!

In other words,

You can put a dent in the universe!

What’s scarce today? The ability to think by ourselves, for ourselves, without consulting Google, without asking others or commentators for their opinion. Do we even know what our own opinion is?

Continuation from Part 3:

Dear friend,

Some personal life goals which has helped give me more direction and purpose in life;

Seek truth, knowledge, and beauty!

Dear friend,

A very simple idea:

In our photography, let us seek ‘optimal simplicity’.

Study geometry to train your eyes to see better compositions (in the real world, when you’re taking pictures). From some hyperbolic geometry pdf textbooks I found on Google:

To make better photos, separate your subjects from the background (negative space between your subject and the background), in order for your eyes to detect the edges!

Continuation of Part 2 and Part 1 on CITIZEN KANE:

Our lives are improved by subtraction, rather than addition:

Look for similar pictures, to put them together.

Dear friend,

Ever since I was a kid– I was always seeking the truth of ‘happiness’. I tried to first of all define ‘happiness’, then figuring out how to achieve it.

Citizen Kane continuation (from Part 1):

Study vectors (arrows) to make better compositions:

CITIZEN KANE: one of my favorite movies of all-time — super inspired by the work and philosophy of Orson Welles:

Photography is fun when you treat it like visual experimentation!

My friend and student Becky Logan did this very inspirational project– photographing her 80 foot by 80 foot backyard for an entire year. It is a beautiful zen photo project– it reveals to us: You can discover beauty anywhere– as long as you look closely enough. Enter Becky:

To make better photos, play between clear and obscure:

Dear friend,

The reason I love ARS: we can harness the wisdom of individuals to “crowd source” feedback for our fellow photographers.

Dear friend,

One of the greatest blessings we are endowed with is freedom of Will; we have the freedom to direct our own human will however we choose!

Dear friend,

In starting ARS, the first photography feedback platform, a lot of photographers are unaccustomed to receiving anonymous critiques. I honestly do believe the best way to improve your pictures to get honest critique on your photos from others. But how should we integrate critique to our work?

Dear friend,

I’m thinking a lot about creative constraints. I am starting to really recognize the truth:

Constraints are the mother of creativity.

Dear friend,

It is difficult to say what is worth pursuing in life. It is easier to say what is worth avoiding in life!

Dear friend,

In-case you forgot, photographers are artists.

I’m a huge huge fan of Peter Thiel– in terms of his optimism, his view on the future, and his personal courage to stand up for unpopular ideas (but ideas he truly believes in):

Fun sketches of random Quantum Physics visualizations, made with iPad and Procreate app:

Randomly came across this Computational Geometry and Algorithms book, and wow— the geometry and aesthetics are sublime. Lesson: Study more math for composition and geometry inspiration.

Uplift
You have a gift; a wonderful gift to share with others
There is no other like you, so ignore what others do.

On my flight from California to NY, I watched ‘Won’t You Be My Neighbor?‘ — a life of the timeless Mr. (Fred) Rogers — and I am speechless.

Currently watching SOLO (film), and came across an interesting idea:

The droids (bots) in the STAR WARS universe are all slaves.

Which is interesting, because there is a lot of philosophy which confirms this idea:

Modern civilization is built on the back of slaves.

But what kind of modern slaves do we have? Unfortunately– almost all of us.