Month: May 2019

Muda: Japanese concept of superfluous waste (comes from the Toyota lean manufacturing concept).

Experiments with Xiaomi 9 SE with “night sight” camera mode during the day.

Simple tips to get you going!

A simple way to live life: Never stop challenging yourself — always strive to become stronger, become deeper, become harder, more profound, with greater challenges and tasks which interest you!

Listen to your body more than your mind More wisdom in the body than the mind.

My thought — The ultimate end or apex activity is for us to make art! And the ultimate state for us to achieve is to become a hybrid of both philosopher AND artist.

Let’s think beyond — More fun with image collages — the greater joy seeing sets of images with a dynamic balance of consistency and variety.

I was at a really nice park the other day, enjoying the sound of chirping birds, water rushing, the cool breeze in the shade, and looking up at the trees and sky and I …

How to distinguish yourself — why distinguish yourself ? Substantive individualism Individualism with substance  Are you a real unique person — or a permutation of random fragments? Are you an algorithmically generated person? Can …

It seems as a society we are becoming overly fat (apparently the new term isn’t “overweight, but “overfat”– as there are a lot of athletic people with lots of muscle who are technically “overweight”). …

The hacker ethos: the ethos of “hacking” together the resources you already have//the opportunity to innovate a new approach (which might be superior to an easier approach of just buying anything new).

Life as beyond survival; it is about thrivival! We desire to thrive. To become bigger, stronger, more epic. There isn’t a final destination. The goal is to keep thriving and striving until the day …

Kill Bill 2: as epic as the first. Truly epic film.

Currently in the works: Henri Neck Strap PYTHON Edition. Uber-limited. Email hapticindustries@gmail.com to be put on the list.

If you’re a photographer that wants to harness the great powers of social media (yet hate the traditional forms of social media like Facebook/Instagram), arsbeta.com is for you.

Wouter Vanhees: Although I live in Hanoi, I travel to Ho Chi Minh City regularly for work. At night, when my meetings and work stuff is finished, I like to explore the inner city …

An idea: Perhaps the optimal solution in life isn’t to “choose” only one between two things. It is to choose the best of both (or multiple) options. A hybrid/mixed/variageted approach to life. For example: …

Good pain as growing pains. The pain you get from “delayed onset muscle soreness”. The pain of artistic and creative growth; painful, yet a good pain stimulus to our personal growth!

The only noble type of productivity is artistic productivity.

The joy of composing things — Composing music  Composing essays  Composing photographs  Perhaps this is what makes photography so fun and joyful? And what’s the driving force of the artist?

KILL BILL Volume 1 (available on Netflix) — man, I totally forgot how great of a director/story-writer Quentin Tarantino is. Also spectacular Uma Thurman performance, Lucy Liu, and the whole cast:

I’ve been shooting a lot with the Xiaomi 9 SE recently (my new favorite phone-camera). The interesting thing is this: Perhaps the future of disruption in photography is this: cameras that also happen to …

A simple thought about artistic productivity: Just make stuff, then share them!

I think a lot of us are striving towards freedom. We want ‘location independence‘ (freedom), we want ‘financial independence‘ (freedom), and we want freedom of speech. But once we have all the freedoms we …

One of my goals in life (my personal Elysium) was to become “financially independent” and to “retire early”. At age 31, I’ve reached my goal. But I haven’t been rewarded that “eternal bliss” I’ve …

My personal definition of a photo essay is an attempt to analyze a place, through images.

​For myself, one of the things I hate the most is feeling tired and fatigue. ​​​​I’m striving in my life to simply have the maximum amount of energy, with the minimum amount of fatigue (unless it is …

A thought: Owning too much stuff is a “net negative”. Better to own a few things than many things. But then begs us the question: What few things should I allow into my life? …

The only photos worth shooting are the ones which directly show your soul. Photos that have your soul embedded into them!

A thought: Why is it that we idolize things (cars, objects, devices, homes, stuff)? Shouldn’t we be idolizing people and their character-traits instead?

Look for curves (arabesque) between your subjects and other visual elements in the scene. Strive to simplify the scene, but keep the composition elegant (dynamic curves and movement). For color, the point is to …

“The rolling stone gathers no moss.” Publilius syrus Never stay stuck to one geographical place, one home, one nation, one culture, one mode of thinking, one device, one technique, or one lifestyle. Life is …

Shooting photography on your phone; the biggest disruption possible in photography:

I’ve always been a sucker for cars ever since I was a kid. For me, the car was a symbol (and practical means) of freedom. Going where I wanted to go, based on my …

Holy moly, I just got my hands on a new Xiaomi 9 SE phone (only $350 USD while in Vietnam), and it is the most incredible phone and camera I have ever used:

Nowadays we talk much about “lifestyle”— why not something deeper and more substantial such as “thinkstyle”?

A realization: What we are seeking as photographer-visual artists isn’t better “image quality”; it is to create images with beautiful aesthetics. Therefore in our terminology about cameras and post processing, let us not mention …

I’ve always been curious — what is the best life? A recent discovery for myself — I believe a nomadic life is the best life. Now — I cannot say it is the best …

A simple way to approach life: Either do it right now, or be okay never doing it (leave it undone). There is much wisdom in leaving much undone. In short, whatever is truly important …

Been looking at the top photos on ARSBETA.COM, and super inspired by all the great new imagery I’ve been exposed to. Which makes me want to spend some time to reflect on the question: …

When chatting with my buddy Chu Viet Ha, a realization: Perhaps what we are striving towards is to create more “deep” photos/images.

After playing with my niece Amelia, my realization: To affect things is what playing is all about!

A thought: Perhaps to be happier and more satisfied in life, we should customize (bespoke) everything to ourselves. This means: Don’t customize yourself by simply buying the newest and fanciest stuff; customize and tailor …