Month: July 2019
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How to Create More Photos
I just gave a talk at Google on the topic of becoming ‘Creative Everyday’ [pdf download link to Slides], and wanted to change the definition of “creativity” from the notion of “artistic innovation” to the propensity to create lots of things. Therefore as a photographer, you are more ‘creative’ if you create more (new) photos!…
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Composition for the Sake of Composition
As a photographer, make fun compositions for the sake of it!
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Artistic Hypertrophy
With muscles to make your muscles bigger/stronger, they call it ‘hypertrophy‘: Ancient Greek ὑπέρ (hupér, “over, excessive”) + τροφή (trophḗ, “nourishment”). Hyper (over, excessive) = hupeir (beyond) trophe: nourishment, food. Applied to photography and art– How do we become bigger/stronger/more as artists?
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Beauty over Truth #philosophy #aesthetics
A thought: There is no ultimate ‘truth’. Furthermore, to strive to search for ‘truth’ seems to be a waste of time. Another issue: We can strive to discover deeper self-knowledge about ourselves, and perhaps more ‘truthiness’ about the world. But all of this “truth” is subjective. Then what are we to do with our lives?…
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Why Creative Photography?
This is the problem — When we think of “creative photography”, we typically mean to say “artistically innovative”. But who is the judge whether a certain photograph is “artistically innovative”? And is artistic innovation in photography what we desire? Or is it better to just make good, deep, and meaningful photos and disregard “artistic innovation”…
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RICOH GR III Sharpness Tests
RICOH GR III is sharp as a mofo: No anti aliasing filter, JPEG— super epic. As my friend Jun says, “physics don’t lie” (bigger sensor generally = better image quality/aesthetics for photos).
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In Praise of Personal Photography
Personal photography: shooting photos to spark more joy in your own life.
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Hyper-Human
How to become a hyper-human? We want hyper-cars. Why not become a hyper-human?
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Philosophy of Aesthetics and Beauty in Photography
What I think we are striving towards as photographers and visual artists is this: Create images [art works] which are beautiful. Now, how do we do this?
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How to Make a Living from Your Passion
My goal — More people to become self-employed, in order to allow more individuals to do great things. Best way to move humanity forward?
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The Gaussian Blur Test
Use ‘Gaussian Blur’ to better determine your compositions in photography:
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VISUAL CLAY.
Shoot and create art works with visual clay, beautiful people around you all day.
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Street Photography is a Way of Life
Street photography as a way of life. As a way of seeing the world, interacting with the world, and making art works out of people! HAPTIC: Creative tools to empower you >
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5 Simple Street Photography Assignments
Simple street photography assignments to get you going:
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In Praise of 21mm for Photography
21mm is one of the focal lengths which have been over-looked by photographers [for a very long time]. I will make the case that perhaps there is still a lot of unpaved photographic/composition grounds for 21mm [as a focal length].
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QUALITY IS YOU.
The simple formula for photography, art, and more: Make stuff and share it. Don’t have anywhere to share it? Upload your photos to arsbeta.com
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Quantity for Quality in Photography
Simple idea: You must shoot A LOT [quantity] in order to make GOOD PHOTOS [quality].
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You’re Not a Photographer, You’re an Artist.
We must assert ourselves as artists, not just ‘photographers’. To simply think of yourself as only a photographer is quite demeaning towards yourself.
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Art-Creation as the Ultimate Goal?
A thought: What if the best thing you could do for yourself and humanity is to create the most epic art-works you are capable of? For example, don’t think of yourself as a photographer. Think of yourself as an artist. As an artist, it seems that our only duty in life is to create the…
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Being Self-Employed as a Means, not the End
When I first started working my first 9-5 job, I desired deeply to become self-employed. Why? I desired freedom! To show up everyday at an office at an arbitrary time, to leave everyday at an arbitrary time, and to do this from Monday-Friday seemed hyper-bizarre to me. I thought to myself: We are living in…
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5 Black and White Photography Assignments
Originally sent on ERIC KIM NEWSLETTER: Monochrome tips:
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How to Teach Yourself Photography Composition
The best learning is self-learning. Some practical ideas for you:
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DEEP MONOCHROME
The deepest black. Jet black. Phantom black. Perhaps this is my ideal aesthetic.
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In Praise of Randomness in Photography
Shoot More Randomly! Why shooting randomly will help improve your photography:
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Why Photograph?
Photography as the ultimate hybrid and synthesis between art and technology.
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Street Photography Composition Ideas
My ideals of composition in street photography: How to make more ambitious images which are more elegant, stronger, yet simpler?
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How to Improve as a Photographer and Visual Artist
To improve, we usually think it means to make progress from Point A to Point B. Questions on my mind: What does it mean to “improve” your photography or art? Is “improvement” even something desirable? If so, how can we indeed “improve” our photography and visual artistry?
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The Greatest Possible Economy
Perhaps we can thrive and achieve our apex of strength if we embrace the notion of the “greatest possible economy”?
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Go to Business School instead of Photography School
If your passion is photography and you desire to monetize your passion and if you have the opportunity to get a free education, I encourage you to go to business school (instead of photography or art school). But this is a huge thing: Never go to school if you’re going to go into debt. If…
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Why Scale?
Something I’m thinking a lot about entrepreneurship: Why scale? Or in other words: Why is scaling up seen as desirable? And also– are there hidden downsides of having a really big scale?
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PHOTO LIFE
The best life is one ripe with photography.
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Build Your Own Platform
Delete and stop using social media; build your own platform instead!
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The Eternal Return
A philosophy from my buddy Nietzsche: How could you live your life in accordance as if you were to live it indefinitely, on loop, and to think this was the most sublime thing in existence?
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How I Write
Everyone writes differently. This is my writing process.
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Buy a new Ricoh GR III, not a New iPhone
A practical thought: If you want to invest in a new creative tool, better to buy a new RICOH GR III (instead of a new iPhone). This is my rationale:
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Only Do What is Best for You!
A new way of thinking about life: I will optimize my life to live in accordance to myself. To optimize my life which is best for me. To optimize my life to not put unnecessary stress on myself (only positive stress, ‘eustress‘). To live more like a child– playfully, to challenge myself, and to live…
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What is the Secret of Making Great Photographs?
Practical ideas:
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What is Creativity?
I want to go beyond the notion of ‘creativity’ as this “innate ability to make novel connections and to think differently”, into thinking about creativity as frequency and power of creating new art-works.
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Substance Marketing #entrepreneurship
Beyond content marketing. Let us strive to create substantive ‘substance’ (not “content”).
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What is Your Unfair Advantage? #entrepreneurship
Currently enrolled for ARSBETA.COM in Y Combinator’s “Startup School”, and thinking of Kevin Hale’s question for Week 1 lecture: What is your unfair advantage?
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Share Your Dopeness with Others
A simple principle in life: Share your dopeness (awesomeness) with others.
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Artistic Exertion
Through art, we desire to exert (ex+press) our inner artistic power.
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Do You Photograph to Remember or to Forget?
An idea inspired by Cindy: Is the purpose of photography to remember or to forget?
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How Should You Live Your Life after You Retire?
Once you’ve retired (no longer need to do toilsome labor in order to pay your rent and groceries), what is the “optimal” (best) way to live your life?
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Full-Stack Artist
You make photos, you make illustrations, you make videos, you make music. You derive artistic stimulus from all sources: from listening to music, from films, from dance, from exercise, from philosophy — from anything! To develop to the fullest extent– grow more variegated. Consider a tree. You have a singular trunk, but your roots grow…
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We eat everyday. Why not make photos everyday?
Also another idea: Spend more time looking at your own photos instead of watching movies or Netflix? As visual artists, perhaps we can only maximally thrive if we are continually making new images, every day– perhaps all-day?
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Frugality is Freedom
If you desire more freedom in your life, strive to become more frugal.
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Photography Composition Manual v1
The first version of PHOTOGRAPHY COMPOSITION MANUAL (download as PDF).
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Minimum Viable Product (MVP) for Entrepreneurship
(Listen to as podcast) One of the best silicon-valley thought concepts is the idea of the ‘MVP’ (minimum viable product). It is anti-perfection. It is PRO-quick iteration, and just getting it out there! I think if we all lived more ‘MVP’-minded, we would be more creatively productive, confident, and happier! ARSBETA.COM: The Anti-Social Social Media…
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In Praise of iPad for Photographers and Visual Artists
Been testing out the beta iPad OS on my iPad pro 10.5 inch and loving it! It has simplified my photographic workflow by at least 10x!
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The Will to Photograph
What is the motive force which induces us to photograph? Some ideas: Desire to immortalize a moment. Great joy and thanksgiving towards reality. Desire to create visual art works. Photography as faster and more efficient than painting or drawing. Desire to play. Photography as fun visual gymnastics if shapes, colors, forms, compositions. To photograph is…
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JUST SHARE IT.
When in doubt, just share it. Even if there is a 1% chance you can help someone else, it is worth sharing!
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Don’t Follow or Predict Trends, Start Your Own Trend!
A thought: Many of us try to predict trends, or identify trends in order to follow them. But what if we can create our own ‘reality distortion field’ (Steve Jobs), and create our own trend?
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If You’re Not Busy Growing, You’re Busy Dying
Life is about growth. Our passion is photography and visual arts. How can we optimize our own artistic growth in photography and beyond?
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Breath-taking Photography
Do your photos take your breath away? Recently when viewing my RICOH GR III photos on iPad Pro, I took my own breath away.
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Should You Follow your Passion in Life?
What is your passion in life? If you don’t know what your passion is, should you have a passion? If you know what your passion is, should you pursue it? To what extent? Should you try to monetize your passion, or not? Let me essay some of these thoughts:
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Photography is Life.
To photograph is to live. The more you photograph, the more you live. The more you shoot, the more you wonder (and wander), the more hidden beauty you discover in life. Photography is life.
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The RICOH GR III (3) is the Best Camera Ever Made.
The RICOH GR III is the best camera ever made. Done deal. Get Eric Kim NECK STRAP on AMAZON >
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Never go nowhere without your camera #alwayscarry
Never go anywhere without your camera around your neck or on your wrist (or at least in your front pocket).
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Until You Own Your Photos, You Can’t be Free
“‘Til you own your own you can’t be free. ‘Til you’re on your own you can’t be me. How we still slaves in 2016?” – JAY Z (I Got the Keys song) Until you own your platform, you don’t own your photos (or yourself).
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How to Express Yourself through Photography
Photography as Self-Expression Photography is a tool to “express” yourself (ex+press — to press out your soul into the world, via your photos).
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Why Instagram is Bad for Photographers
If you desire to thrive as a photographer, #deleteinstagram and join ARSBETA.COM instead.
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Do You Love Being Alive?
A thought when walking around today: Do you love being alive? Are you living your life in a way in which you suck out the marrow of reality? Where you deify existence, and being alive? Or are you living in a way simply to kill the time, and to live an existence as un-miserably as…
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Why Give More?
If we envision the entrepreneur as someone who creates our of hyper-abundance and super-abundance, certainly the entrepreneur must be the ultimate GIVER!
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Toy or Tool?
(Listen to as PODCAST) An idea I’ve been playing with for a while: Perhaps when it comes to things in life– we should classify it as a toy or tool.
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Entrepreneurship born from Superabundance, not Need/Necessity
(Listen to as PODCAST) “Necessity is the mother of invention.” Is this statement really true? What if the opposite were true: Abundance is the mother of invention. Let me explore these ideas with you.
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Why We Love Black and White Photographs
Perhaps we prefer gritty black and white photos that don’t look like reality, because we need to fill in the gaps, and engage our imagination? The upside of gritty, blurry, and out-of-focus photos. The less ‘photo realistic’ the images look, the better?
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Truthiness
There is no ultimate ‘truth’ — only varying degrees of “truthiness” (degrees of truth).
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Why do we delight in visual change?
Perhaps it is our evolutionary advantage that we delight in visual change. Visual change in landscapes, our environment, our fashion, our cars, our objects, and the visual art works we consume and create!
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Active vs Reactive Thinking
Active thinking: thoughts which arise when you let your mind go empty and fallow. Reactive thinking: you must read or expose yourself to external stimuli in order to think.