A pre-requisite in life:

Like yourself.

If you don’t like yourself, how do you expect others to like you?

Why do you do photography? Why do you make images? Why do you engage with the visual world? What do you want your viewers to get from your images?

This is the start of visual philosophy/photography philosophy (I call it ‘photolosophy‘).

What makes great artistic photos? Visual poetry.

Composition is endlessly fascinating, has a trillion permutations, and has no right or wrong.

One of my favorite photo books — part of our ongoing HAPTIC PHOTO BOOK CLUB (Summer):

Hey streettogs, super pumped to share that me and Cindy will start a summer book club around photography books.

Check the HAPTIC shop for special summer discounts, as well as the blog for more articles and insights about photo books and publishing! To celebrate our love of books and printing, all print and mobile books in the HAPTIC shop will have new flash sales every week throughout the summer while supplies last.

BASED ON A TRUE STORY by David Alan Harvey 

BASED ON A TRUE STORY by David Alan Harvey â€” a beautiful book concept that teaches us: 

There are so many new, innovative ways we can produce books and interact with!

Ideas from the book:

1. Print ‘newspaper’ styled books
2. Don’t need to create a spine or staple. Allow the reader to re-arrange the pages.
3. The book as a visual experience: Empower the viewer/reader of the photo book to create whatever flow they desire. 
4. Perhaps we should stop calling it a ‘photo book’, but perhaps a “photo experience“?

Interview with Cindy Nguyen on Haptic Press

The primary question of visual philosophy:

What is the worth of an image. And why are visual art works important?

The bitter in life is better than the sweet.

Bitter coffee as superior to sweet coffee.

Bitter experiences toughen you.

Of course, we should still strive towards the “bitter-sweet”— we need BOTH the bitter and the sweet in life in order to thrive, discover more gratitude in life, and have more power.

There are many types of photography out there. And honestly, there isn’t a “superior” genre out there.

Better yet — perhaps we shouldn’t separate photography into different types? However at the same time, studying different photography genres is a good way to discover NEW forms or types of photography you might not yet know you’re interested in.

These are the photography quotes I believe to be the most true, based on my personal life experiences:

To read a photo means to interpret the photo, analyze it, dissect it, strive to understand it, and to derive meaning from it.

Ambition — your life purpose risen. Break out of your mental cell and prison. 

Are your thoughts stuck or risen?

Follow your strength and charisma Laud yourself and like you through and through.

Being true is understated, confused, and underrated. Being true is to just follow your own gut— to disregard fame, wealth, and avoid prostrating yourself to others, one knee knelt.

Tighten your belt, grit your teeth. Your future is waiting, will you seize it (great reach!)

If you’re new to photography (or you want a refresh), this article is for you:

You are a creator, innovator, and artist. Now we got that out of the way, what are some practical tactics and tips to empower you to be creative everyday?

If you’re creative everyday (meaning, you create things everyday), you’re happier, more empowered, optimistic, and enthusiastic about life! 

I’ve written much on why blog, how to start and setup your own blog, but not much on how to blog. This will be a distillation of everything I’ve learned thus far from blogging (from age 15 to age 31)— 16+ years!

Entrepreneurship: the art of taking “calculated risks” in order to create what you desire to see manifested in the world.

Why become an entrepreneur? Because you hate the way that the world currently looks, and you desire to change it!

Only own what you’d always carry or use. 

A thought:

What if you always carried all of your possessions with you? Would this make us more selective on what to buy? Would this be more effective for us in terms of maximizing the possessions we already own?

In art, there is no right or wrong. There is simply ‘authentic’ and ‘inauthentic’.

What you are striving towards as an artist is this:

For you to pursue your own artistic vision, and being steadfast/strong enough to prevent others from watering down your artistic vision.

To become the most powerful digital entrepreneur, you must own the means of production!

When contemplating anything in life, always ask to yourself:

For what end do I desire to do [x, y, z]?

I was reading an interesting interview with JAY Z, and discovered something super fascinating to me. The basic idea is that the reason why a lot of people in the hood wore baggy pants and puffy jackets were to conceal drugs and weapons. And Timberland work boots because they would be hustling on the streets of New York late until the night during the winter — so the purpose was to stay warm.

Which gave me a thought:

Do all fashion or design trends begin from the functional purpose first?

Minimalist photography:

Embracing simple and minimal equipment, minimal compositions, in order to maximize your enjoyment and fun in photography!

It is difficult to predict when you’re going to make a good photo. But it is easy to determine photo opportunities (when you see them in front of your face!)

Simple tips on making more dynamic street photographs:

The secret: child’s mind (beginner’s mind) in photography.

A new way of seeing and approaching entrepreneurship:

Strive to simplify and improve the lives of others, instead of complicating and creating “false desires” the lives of others.

When in doubt, get closer.

Publish yourself via your own blog, website, PDF ebooks, prints, zines (magazine), or your own self-published print book.

To improve your photography compositions, SIMPLIFY them!

A thought while using the new Gutenberg “blocks”interface for WordPress.org:

The future of photography publishing is photography blogging.

A straightforward quick start guide to get started in photography:

An idea when buying anything:

Only buy something if you can imagine using it forever.

A thought while lying in bed:

Perhaps there is something integral about photography and being human.

Some thoughts:

Better to be a leader than a follower.

Ambition as the greatest virtue.

iPhone is the best camera. Why? It’s the ultimate “full stack”solution for photographers — shooting, image-selection, processing, and publishing.

Instant art works — isn’t this what makes photography so great?

Perhaps we should approach street photography from a fun visual gymnastics perspective. This means, we shoot street photography for fun — and we have the most fun in street photography when we compose scenes that are visually challenging, interesting, and complex.

1. Three subjects

Edward Hopper:

2. Proportions of elements

3. Depth

4. Curve

5. Elegant curve and gesture of woman’s body

6. Side profile

7. Extreme right subject

8. Two opposed subjects, with foliage in-between

A thought —

What if distractions were actually a necessary component of focusing?

In terms of an “opponent”theory — distractions and focusing are enemies. But if you desire to increase your focus, you must also increase your dose of distractions.

What if in order to maximize your altruism and impact on humankind, being extremely selfish were a pre-requisite? 

What’s your life dream? Is it good to have life dreams?

Waves never die —

I desire to make a change to the culture of photography.

I propose the following:

The best shots are snapshots.

The word “snapshot” not to be used as a pejorative (insult). Instead, it being used as a term to communicate a notion of shooting something instinctively, intuitively, directly, and authentically.

To become a full stack artist means to control all means of production, creation, distribution, and publishing. To control all the platform, to not get censored, and to also have the technical prowess to do and create anything you desire!

Pragmatic tips:

Before you create an artwork, you shouldn’t know what it will ultimately look like, or be. Isn’t this much more fun, interesting, and enjoyable?

Recognize the fact that the artworks you create are a reflection of your soul.

Artworks as a manifestation of the energy, soul, “chi” of the artist. 

The soul and life-energy of the artist is revealed through their art works.

Thus what is our goal as photographers and visual artists?

Impute and embed your soul into your artworks!

Really a huge fan of the VHS Camcorder (Rarevision) for iPhone.

Think beyond photography — embrace all forms of visual artwork and creation!

A thought in life:

Perhaps the best mode of being and being alive is to feel maximally alive, with the maximum feeling of power.

What does it mean to have a creative attitude?

To have a creative attitude means desiring to direct all your energies to CREATE! The ultimate apotheosis as becoming the ultimate hybrid of artist, philosopher, and creator.

A thought when perusing some luxury stores at the mall —

Wow, the dynamic range between high-end luxury goods and “fast fashion” is so much in terms of build quality, materials, and innovation in fashion.

Which got me thinking —

Why are luxury goods so much better (and so much more expensive) than basic goods?

Takashi Nakagawa — one of the most talented visual artists I know.

What if all your vices were indeed, your supreme virtues?

A strange thing I’ve noticed:

Many people are more interested in things, objects, fashion-totems, cars, clothes, etc than being interested in other people.

For example– if you’re a (heterosexual) man, what do you find more attractive– a Porsche car or a beautiful woman? Are you more impressed by Rolex watches or human muscles? Are you more impressed with fashion clothing-items, or the actual human individual wearing it?

An experiment —

Try using your phone and devices at the lowest brightness setting for the entire day — and use this as an opportunity to experiment with UI-UX usability, to better judge images and compositions, to improve battery life, and also to spend less mindless time on the phone.

It is evident that to be stronger is better to be weaker, that having more muscles is better than having less muscles. Strength is desirable, and the stronger you are, the better.

A question on my mind:

From a physiological perspective, how does one in-fact become stronger? How does one grow stronger muscles?

Let me explore:

Creating a body-mind-hand connection between ourselves and our technological tools.