Month: November 2020

Use your life and existence as a tool of experimentation … figure out how much joy and thriving you can extract from existence!

To glitch your photos as fun creatively, and also allows us to re-imagine our photos in a novel way? And also forces the viewer to better focus on the surrealism in our photos? Similar …

Free photo motivation on ERIC KIM NEWSLETTER > Dear friend, Big epiphany: Let us not be fooled and suckered into thinking we are just mere ‘photographers’ who must capture reality ‘true to life’. No …

The purpose of filters are many. Some ideas:

The new “glitch” and “chromatic abbreviation” filters on Procreate on iPad is insanely fun, creative and my new muse!

No, shooting with filters or applying them afterwards is not “cheating”!

The great optimistic thought: What is the purpose of being alive and of reality? Simple — reality is our play thing in order to visually and creatively thrive and play photographically!

Once you got all the riches in the world or everything you need …then what? My belief: The end of life and our lives is artistic creation. To create things *beyond* ourselves. To create …

With photography, you can be creative in a quadrillion different ways!

Today’s brave new world and society: More time living indoors, working from home, working remotely, etc. Nothing is really open anymore, which means you probably don’t have *that much* utility for money besides paying …

The word “street” is originated from “strata” (Latin, for a “paved road”). I suppose in the past, a paved road was only in a public space in the city (polis) in an open space. …

Street photography of people you know … one of the most exciting and innovative ideas which will open up so many new avenues for you!

Street photography composition … still so much ground which hasn’t been covered or discovered! Some practical ideas:

The desire to build your strength — a noble pursuit.

I always strive to increase my ‘one rep max‘– this is my primary interest in strength building and powerlifting. However, I don’t always achieve a new one rep max. So the lesson: In life, …

The more pride you have in your self, and the more pride you exhibit, the better:

Before asking yourself or others whether they like your work or not, ask yourself whether you like your own work or not, and then you must position yourself in such a way that you …

Epiphany: Rather than complaining and bemoaning the facts of life, best to work with nature and physics in our favor. For example, I’m currently living in this massive 4-story home and most of the …

For some reason, it seems I am more motivated to shoot monochrome than color. Why? Perhaps because with monochrome, everything just looks more interesting and abstracted? Considering we don’t see the world in monochrome!

GYM — might become a relic of the past?

Photos which enact an effect upon the emotions or mood of yourself or your viewer… this is an ‘effective’ photo. Photos which enact an effect is the goal.

What is it that I desire? More energy, more physiological power (what we tend to think about “inspiration” or “motivation”). Inspiration and motivation for the muscles and mind and body, in order to do …

Video x Photography is the future:

When we think that we want to be “happy” or to become “happier”, or to augment our “happiness”… I think what we really mean to say is to augment our joyfulness, cheerfulness, and sense …

If we believe that the purpose of life isn’t “happiness” or to be “happy”— then the thought: Perhaps the purpose is to become more effective … to enact more change and impact upon the …

When it comes to the pure essence and form of photography, we must return back to monochrome:

A thought while walking around today: Once you no longer make money-acquisition the purpose of your life … then what? It seems based on people I know and have observed … people then focus …

In photography, let us consider the two subjects at hand: The forms we strive to capture through photography (composition, the subjects we photograph, the shapes of things in our photos) The idea or ideas …

First sent on ERIC KIM NEWSLETTER Dear friend, Wanted to send you a quick message on Thanksgiving. Lots to be thankful for and joyful for!

Epiphany during one rep max attempt deadlifts: Mental focus is overrated. It’s all about physical focus. To focus my “mind” (body) to prepare myself and hype myself up and adrenaline boost myself to even …

The mistake we often make: We strive to become excellent and to excel in things which society says is good (productivity, wealth generation, industriousness, etc). But perhaps a better road to virtue and our …

Following in the footsteps of good old Aristotle: It seems simple … if we desire to excel in a given field or activity, we must habitually practice it … for fun, self interest and …

Certainly filters are good in photography. However I’ve also found a great joy in shooting with no filter — just intelligent auto (iA) mode on Lumix G9 camera. And the benefit of shooting small …

All photos are images in a state of becoming!

For creating, RICOH GR III as very capable; in praise of shooting 1080p on RICOH GR III in video mode at 60fps. Lots of new potential when shooting macro video!

To cross-pollinate and find inspiration in *everything* and anything … isn’t this the goal?

To live and experience the most supreme life … isn’t this the goal?

The more visual information you can share, the better:

Movement is the source of all (great) new photos:

Anything you do that can physically move you (go outdoors and walk, etc) is good. Then beyond that, creating art works that physically move you and others!

To actualize yourself … to fulfill your potential. This is self-actualization, and a noble goal.

To be motivated means having the bodily or the physiological power or desire to move, do things and attempt things. So the Aristotelian thought: What is the prime mover, or the first mover which …

A thought: In today’s world, in which function is soooo easily fulfilled by cheap goods (made in China) available at Walmart, Amazon, Dollar Tree, etc… perhaps the future is pure aesthetics, for the sake …

What should we pursue and what should we *not* pursue in life? Simple thought: Listen to the physiological cues of your body to judge your enthusiasm or interest in something! If you don’t got …

Bodily awareness. More wisdom in the body, muscle and sinews than the “mind”. When we think about “willpower”, we tend to think about the mind. Why the focus on the mind? We like to …

First, optimize for your physical, physiological health and well being. Sleeping 10+ hours a night without waking up to the agency of an alarm clock. Sleeping before midnight. Muscles full, supple and ripe and …

What we are seeking isn’t to “optimize” our lives in the sense of making our lives more “efficient”. Actually what we are seeking is to improve or “betterfy” or “betterify” our lives! So in …

If someone says to you: “Not to sound racist but x, y, z” this means they’re a racist. However if someone openly says something that *sounds* racist, it often isn’t. Things that sounds racist …

When you’re tired and have low energy, perhaps best to eat some meat and take a nap. Or just take a cold shower and a nap. Or a hot bath, followed by a cold …

The more we can broaden and democratize the notion of “street photography”, the better.

What we are seeking is the *right* or optimal amount of stimulation. Too much stimulation is bad, but too little stimulation is also bad. To discover this “golden mean” (Aristotle) is our creative flow …

The more I’m out on the streets or in public spaces, the happier and more creative I am. So simple thought: Our physical and creative happiness is directly proportional to the time we spend …

For example, lots of small fires can be controlled but one really huge fire cannot. So also perhaps in relationships, better to have lots of small little scuffles and arguments (which can be quickly …

Some quick thoughts. First thought: When it comes to our abilities, we often under-estimate ourselves greatly. This is bad. However we often over-estimate our ability to plan, forecast, and predict/control the future.

Long story short, stoicism is good for us right now:

A good stoic way to approach and live life: If you’re part of society and not a recluse, when you interact or engage with others who are pretty, just ignore them, don’t acknowledge what …

Visual acuity — the skill, your creative and compositional sensitivity to the world:

You’re a visual artist. You love the visual. Photography is just your core competency and passion, but all visual arts are good visual arts!

A thought: You express much via your photography in terms of what you consider beautiful and worthy to be shared!

What is our goal being photographers and visual artists? Simple; not to become a petty and small photographer, but to strive towards greatness, magnanimity, and to become a great photographer!

Everything is beautiful, if you look closely enough!

A thought I had while looking at this warmup video I made: Wow, seeing this video in monochrome, high contrast, sporadically going in and out of focus seems very artistic. To me, it was …

More squats, more thoughts:

How I warmup at the gym:

We go to the gym to lift weights and get fit and exercise. Perhaps we should approach photography the same; the metaphorical gym for photography, replete with exercises, approaches, form and technique as well …

We all seem to acknowledge the fact that fitness is essential to physical health. But why don’t we acknowledge the fact that photography is also essential to our creative health?

Why exposure compensation is so valuable:

A realization: It seems the reason I love coffee shops, the gym, the mall, the library etc is because they tend to be “public” spaces … often indoor, which creates a better sociological space …

Why do we typically join collectives or are interested in collectives? Perhaps because we lack the self belief that we alone … we as individuals can do, attempt and enact great change by ourselves!