Month: November 2020

In life, it seems what we are striving towards is this: To be less foolish in life when it comes to our pragmatic decision making, and to become more wise.

The grand master in chess (and perhaps in life) starts with the end-game, and works his/her way backwards:

My #1 piece of advice for aspiring photographers: Start your own self-hosted photography blog (via WordPress.org) I see an uber-bright future for photographers and photography bloggers for the future — new unlimited heights of …

Question — What fun and interesting things can you discover about yourself or about reality through photography?

Thought: With work flow, and almost everything in life… strive to cut out the “middle man” or kinks in the pipe which prevent the directness of what you desire to do, or achieve. For …

It seems evident that our de is nosire as photographer-artists is to make beautiful photos. But how do we achieve this? Some thoughts:

Insight: when we perceive our personal growth and we see our self development augment itself, we are happy. When we see ourselves or perceive ourselves to be degenerating, we are unhappy. Then the question: …

Our desire … to beautify ourselves. This is what drives our desire for fashionable clothes, hair cuts, cars, accessories, shoes, body building yoga and health fitness things, our diet and lifestyle, etc.

Our desire as artists, or as individuals with very sensitive eyes and visual senses: We hate the aesthetically ugly in shape, texture, and form … and we desire to banish ugliness from our eyes …

Your photos will reveal your own personal politics and world view!

Technically we don’t get stronger *as* we lift the weight. When we successfully lift a new PR (personal record) in any of our lifts, it is just an acknowledgement of our pre-existing and innate …

Active rest, leisure, and emptying your mind as taking more skill and discipline than just “forcing” yourself to work more!

What we delight in as photographers and visual artists: form!

Why are music videos so fun (BlackPink)? Because– it seems we humans love the combination of both the visual *and* musical:

Words of wisdom from homeboy Publilius Syrus on ‘planning’.

Some pragmatic tips and ideas on how to do a one rep max squat, with no silly belt, knee wraps, steroids, protein powder, pre-workout stuff, creatine, testosterone, crazy genetics etc:

Of course beyond the obvious cases (like booking flights, or perhaps some work-related things), strive to never schedule a day in advance. This means, with any of your personal, life, health, fitness, art, creativity …

Innovation: your external conditions will never be optimal or best. So given your sub-optimal life conditions right now, what are the levers or triggers you can enable in order to optimize your sub-optimal for …

Since I’ve been getting back into weight lifting, I’m a trillion times more inspired in my art and arts creation. Which makes me think: Perhaps the core root and primal instinct of us to …

What Gives us the Impetus to Create?

Our goal isn’t to make the “best” or the most complex photo. I say it seems more interesting to contemplate what are the most basic and simplest elements of a photograph; to take it …

It seems life is far more fun, interesting and fulfilling when we put ourselves in a situation which allows us to (self-directedly) maximally engage ourselves with either thoughts, ideas, knowledge, wisdom, art, or the …

Photography is about photographing, documenting and creating images that have to do with human affairs.

First sent on ERIC KIM NEWSLETTER Dear friend, In today’s topsy-turvy world, now is your opportunity as a photographer to shoot and document it. An interesting insight I had recently: Political photography IS street …

Politics pertains to the “polis” (city, as good old Aristotle has taught us). Political photography and street photography seems to be the same thing.

Not sure what to photograph? Just photograph a full 24 hours in the day of your own life. To document it all— what you wear, what you do, what you eat, what you drink …

The purpose of life, art, creativity, entrepreneurship is this: To always iterate upwards and forwards, to the heights and beyond! Or like Buzz Lightyear says: To infinity and beyond!

There is much we can change in our lives and much we cannot change in our lives. Which makes me think: In which contexts is it best to literally change the external circumstances of …

A life with photography is soooo much more fun and enjoyable. Why?

To shoulder press more weight (via dumbbells), do it one handed:

Life ain’t about pain avoidance. Instead, my thought: How can we use pain as a stimulus towards making us more active, to do more, and to become more? Not to make the purpose of …

Life is too precious to live in a conservative, defense-based mode. Let us be more active, forward… let us ATTACK!

What makes a street photographer a street photographer? Not our camera, not our approach and not even our technique. I say street photography is the ethos and the love of being out in public, …

The harder you go, the harder you must also recovery! To force yourself to recover is also an active thing! We cannot just force endless productivity with no recovery. Work hard, recover hard.

Towards an anti-soft and flabby approach to life.

The new motto:

Our great privilege as photographers, bloggers, vloggers, and digital creators: There is really no downside to sharing more than ‘necessary’. Thus I say let us harness this benefit, and just share it all!

Don’t use money to just buy stuff. Treat yourself like a scientist; use money as a tools for more interesting life experimentation!

The point of photography: to better engage with the external world, to witness beauty, to highlight beauty, and to *ELEVATE* beauty using our skill as photographers!

Happiness as a concept as too vague. Better to think about physiological happiness– the physiological thriving, growth, and splendor of the body!

How to cultivate courage in modern times:

This is the aesthetic and state/approach we are going for.

Life is not a competition, but there are certainly ways you can gain a competitive advantage compared with others, by identifying your ‘archimedes lever’ (your one thing that you are probably at least 10x …

4K video means that the maximum width of the videos are around 4,000 pixels wide (a good width, even to blow up stills and print them). Why shoot 4K? Well let us consider all …

Each and every day as a mini lifetime. This means — live today like it were a lifetime in full. Attempt everything your heart desires today … no fear, no regret, all courage!

A life free of pain isn’t a life worth living. In fact, to confront pain and the chance of pain … this is what makes us truly courageous, otherwise we would only pursue what’s …

Exercising to get rid of superfluous energy. Not exercising as a form of virtue-practice. What is the benefit of exercise? Not to force yourself to sleep only 5 hours, wake up at 4am, and …

What is the difference between humans and machines? Humans are biological beings which require sleep, rest and recovery. The strange bias is ever since Taylorism, consumerism and Capitalism, and now the cult of productivity …

Why weren’t slaves, servants, mechanics and farmers of Ancient Greece *not* allowed to go to the gumasium? Why were only free men, citizens and the aristocracy allowed to visit and utilize the gymnasium? Is …

According to slave mentality, the more productive, stressed out, exhausted, sleep deprived, busy, scheduled one is, the more virtuous one is.

The more I think and contemplate on photography, the more I believe it as a tool to augment human joy and happiness.

I have a poor memory and often forget all the things I’ve done, seen, witnessed and achieved in the month prior. Then the thought: Review your photos month by month, as a means of …

What is the first reason *why* we make photos?

Floor bench press as ‘safer’ than traditional bench press, allows you to press more (you have better contact with the floor, and also lower range of motion). Still gives you a great adrenaline pump, …

Become the creative visionary you idealize in yourself.

Minimum viable product. Minimize the bulk to the minimum. No superfluous elements. Decrease size and weight and bulk (like the new iPhone Mini), or RICOH GRIII, but increase the quality, craftsmanship and strength. Also …

My joy for the gym and powerlifting and physical culture– the physiological joy, rush, and adrenaline rush with attempting a new “one rep max“– discovering and testing what our current limits are. To push …

Don’t do it for “the culture”, for “the gram”, or even “for science”. Do it sinply for your self!

Not just sexual arousal, but it seems that if we want to feel more engaged with life, we need to do things which engage and arouse us more. Mihaly C talks about this in …

An effective way to think about and approach life.

Simple ideas:

What will be the future photographic work flows? Perhaps a hybrid of Google Photos, Apple photos, Dropbox or your own media library in your own blog.

Not making money directly from your art work, but indirectly.

Profits not for the sake of profit, but profit as a means to continually channel into new research and development (BOSE), new innovations, new great products (Apple), or new ways to make our lives …

The primary new form of innovation in photography will happen via innovation in photography technique and approach. Some thoughts:

What are the best forms of pleasure? Good old Aristotle instructs us to seek pleasure in itself in philosophy. I say let us seek pleasure in what we can control: Going to the gym …

If you want to be ‘happier’ in life, more powerful, more productive, have more creative turbo thoughts, build a more beautiful physique and more, it seems simple: powerlifting is the way.

What do you do with your life once you got “financial independence”/“financial freedom”? Simple thought: Focus on philosophy and art. That means spend much of your time and energy thinking, reading, writing, walking, lifting …

Buffer in the context of more buffer in space, time, energy, resources and planning.