Month: January 2021

The origin of all joy is physiological:

Personal HOKUSAI studies:

Tinker with the settings you can actually control (sleeping setup, white noise machines, noise cancelling headphones, morning and evening routines, workouts, sleep schedule, etc). Tinker with your lifestyle choices and lifestyle flow. Tinker with your diet, what you eat and what you don’t eat (tinker with dairy, legumes, coconut products) and always strive to optimize what is best for you!

The general gist of congruency:

What you do and what you ‘believe’ in are one in the same.

Why is black and white so beautiful as an aesthetic? For me — the sublime zen bliss I get from monochrome:

I am a rational optimist. I believe in the future, and am excited for the future.

Right now, as we are trudging through the downsides of our covid lifestyles, it is easy to fall into existential dread, and loss of hope and motivation for the future. However, here are some optimistic thoughts for you:

Towards the eternal creative cycle:

Draw inspiration from the world around you and from other artists, and keep creating.

A realization while walking around and shooting some high contrast black and white photos of the snow in the streets:

This looks like calligraphy to me.

Which makes me think:

In order to improve and augment our creative vision for photography, is studying calligraphy a great idea?

I think so!

I’ve always loved minimalist compositions. But the question:

Why opt for minimalist compositions in photography?

Some thoughts:

If you’re stuck at home, quarantining or whatever — here are some photography assignments you can do from home:

The more uninhibited you can shoot as a photographer, the better.

Simple idea:

When in doubt, just shoot it.

Also:

When in doubt, shoot lots of different iterations of the same photo.

You never know what a photograph will look like until after you’ve shot it. Thus, shoot things as a way to fulfill your own personal curiosity:

I wonder what this will look like photographed, or as a photograph?

A very happy thought:

The future is bright and replete with new photo opportunities for you, new life, new opportunities, new social developments, new technologies and innovations, and future travels.

Let us look forward with great optimism to 2021 and beyond — yes, there will be a day once again when we travel, we will live more freely, a world where more people are vaccinated, etc.

Meditation is strange. On one hand, we have all these uber-hippies who swear by it, and then you have monks who do it on the regular.

I have always been skeptical and suspicious of the mainstream notions of meditation (even the spiritual ones). Some quick thoughts:

In our current crazy world (a world in which productivity is our religion [the cult of productivity]), to relax, to rest, to sleep, to take a nap, or to sleep (more) than 6-8 hours a night is considered a sin.

But I would actually say:

It takes more courage, skill, and fortitude to force yourself to relax than to force yourself to be ‘productive’.

Something I have been thinking about:

What is it which *really* motivates us?

Is it a sense of ‘purpose’ which motivates us and drives us? Is it curiosity which drives us? Is it a lust for more which drives us?

What is our true ‘primum mobile’ (first mover) which motivates us to do anything in life?

I am addicted to and love to create. To me, being in the zen zone of creating and the “flow” of creation is the optimal state.

As the years have progressed, I feel I’ve become more creative the more I’ve disconnected. To disconnect — to gain some sort of “creative isolation” — away from social media, and your contemporaries. This is the great secret to creative productivity:

What do we desire? Camera zen. What is camera zen? To just have one camera, one lens you can always depend on… and always shoot, without thinking about another camera … but the camera you’re shooting with.

Why do we care whether the photo is “good” or bad?

My notion of the uber-artist:

Going *beyond* basic notions of art. Crafting and creating your own artistic definitions, visions and goals.

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Dear friend,

Something I believe in:

If you seek more happiness, joy and personal meaning in life … photography is a great road.

Thus the question then becomes:

What are the practical or meaningful strategies I can employ in order to maximize my photography?

A simple thought:

Black and white photography as augmenting your creative optionality, as it gives you MORE opportunities and MORE avenues to express and outpress yourself creatively.

After a small walk, here are some quick ideas I got for you:

The more creative options you got, the better.

The goal: propagate yourself, your artwork, your ideals, and your ideas.

A thought while walking around the other day:

When it comes to life decisions, consider — Does this give me a meaningful advantage in life or not?

For example, perhaps with cars — they give you some sort of meaningful advantage if your purpose is to use your car to signal your success, wealth, or perhaps hope to pick up an attractive partner. Or if you’re a race car racer, and you want to win the race, of course you spend exorbitant amounts of money to upgrade your car, and buy the most expensive chassis and model.

Reason:

You gotta squint hard at a black and white photo without much context, which forces you to use your imagination and add color to your past (monochrome photo) memories.

As a consequence, the “disfluency” of the image (the fact that a high contrast, sometimes blurry or out of focus photo) isn’t clear is precisely what makes the photograph or memory more memorable.

Photograph your blessings in life and your joys, no matter how small.

Artistic longevity
To dance on your levity
Tippie toes
To gleefully expect another day.

Longevity
is the goal

To outlast the whole world is to burn strong through the fads and phases
To keep your eyes sharp like lasik

Brace hard and hold tight
Your camera is your sword — you yield the light.

ERIC

We often discriminate in our photography. We refrain from shooting x, y, z because we are concerned:

This will not be an interesting or artistic photo.

However this is what I say:

Just shoot it, and figure out what to do with it later.

New deadlift PR (personal record) // one rep max attempt:

A life in which we can just focus on our art and artistic production, without concerns for money, fame, followers, likes and finances — isn’t this the summit?

If we take this advice to heart, there are far more options in photography and options of things to photograph than limits and limitations!

Optimize for dynamic.

“From the age of six, I had a passion for copying the form of things and since the age of fifty I have published many drawings, yet of all I drew by my seventieth year there is nothing worth taking into account. At seventy-three years I partly understood the structure of animals, birds, insects and fishes, and the life of grasses and plants. And so, at eighty-six I shall progress further; at ninety I shall even further penetrate their secret meaning, and by one hundred I shall perhaps truly have reached the level of the marvellous and divine. When I am one hundred and ten, each dot, each line will possess a life of its own.” -Hokusai

Hokusai apparently exclaimed on his deathbed, “If only Heaven will give me another ten years … Just another five more years, then I could become a real painter.” 

A Haiku Hokusai wrote towards the end of his life, shortly before his death:

“Though as a ghost, I shall lightly tread, the summer fields.”

The more opportunities and options you have to make art and be creative, the better.

Thus the goal is this:

Strive to broaden your options… to discover many more and new avenues to create art!

Visual intelligence — looking at images and being able to deconstruct them, determining *why* the images are great, and seeing the hidden shapes and forms *behind* the images, hiding in the shadows:

Studying Hokusai (Simplified lessons on drawing 1, Volume 2, Volume 3) a very interesting epiphany:

The hidden visual architecture of things.

As artists what do we seek? We seek maximal creativity. Physiological power overwhelming, a blissful drunken Dionysian art-creation flow, and to just focus on your artistic creation and nothing else.

Creative photography is the goal. This means:

Seeing fewer boundaries between different ways of self expression though photography, staying inspired and motivated in your photography, and to always be shooting.

When it comes to photography, we must consider the subject, the subject matter of our photos, and how and why we photograph them.

Art… the future potentiality of making new art, discovering new art, or our curiosity in pursuing new art works … this is the great stimulus, hope, motivator and optimism in life!

What we are going for isn’t precise visual depiction, but a visual gist and impression. A visual impression:

What does the general visual movement, gist, and feeling … how does it embed itself into your own visual memory?

For example some Hokusai visual impressions I sketched in iPad and Procreate and some of my own images:

A good way to live life: only pursue that which interests you, and don’t pursue anything which doesn’t interest you.

Tell your own story and stories through your photos. Your photos and your photography is the medium (media) in which you communicate yourself.

Some thoughts on media:

Whenever I hear the concept of a “content creator” thrown around, I see it as a disparaging remark/insulting. Certainly when people say “I love the content you put out!” it is generally meant in a positive way. However … what we create isn’t mere “content”. I see “content” like the anonymous pink chicken nugget toothpaste sludge — not good.

I’ve also heard photographers justify their Instagram behavior by saying:

You must feed the beast (social media treadmill machine).

A subtle reframing:

See yourself as a PHOTO creator, and a substance creator … not just a “content creator”.

Or even more simply put, see yourself as a creator.

Some simple street photography assignments to get you going:

A word or concept which does not yet exist:

A ‘simplicisist’.

We have the term ‘minimalist’ in our modern vocabulary, but not ‘simplicicist’. Certainly the word ain’t as catchy, but I think the term is more accurate. Why?

It isn’t minimalism we are seeking, but it is the optimal simplicity we are seeking.

MUSE by KIM: the apex strap.

The art of editing your photos is the art of image selection; how to know which of your photos are the best and which photos to choose. Some thoughts:

For a long time, I always thought minimalism was the goal. Now I’m starting to realize that minimalism ain’t the goal, and it is a trap. Too many of us millenials fall victim to the “minimalism for minimalism sake” or “minimalism as a form of elite virtue-signaling”.

What the true goal is optimal simplicity. To choose the option(s) in life which are maximally simple and easy for you, in order to augment what you truly care for in your life, whether it be arts creation, creativity, time with friends and family, entrepreneurial ventures, etc.

In an interview Peter Thiel said of Elon Musk:

Elon Musk is not a good role model, as he is too difficult to emulate.

But when I think deeper about it:

Why strive to emulate others? Why not strive to just emulate yourself?

I believe all photographers will benefit hugely from owning an iPad. Even the cheapest one is fine — only $329!

Why iPad? Well, after experimenting with all the different ways of editing and selecting flagging photos, I get the most joy from using iPad to look through my photos. Why?

I was thinking:

How much *should* you shoot in photography?

And my general thought:

The more you shoot, the better.

Why? Creative iteration. The more you shoot, the more you learn. The more you shoot, the more risks you take which can lead to creative new photographic innovations.

Also, if you want to make more interesting compositions in photography, you need to shoot a lot, and you need to shoot a lot of risky photos. One of the big downsides of film photography is sometimes we get too scared to “waste film”.

To shoot a lot is like exercise. The more you shoot, the more “reps” (repetitions) you get in. And there is also this myth of “the decisive moment”— that somehow these demigod photographers would get their great photos with just a single shot. And why this bravado that somehow nailing a great photo in one shot is better? We gotta get rid of this ridiculous romantic notion (all romantic notions are false to reality and bad).

Certainly there isn’t a certain quota of photos you should everyday, but at the same time, it doesn’t seem to hurt to shoot a lot of photos everyday. Lately I’ve been quite productive with shooting — around 800-1000 photos a day.

For myself, this seems to be beneficial. Shooting small JPEG, with high contrast monochrome or cross process filter on RICOH GR III seems to be great. Why? Small JPEG allows me to quickly import photos to my iPad or laptop, and allows me to upload quicker. Also, shooting pre-processed JPEG means less time having to post process.

Above all, it seems the more you shoot, the better. Why? Because the bias is typically we don’t shoot enough, because we are too much perfectionists. Also, we suffer from “paralysis by analysis”— we don’t shoot photos because we are worried the photos won’t be “interesting enough”, even though in our gut we want to.

I think I finally have this Henri Cartier-Bresson quote figured out:

The beauty of photography is that you can reveal beauty in even the smallest thing.

Or in other words:

All things, no matter how small can be beautiful.

Then it is simply your task as a photographer to strive to seek, discover, notice, and document these small beautiful details. In praise of capturing beauty in the mundane.

Why photography? It is the great affirmation of (new) life. I myself wouldn’t desire a life and existence without photography.

Creative fears:

They typically have to do with your fear of negative judgements from others.

Good fear: fear which keeps you alive. For example my fear of dying if texting while driving, or walking on the street while texting.

Bad fear: fear of social chastisement which prevents me from pursuing my artistic and creative passions in life.

Good fears are mostly physiological; fear of a potentially early death, or permanent disfigurement (Nassim Taleb). Bad fears as mostly pertaining to how you live your life— your lifestyle choices, your artistic modes of self expression, etc.

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Dear friend,

Some quick creative motivational ideas to get you going:

The basic idea:

Your best creative ideas will come *INDIRECTLY* to you.

Your creative ideas are best when you are creatively ‘promiscuous’ — you disregard borders, boundaries, and genres. You draw creative nectar and honey from *any* creative source which inspires and turns you on!

Just because you’ve already done it once doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do it again. Eternal and perpetual creativity is the goal:

If we think about humanity, there is an innate instinct for us to procreate. The natural sexual drive of both men and women in order to create children. Certainly without the will to procreate, humanity would have died off a long time ago.

Then what makes me think:

How can we channel this desire to procreate in a positive and productive way? To channel this desire into our arts creation and to not demonize this innate powerful drive we have within ourselves?

To not demonize the sexual drive, but trying to figure out how we can harness this physiological power to our advantage?

Is our desire as artists to procreate art works rooted from the sexual desire to procreate children and new life?

If we extrapolate this “via negativa” concept to productivity and motivation the question to ponder:

What kills our motivation? And what “un-inspires” us?

Perhaps the best way to become a “better” photographer is mostly through the negative (Nassim Taleb). For example:

1. To make better compositions, best to *SUBTRACT* and try to get rid of the distracting elements.
2. To be more motivated, best to GET RID of social media (delete your Instagram) instead of seeking more followers and more likes.
3. More photo opportunities by subtracting color options (in praise of monochrome).

Perhaps this notion of having “positive role models” is not useful. Why?

We often put the personalities, characteristics, and pursuits of certain individuals as *above* us. For example, we all want to become more like Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, etc. However … is this truly something to be desired? Instead of seeking to become someone else, or to emulate the personality character traits of others, better instead to look at yourself, your own innate personality traits and to see your own self and your own personality as king.

Then when it comes to other humans, instead of seeking “positive role models” to emulate, better instead to consider all of the bad role models who you *don’t* want to become. For example myself, I don’t want to become like my dad, so I just do everything *opposite* of what he did. Thus I have a very good blueprint in terms of becoming a good future father —

Study, and analyze your “anti role models”— and use their negative traits as a positive learning experience.

Once again — just “go opposite” of negative folks and their character traits and actions, and you will be golden.

If you have a passion for black and white photography, does this mean that studying calligraphy (black paint on white canvas) can also give you artistic insights and good “creative cross pollination”?

A thought this morning:

Photography *is* painting.

We get this intrinsic joy from painting. Photography as painting with light. Thus perhaps the more painterly thoughts we can have, the better?

Or why I think everyone should have a blog:

We must play for the long game. This means:

Focus on your photography, artwork, artistic production for life.

The infinite road — photography as your passion that will burn on forever. And how do you stay motivated and perpetually inspired in your photography? To continually discover new sources of visual or artistic inspiration from other sources, from within yourself, and from life itself.

A thought:

When we desire x, y, z … is it ‘worth it’ if it will only directly benefit us, with no chance of benefitting others?

My thought:

Perhaps the only good selfish actions and means are good, if somehow eventually … it will help benefit others, broader society, and humanity as a whole.

A fun workout you can do at the gym (or at home, assuming you got some heavy dumbbells or kettlebells):

A heavy one-handed overhead press.