August 2021

32 Photography Tips by ERIC KIM

  1. If you want more photographic inspiration and opportunity, black-and-white is best.
  2. In terms of the most versatile lens, a 28 mm prime lens is your best friend.
  3. When you got nothing left to photograph, just shoot your selfie.
  4. If you want photographic composition motivation, watch old-school films. For example, any film by Akira Kurosawa, or any of the film nor classics.
  5. Rather than optimizing for the best camera, strive to optimize for the best shoes.
  6. In my experience, the best all day carry camera is a ricoh gr 3. 
  7. Any camera that collects dust on your shelf and isn’t shot with all day every day, is useless.
  8. The ideal number of multiple subjects to photograph is three. Strive towards triangle compositions.
  9. My three favorite photographers of all time include Henri Cartier Bresson, Josef Koudelka, and Richard Avedon. The three black-and-white masters.
  10. The best way to improve your photography is to walk more. Perhaps best to use your walking tracking app to see how many steps you walk in a day, and accord that with your photographic productivity.
  11. Better to shoot a bad photo than no photo.
  12. The best photo you have shot should be easily recallable in your mind.
  13. The best way to become more innovative and your photography is via negativa: that is, to delete your Instagram.
  14. With COVID-19, the best place to travel and shoot street photography is Mexico City.
  15. The more photos you shoot in a day, the happier you will become.
  16. Buying a new iPad is a better investment than buying a new iPhone.
  17. To best way to study the compositions of other master photographers, is to trace over their photos. I recommend using the Procreate app on iPhone or iPad.
  18. Approach your photography as if you were already a billionaire.
  19. The best way to spread your influence as a photographer is to start your own blog, and to post every single day. Ideally, several times a day.
  20. The best way to think about the future of photography is to think about the past of photography.
  21. How to know if your photos are good or not: ask yourself, will these photos still ring an emotional feedback 300 years from now?
  22. No photography project is ever finished. All photography projects are always a work in progress, and always in flux.
  23. There is no right or wrong in photography, only tips and suggestions.
  24. Going on on the photography road trip is a very productive practice.
  25. Ultimately digital photography is superior to film photography. However, studying and practicing film photography will make you a better digital photographer.
  26. Do you never really know how you feel about a photograph, until 10 years later.
  27. If you can make one memorable photo in your lifetime, your job as a photographer has been justified.
  28. Never ask the opinion of another photographer about your photographs, until you have consulted your own.
  29. What is photography composition? Knowing what to subtract rather than add to the frame.
  30. Buy books, not gear.
  31. Best to shoot photos while you’re hungry, and praise of intermittent fasting during the day when shooting photography. 
  32. When in doubt, just shoot it.

Self-Assured Design

A random thought I had one driving, and seeing a matte black Mercedes coupe: it seems that the design is very self-assured. This means, it doesn’t desire to follow trends, and its content into itself. Compare this with other car brands, like Audi or BMW, in which is always trying so hard to impress others and always uncertain of its own design language.

Certainly at the end of the day assurance and self assurance should not be predicated on the car you drive or the things your own. But perhaps a more important thing is for you to become self-assured. This is, assured into yourself without always having to look over your shoulders and see whether others are watching.

If we take this further to art and art work, perhaps our real goal as artists is to become more self-assured in our personal artworks and creations. That is, we don’t need others to tell us whether our artwork is good or not. Rather, we simply share artworks because we love it, and the small chance to others might like it too, makes it worth sharing.

ADAMANTINE MIND

adamantine mind abstract calligraphy

ADAMANTINE MIND
My soul divine

Let my mind, body and soul be free
Free as can be, with no shackles, limits or ‘needs to be’

Free yourself free your mind
Dance in the twine and melodic dance
Prance further, dance further, godlike light toes
How far can you go? Only you can know.

ERIC

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ADAMANTINE MINDRead More »

Wipe the Slate Clean

Wipe the slate clean,
You’re on an ultralight beam
Sometimes it may seem trite or rife with fury and might
But stay with it, things will be alright

Every day is new again. Every you is new again.

Is the Root of Nihilism Simply Poor Health?

Random turbo thought:

Perhaps the root of nihilism is simply poor health.

To me, misery, depression, anxiety are simply manifestations of poor health (fatigue, overwork, no recovery, sleep deprivation, physiology out of whack from over-consumption of alcohol/weed/caffeine). Thus the sentiment:

Life is no good and has no purpose

Is this simply a reflection of poor health? Because if you are in great health, you desire the ‘eternal return‘– you desire to seek to live a lifetime!

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No Such Thing as ‘Good’ or ‘Bad’ — Simply ‘Stimulating’ or ‘Not Stimulating’

stimulating

A turbo thought when it comes to media:

There is no such thing as ‘good’ or ‘bad’ media — rather, it is either stimulating or not-stimulating (boring).

Avoid snobby commentary on things. For example, SUICIDE SQUAD was one of my favorite films of all time, even though it was given ‘bad reviews’ by ‘critics’. And what is a ‘critic’ anyways? Someone who has a passion for film-making or arts-creation, but lacks the courage or the skills to do so (note to self, only trust the commentary and criticism from fellow creators. For example only listen to film reviews from *OTHER* film makers).

Even the more recent INFINITE by Mark Wahlberg is quite good in my eyes (pumps you up, and love the physique and how buff Mark is).

Lesson:

Seek stimuli which pumps you up and gets you going (motivation), and ignore anything which bores you.

ERIC

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CREATIVE UPCYCLING

A concept I learned while in Berlin:

‘Upcycling’

Imagine a more sexy re-interpretation of ‘recycling’, but the concept is this:

You take old stuff, breathe new life into it, and make something new (cool).

So basically the gist is this:

Take things you’ve created in the past, and breathe new life into it (remix it), and make something beautiful and new out of it!

ERIC

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Innovate the Creations Not the Tools

It seems in today’s world, we strive to buy new tools that we think will innovate our art creations. But perhaps it is best to just stick with the tools we already got, and to strive to innovate our creations instead.

Why do this? Because it is more challenging, fun, and interesting.

Also this is a way to avoid equipment creep, which is to have more superfluous equipment than you need.

Even if you were a billionaire, best to as many as few tools as possible and ideally own nothing. Even consider how Elon Musk about a year or two ago give away all of his stuff, and doesn’t even own his home. Also for myself, I would prefer to never own a car, and just Uber everywhere instead. Also, instead of owning a home, I would just ideally live inside a hotel, which is what me and Cindy did for about three months in Saigon Vietnam and I loved it.

The Best Shoes for Street Photography

All black NIKE FREE RUN 5.0 shoes. The best, most minimal shoe, extremely light and very stylish.

Your shoes in Street Photography are probably more important than your camera.

Also, can be worn without socks quite comfortably. This means less friction to get in and out of the house. Also, the laces are purely aesthetic. This means you don’t have to tie your shoes and take them on and off, you can just slip them on and off. The ultimate via negativa shoe.

Equipment Creep

When in doubt, don’t buy it. More things as worse — the more devices you got, the more stuff to charge and maintain. The more things you got, the less counter space you got and more distractions. Strive to have as little as possible— and whatever few things you got, maximal quality. The smallest footprint, the best quality.

So next time you want to get x, y, or x— ask yourself — “Is this equipment creep entering my life?”

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Equipment CreepRead More »

Minimum Viable Size

Rather than seeking the biggest thing (biggest phone, biggest car, biggest laptop, biggest bank account etc)— perhaps we should optimize for the “minimum viable size”.

For example iPhone Mini over iPhone Pro (either size). The smallest minimalist luxury apartment studio or 1 bedroom you can find. Performance version Tesla Model 3 over the Model S or X (even if you can afford them all). MacBook Air over MacBook Pro. Ricoh GR III over Leica M.

On Making Yourself New Again

The great joy and motivator of life — to always be making, remaking, transforming and retransforming yourself. Every day you’re new. Every day is a fresh and blank slate — each and every day you’re carte blanche (a blank piece of paper) ready to create and recreate again!

VIGOR.

Vigor
Pull the trigger
Get lit in this life

Vigor
Let the trigger take you there
Anywhere you desire you must fly higher

Get bigger, stronger and more strong
This world is your oyster
Eat well and live long

ERIC KIM

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