What works well for me may or may not work for you. Some ideas:
1. Extra small jpeg
Biggest photo hack– shooting extra small jpeg (around 2000px wide). Why? For a blog or website, you can still full screen it to your laptop, and still see all the pixels. I see extra small jpeg (2000px wide) as the ‘minimum viable’ jpeg small size– not too big, not too small, just right.
The upside:
You can shoot more, with less hesitation, and doubt.
RAW is slow. RAW is cumbersome, and not good for photographic productivity.
Even the most productive wedding photographers I know shoot only JPEG– they select their white balance in camera, and they can quicker shoot, don’t need to post process, and more quickly deliver their photos to their clients.
2. Apple Photos
Apple photos is the killer app for Mac. I see it as better, faster, and superior to Adobe Lightroom, especially if you only shoot JPEG.
Why? Syncing across all your apple devices, also, it is free and open. I hate paying for a subscription; I hate feeling locked in. Granted you’re locked into the Apple ecosystem, but we all prefer our MacBook laptops and our iPhone’s anyways, so this ain’t a big deal for me.
EXTRA SMALL JPEG on Ricoh gr iiix, import to Apple photos, organize into folders, and export on your laptop to a Dropbox hard folder.
3. Photo productivity is a sign of a good life?
The other day I spent all day at UC Berkeley and Downtown Berkeley campus, while Cindy was at a conference, I was exploring with Seneca. I shot 1,000 photos in a day.
To shoot more, become less ‘pro’. Shoot openly, willingfully like a child. Even if you have a 1% feeling of shooting something, just shoot it. Figure out what to do with it later.
4. Small thumbnails
Apple Photos — see your photos as small thumbnails, and don’t look at your photos as full screen (one by one). Instead as a small thumbnail contact sheet view, select and flag and favorite (heart) your favorite photos from a small view. The upside is you can quicker scan, and choose your photos which ‘pop’ out at you.
5. Quit Instagram and Facebook and social media photo sharing platforms
If you want real feedback on your photos upload them to arsbeta.com. If you want to share your photos, share them to your own website or blog.
Lately I’ve been using iMovie to create big slideshows (1000 photos) with each photo being .5 seconds. Or you can share all your photos to your blog as a mega blog post with 100+ images in a ‘Tiled Gallery’ format, or the normal ‘Gallery’ format, and you can choose to not crop your photos.
The upside–
You can shoot a lot, and share a lot.
Go beyond the basic ‘share one photo a day, exactly at noon, to maximize your likes’ on your photos. This is slave mentality.
6. High contrast black and white
I love color, yet color is restrictive. I see there are infinite shades of black, which means–
High contrast black and white affords you more photo opportunities.
With color you’re a slave to reality. When shooting color, typically color photos only work well if the color itself in real life is good. Also light– color photos work best in ‘golden hour’ (sunrise, or sunset) or with a flash. Photos of color shot in the shade look muddy and un-aesthetic (ugly).
RICOH GR III/IIIX in high contrast black and white with the contrast maxed out is best. Best Ricoh technical settings here >
7. Live more
The point of life is to live more, to extract more out of embodied reality.
I say:
Spend less money on your car, your home, your possessions your apple devices, etc… and spend more money on travel, experiences, hotels, airfare, gas, workshops, etc — things that get you outside of your house, and more time out shooting.
The more time outdoors, and the more time out shooting, the better.
ERIC
HAPTIC PHOTO SUPPLY
- ERIC KIM NECK STRAP MARK II (for the #ricohmafia)
- ERIC KIM WRIST STRAP MARK II (what is always on my Ricoh GR IIIX)
- HENRI NECK STRAP MARK IV: Classics never die >
Turbo books
Thoughts on my mind
- HALO universe a good one to think about and explore
- Minimum viable reps for working out (just one rep)
- What would John wick do?
If this sparked any ideas within you, feel free to share or forward to a friend!