Just arrived in Phnom Penh, after taking a Korean air 12 hour flight from LAX to Incheon airport, and Incheon to Phnom Penh.

The first thought is Phnom Penh looks a lot like Hanoi. People are incredibly friendly, and I recommend staying in a nice hotel.
The Phnom Penh airport is very nice, clean and modern, and was very easy to get through.

The local coffee is also very good!

The palace gate hotel is a good value. Also good to organize airport van pickup!

Also, looks like the Chinese influence here is strong. Lots of local Chinese newspapers and banks here.

The infinite motivation to keep shooting, reviewing and analyzing your photos and eternally delighting in the process. Autotelic photography — you are automatically self driven and self motivated in the process!

Dear friends, a thought on my mind this morning; how to leverage yourself as a photographer.

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“Give me a spot to move and I shall move the world!” – Archimedes

One of the greatest windfalls in my life was discovering Archimedes. The notion of Archimedes lever is that if you know what your lever is, how to adjust the length of your lever, and where to stand and place your fulcrum, you can move the world.

Consider how the ancient pyramids of Giza were built; probably a series of pulleys, levers, and wheels.

What is the notion of lever in photography?

I believe that everyone has a certain strength as a photographer. It is different for everybody.

For example for myself, my ultimate lever in photography is probably street photography. Why? It is a combination of my extroverted attitude, my joy of interacting with people and strangers, and my personal ethos of being lightweight.

Also, my joy of the visual. I love all art, but out of all of them, visual artwork is my greatest joy. As a child, I loved drawing. I even got hand selected to join a special art school at a young age, hand selected by one of my teachers who saw my gift as a child, yet I never attended because my family ended up having to move.

How to identify your strength

This is a tricky thing; how do you identify your strength as a photographer, in photography?

Several ways you could think about this. The first is to just think about what brings you with the greatest joy. Without thinking about the external, internally, what is it that drives you and motivates you in photography? Is it your joy of exploration? Is it your joy of seeing how your photos will manifest? Is it your joy of creating artwork? Is it your creative outlet?

There is no right or wrong answer here, rather, it is simply an accuracy thing. Try to think accurately what really motivates you. This is one of the great steps in philosophy. Self-knowledge.

How to leverage your photography

Once you first figure out what your real motivation in photography is, then you can begin to exploit it, and to maximize it. A simple thought is share as you learn, and share the process. For example my initial motivation in street photography was to figure out how to actually do it and how to overcome and conquer my fear in shooting street photography. For me, 99.9% of the difficulty in street photography was how to overcome the initial hesitation of shooting it. Fear conquering.

At the time, when I first started blogging around 2010, there were lots of websites on street photography, and lots of great street photographs on the Internet, but no blogs or websites outlining how to do it. Also this was still the early days YouTube, even before they were advertisements. Therefore for me, starting my YouTube channel was simply a way to explore and demonstrate how to do street photography. My initial street photography gopro point of view videos were popular, because it showed how street photography was done in the real world. Nobody ever showed you this unique perspective before.

Simplify the process

Think about it; if you first introduced photography to a kid, would you teach them all the boring manual settings, and how to shoot in raw? Of course not. You would just set it to the simplest settings, and just teach the kids how to point and click the shutter. Even funny enough, I’ve discovered that my son Seneca, even my young niece and nephew prefer to use a camera with a physical button, rather than using an iPhone or a smart phone. Why? I think there is a primal joy in using haptic things, and haptic buttons, and haptic feedback. For example, Seneca at a year and a half loves my Lumix G9 camera, with all of the buttons, tilting LCD screen, and the physical shutter sound. He also loves to turn on and off my Ricoh GR, and shoot pictures.

Why I don’t like interacting with adults

A lot of things are ruined once we try to make it “professional,” and try to do it in a “legitimate” way. What is adulthood? Stealing the confidence of our children. Consider, how fearless and confident kids are, but as they get older, they are trained by their parents and society to become more fearful, more hesitant, and less self-confident.

For example, see how young kids dance and wiggle their bodies to music without self consciousness, but once we become adults, we think we must look “cool“ when we are dancing, or have special training and dancing. My personal aspiration is that Seneca gets older, I want to augment his self-confidence, rather than allow external structures to steal it.

Just leverage it

Truth be told, there are certain environments which are more conducive to our photography. But — I say,

Leverage your environment to photography to the maximum, regardless of how boring or poor your environment is.

For example, if you live in a suburban hell hole, just leverage that. Shoot photos of interesting houses in the suburbs, shoot selfies of yourself, look for rust and decay, and just shoot whatever’s interesting to you before your very eyes.

The greatest motivation in photography is maximizing your photography regardless of where you are.

SHOOT ON!
ERIC

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Leverage your photography to the next level

If you are hungry to leverage of target to the next level, invest in an ERIC KIM EXPERIENCE

1. September 30-October 2nd: DISCOVER YOUR SEOUL: ERIC KIM SEOUL SOUTH KOREA STREET PHOTOGRAPHY TRAVEL EXPERIENCE 2022
2. November 5th: DOWNTOWN LA MINIMALISM WORKSHOP
3. November 12th: VANCOUVER STREET PHOTOGRAPHY WORKSHOP EXPERIENCE

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Shoot more, become more

HAPTIC PHOTOGRAPHY OUTFITTERS:

1. MUSE BY KIM: Your ultimate muse.
2. HENRI SHOULDER STRAP: Always strapped and ready to go

HAPTIC IT.

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Other random things on my mind

1. Packing, getting ready for a 2 to 3 month long excursion to Phnom Penh Cambodia, South Korea, and maybe Vietnam.
2. Really enjoying the trap bar deadlift, just did an easy 455 pounds at the gym. The only downside is a lot of the trap bars at gyms have very short sleeves, which means it is a little bit more difficult to progress your weights, after a certain point.
3. A very optimistic thought: I might actually finally be stronger now than I was before Seneca was born. To me this is a hugely motivational thought, because my health was very poor after his birth, and in the early days. Now, I feel like I am in the clear, and ready to go on the up and up.

What next?

1. Make your own website/blog via bluehost.com, and install wordpress.org. A website is the ultimate leverage for your photography, whether analog or digital.
2. Decide and acknowledge yourself that your current situation is not optimal for photography, but disregard it, and strive to maximize your photography anyways.

Share your knowledge

Regardless of how experienced or inexperienced you are, you always have something to share. I encourage you to teach photography, either at a local center, at your local school, or any sort of organization which is helpful towards kids and adults. Teaching is beneficial for them and for yourself. I like the idea that when one teaches, two learn.

Learn more

Start here >

Interesting thoughts?

If this gave you any interesting thoughts, feel free to forward to a friend!

ERIC KIM NEWS LINK

How I Hype Myself Up Before a One Rep Max #HYPEFOCUS

FOCUS:

HYPE FOCUS

EDITED:

The upside of a trap bar– better leverage.

The world is not zero sum. A better way to succeed is to share information, share your information. Information is everything.

”I got that god power, that’s my leverages. I got that holy water, that’s my beverages.” – Kanye West

Assuming Archimedes was right, then, the secret to better moving the world is to not necessarily just improve your raw strength, but to improve your leverages.

For example, trap bar for deadlift instead of conventional or even sumo style. Or to squat more, no need to go super low “or go parallel, or break parallel” for your max attempts. Also, do heavy dumbbell press instead of bench press — superior leverage. Also for chin-ups, the neutral grip instead of the overhand or underhand grip. The neutral grip as the most natural and best leveraging grip (also why in theory, trap bar for deadlift should be superior — no need for a mixed grip for max weights).

Also when convenient, use kettlebells. The most simple leverages.

Best to use new technologies, approaches and methods and innovations to maximize you. For example, the internet as leveraging the individual by 100000x.

Or email newsletter — it blows my mind how I can send a message directly to 10,000+ individuals at once, instead of the insanely atrocious social media delivery rates (10-100-1000 individuals at best organically).

Or espresso machine and automatic grinder — better leverage technology to increase your coffee and caffeine intake.

Or flying instead of driving, leverage technology to move 10000x faster.

Therefore, spend more time thinking about your personal strengths, and maximizing and exploiting them. Continue to maximize your leverages.

To me, only new images is interesting.

Before you do anything else, make sure to always prioritize your own personal duties.

VIDEO

PODCAST

Whether we like it or not, marketing works. It works on us, it works on nerds, it works on everybody.

In fact, the whole capitalist society and system we have is based on aspirational modes of thought.

For example with cameras, the aspiration is that we will become more creative, make better images, and become more inspired.

With cars, the aspiration is that we will live a happier life, a more sexy life, and a more adventurous life.

So how should we apply this to photography?

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Becoming in photography

The first thought I have is that when it comes to marketing, it is an aspirational thing. To become more.

For example, if you are a photography teacher, the emphasis should be on helping people become more inspired, more created, more motivated.

If you’re a portrait photographer, wedding photographer commercial photographer, etc., then the focus is this; become more beautiful, look more professional in order to close more deals, gain more followers and likes, become the envy of your friends, etc.

Buy it for the marketing, not the thing

Perhaps it is easier to just shop online, read the marketing copy, and if the marketing copy accords with your core values, just buy it. For example, I got these Lululemon license to train shorts, and I got drawn into it because the marketing copy said that it was abrasion resistant. In accordance with my value of wanting some shorts, that were insanely durable, which could maybe last me at least 10 years.

What is your desired end goal?

If you’re a photographer, and photography is your passion, I assume that your end goal is to go out and make more photos. To become more inspired, to see more photo opportunities, and to shoot more photos that you are proud of.

And then if this is your actual goal, what you should be doing is traveling more, going on more embodied reality adventures, attending more workshops, attending classes, buying photography books.

Often the problem is that we feel unmotivated in our photography, and we mindlessly scroll through these camera equipment websites, gear review websites, and camera rumor websites, looking for that new perfect camera that will satisfy our every single desire.

I know personally speaking, the one camera one lens to have is the Ricoh GR 3IIIx. Why? Is the newest digital RICOH GR camera, and it could always fit in your front right pocket. Now you have no excuse to never shoot. Beyond this, I find all camera equipment superfluous.

How do you desire other people to perceive you as a photographer?

I say don’t sell yourself short. Better to over emphasize and over exaggerate yourself, than make yourself too small.

Some thoughts:

1. Don’t call yourself a photographer, call yourself a visual artist. Or just call yourself an artist.
2. Craft your own life narrative, and speak in the first person. Don’t speak in the third person, as it is overly terse, and disingenuous.
3. And ironically enough, the fewer the accolades you show, the better. Whenever I see a photographer with too many accolades, it signals lack of self-confidence. Like Cleon said, when somebody asks “Why don’t they have a statue of you?” He said that it is better for somebody to ask why there is not a statue of you, than why there is a statue of you.
4. Emphasize how your photography, or your skills will benefit the other. Typically, if you are a commercial photographer, do you want to make the people seem more beautiful, more happy, and more attractive. Also maybe the idea is to create motivational images. And actually the goal should be to make the photos of the thing look more attractive than the thing in real life. For example, a good interior photographer should make the hotel and Airbnb look more beautiful in the picture than it actually is. If you’re doing headshots for somebody who wants a sexy picture for an online dating website or Tinder, a good photo should make them look more attractive in the photo than they actually are.

Become more

For your road on becoming in photography:

• September 30, October 2nd: Discover your creative SEOUL in photography >
• Nov 5th: Make sublimely Minimalist photos in DOWNTOWN LA
• Nov 12: Become fearless in street photography in Vancouver

Photo experiences of a lifetime >

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Make more (new) photos

HAPTIC TOOLS to turbocharge your photography:

1. ERIC KIM WRIST STRAP MARK II: Become the legend
2. HENRI NECK STRAP MARK IV: Venture further
3. BECOME THE MUSE

EXPLORE MORE

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Brands I like

1. Lululemon: I really like how Lululemon is becoming the next Nike; the focus on creating technical apparel, rather than just being trapped in yoga.
2. Vibram 5 Fingers: You are the technology
3. REI: Opt for outside
4. Costco Business Center (The best place to get beef ribs, and beef brisket. You don’t need a special membership, just a normal Costco card. Or you could get in with a Costco gift card.)

Photography Entrepreneurship 101

Create your own future in photography >

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If this gave you any turbo thoughts, feel free to forward to a friend!

ERIC KIM TURBO NEWS

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Perhaps it is a good thing to be insatiable. Why? This is what gives you the infinite inner motivation to keep on going.

This is why I prefer just one option.

AUDIO

VLOG:

Speed is paramount:

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Why speed?

“Cool Prius!” (said nobody)

The funny thing is nowadays, the so-called virtuous say that it is more virtuous to take your time. To do things slowly is better. Slow food, slow living, etc.

However at the same time, ultimately we are more fascinated by speed. For example, we are fascinated by fast cars, fast sprinters, fast technology etc.

Even one of the great downsides of current electric vehicles is the recharge time. It is just too slow. Even with a supercharger; it takes 15 minutes to get to 200 hundred miles. Compare this with gasoline, where you get over 300 miles in less than a minute. Gasoline is still at least 10 times faster, maybe even 100 times faster than recharging your electric vehicle. This is why for ultimate ease and convenience in life, either a hybrid or a plug in hybrid car is still best.

Speed in photography

There are many ways you could integrate speed into your photography. The first one is shooting extra small JPEG. Essentially no buffer time, and it imports into your iPad, iPhone, or laptop insanely fast.

Also upload speeds. Unfortunately even in today’s world, we are limited by upload speeds. Even if you have the fastest Internet connection, uploading takes forever. Therefore the upside of shooting extra small JPEG is that extra small JPEG images (around 2000 pixels wide) is insanely fast.

Promptness

And a few years back, I borrowed a Pentax 645Z, and shot extra small JPEG, with a positive film preset. During lunchtime, I imported all the photos into my iPad, and by the end of the wedding, I already uploaded to Google Drive/dropbox, and sent the files to my friend. This is the ultimate; speed.

Even I have found with communication, whether email or text messaging, better to send a quick bad response, then a slow good response. Or you can always do the funny confirmation of their email, very quickly, and tell them that you’ll get back to them; even though you may never.

Why speed?

I think the main upside and benefit of speed is that it allows you to do more, with less friction.

My ideal is that every single day, you’re constantly shooting photos throughout the day, maybe around 300 to 1000 images a day, and either during the day or in the evening, you are selecting and flagging your favorite images, and exporting them and uploading them concurrently.

For me one of the biggest things was getting rid of post processing. If you shoot extra high contrast black-and-white in camera, let us stay on your RICOH GR digital camera, you literally do not need to touch any of the images, and you do not need to post process them! It is almost like the digital equivalent to shooting film; one of the great things I loved about shooting film, and getting my film processed and scanned by Costco was that after the photos were scanned by Costco, I just used the scanned JPEG images, which already looked great! (FILM NOTES)

RAW is for suckers

In fact, I think in-camera JPEG photos look superior to processed RAW images. I say just experiment shooting in-camera JPEG; experiment with different color presets, for example I really like the “classic chrome” preset on the Fujifilm digital cameras, or use cross-process filter on the Ricoh GR digital camera for color.

RAW is too slow, cumbersome, annoying, and time-consuming. Anything which is time-consuming is bad.

No hesitation

Has this ever happened to you? That you saw an interesting potential photo opportunity, and instead of just shooting it, you hesitated, because you thought either you shot it before, or it might be a boring photo?

I say conquer this. Just shoot cliché photos, or photos you think you have already shot before. Do not strive for a good photo; just shoot instinctively.

Light feet

Vibram 5 Finger EL-X shoes are great. The lighter your shoes, the lighter your feet. The further you could walk with less fatigue, and also the faster you can sprint. I am a big fan of the notion of barefoot sprinting, and also barefoot walking. And barefoot running.

Faster coffee

The reason I love espresso machines at home so much is that it is literally the fastest way to make coffee in the morning. Also, just use an automatic grinder; much faster way to grind your coffee.

Also nowadays when I go to the coffee shop, I just order the cold brew. Why? It is so much faster; they just pour it from the spout, and I don’t need to wait for it at all. Also the reason I don’t like hot drip coffee; it is often way too hot, which means I have to wait before I drink it. And now that I got Seneca, I just need to quickly down the coffee. So if I order a cold brew, or a nitro cold brew, I just down the whole thing in one go, toss the cup, and get on with my day.

With espresso at the local coffee shop, you often have to wait for too long. Either there are other people in line, or the barista‘s are processing other orders, and also the caffeine content in espresso is not strong enough.

Voice dictation

Something I’ve also discovered; you can voice dictate something a quadrillion times faster than you can type it with your thumbs or even your fingers.

One way I have been able to be far more productive, and jot down my ideas quicker is by using voice dictation. For example, this whole thing was written by voice dictation; on my iPad. Just using iA Writer, and the built-in voice dictation function in the built-in Apple keyboard (bottom left button).

This is where vlogging is also good; vlogging is great because you can quickly and naturally process your thoughts, something which is much more natural, and much more personal than just written text.

Quick gym session

Also, you don’t want to spend too much time at the gym. I just want to quickly get in and out. What I personally do is I only stick to one lift every single gym session. Example, either a floor bench press, squats, or sumo deadlift. Once I’m done, I’m out.

Just move on

For me, progress is just keep doing the thing, and moving on with your life. For example, not to be too caught up in your past photos; more interest in the photos you’re going to shoot today, or the near future.

Therefore in my mind, speed is simply not looking back, but looking forward. Isn’t this the ultimate optimistic thought?

ERIC

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TRANSFORM YOUR PHOTOGRAPHY

Transform your photography at an upcoming ERIC KIM EXPERIENCE:

• September 30-October 2nd: DISCOVER YOUR SEOUL: ERIC KIM SEOUL SOUTH KOREA STREET PHOTOGRAPHY TRAVEL EXPERIENCE 2022
• November 5th: DOWNTOWN LA MINIMALISM WORKSHOP (New!)
• November 12th: VANCOUVER STREET PHOTOGRAPHY WORKSHOP EXPERIENCE (New!)

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HAPTIC BOUTIQUE

• HENRI NECK STRAP MARK IV: Conquer the streets.
• HENRI WRIST STRAP PRO: Always strapped and ready to shoot.
• HENRI WRIST STRAP CREMA BROWN: Wabi-sabi.

ALL HAPTIC PHOTO SUPPLY >

HAPTIC AMAZON PRIME

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