The more photos you produce and make, the happier you will become:
Why productive photography?
To be a productive photographer simply means that you produce many photos. In modern day life, when we think about productivity, we tend to just think of people who are really good at sending emails and being responsive. This is not real productivity. Real productivity is actually creating and producing things, not to simply respond and be responsive to others.
Muscle and Photography
I have an interesting theory; I believe there is actually a deep link between muscle and photography. That, the more I build muscle, the more muscular I become, and the stronger I become, I also become a happier and more productive photographer.
Delete Instagram
The best way to become more motivated in your photography is to delete your Instagram. Also, just upload all your photos to your own website blog.
No metrics
Metrics are bad. Metrics mediocritizes. That means, the more you add metrics to something, the more mediocre you become.
Why do we feel this pressure to always add metrics to everything? My theory is because the modern-day man has no self-esteem, and feels that in order to justify himself, or feel mighty and strong, he must tie his self-esteem and his self ego to a number, or metrics.
However, how is this bad? Numbers are a slave mentality.
There is no such thing as progress
“Progress” is a modern notion, and also a bad notion.
When you think about “progress“, typically it is tied to numbers. That when you see the number go up, it is a good thing. And when you see the numbers go down, it is a bad thing.
However, numbers are a funny thing because sometimes when a number goes up it is good, and sometimes when the number goes down it is good. And sometimes when the number goes up it is bad, and sometimes when the number goes down it is bad. It is highly context dependent.
For example, increasing your fat and adipose tissue and seeing the number go up is bad. To see your body fat percentage, and your adipose fat tissue going down is a good thing.
The fewer followers, the better.
The basic thought we have as photographers is that the more likes, comments, and the more followers we get, the better. But should this really be the goal? Maybe not. For example, assuming that we are the new Spartans, maybe it is better to see the numbers go down. Rather than having 1 million Persian slaves, better to have the elite spartan 300.
Also a funny thing, when you see certain numbers go up, for example, enrollment numbers at a University of California university, it is typically seen as a bad thing. Better to be a Harvard or a Brown University, in which, the enrollment is actually very very low. To become more prestigious is actually to have fewer people.
Or, let us consider a party. If you’re having a rich and famous Hollywood party, what is better, to have a single Kim Kardashian attend your party, or 1 million nobodies?
Or with fashion, is it better to on 1000 articles of H&M clothing, or a handful of Balenciaga clothes?
See the world from a child’s eyes
What is the best way to see and experience the world? The purity of a child’s eyes. Child’s mind, child’s eyes.
Spend more time with kids.
For example, spending more time with my niece and nephew Benjamin and Amelia. Amelia is now seven years old, and she still has fresh eyes. Even more pure is Benjamin, who is only four years old.
Even something I have discovered is that once kids enter school, they lose some purity of their mind. They fall more victim to trying to fit in, and their own true individual preferences become overshadowed by peer pressure, and trying to fit in.
I really think that the traditional K-12 education, even the modern-day university system is bad for individuality and creativity. Even for myself, the last decade, I’ve been trying my best to unlearn, and desocialize myself from past biases.
Kill our masters
I believe a really big advance for our own creativity is to kill our past masters in photography. This means, disregard what our masters have said in the past, and we must start afresh. Start anew.
What does master even mean? Master means maestro, teacher. At a certain point, we must become the teacher, we must become the master.
Create your own new photographic mode of existence
How to become your own master in photography:
Realize and recognize that now, you are your own independent thinker, photographer, and you become the teacher.
How can you teach photography? Simple — on your own blog, your own email newsletter, your own YouTube channel, your own podcast, etc.
For example if we think about the Matrix, Morpheus was initially the teacher of Neo. But there’s a certain point in which Neo becomes the new master.
Carte blanche it all.
Carte blanche means blank slate. A fresh new piece of paper. A new fresh beginning, wiping the slate clean.
Disregard all of the past bias in photography, and start new.
ERIC
Have a fresh new start in your photographic life
- Conquer your fears in Boston March 25
- Conquer innovation in Berkeley April 15
- Empty your mind in HADONG SOUTH KOREA June 19-23rd
New Tools
HAPTIC TOOLS to conquer it all:
Random News, things on my mind
- The Decisive Decade — National Defense Authorization — apparently President Biden just signed a new defense treaty, which is nearly $1 trillion. My practical thought is really at this point, money is just a fiction. Where did this $800 billion come from? Some nerd at a computer pressing a button. My long-term thought is this will continue to devalue the US dollar, and fiat currency in general. Maybe this is actually a good sign for crypto and Bitcoin. Money seems fake. I say now is a good time to start buying and hoarding more Bitcoin.
- How to think infinite
- Just hit the 705 pound squat lift atlas hold — feeling god mode.
- Infinite potential — the beauty of America and free enterprise is that technically, and entrepreneurially thinking, we have no limits.
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Photo Assignments
- On your standalone digital camera, whether it be a Ricoh, a Leica, Fuji, etc., shoot everything that you eat and drink. I think this is a good strategy if you want to stop eating sugar, and other things that make you fat.
- Buy a GoPro, or the new GoPro mini, and just shoot it Ultra Wide mode, and record yourself lifting at the gym. Funny enough, I find that watching videos of myself working out is more motivating than watching other videos of other people working out.
- Stop using Lightroom. Just switch to Apple photos, and I also recommend getting an iPad Pro, the 11 inch, and using it to review all your photos. Also just shoot JPEG, the best way.
More ideas
“Better to make a bad photo that no photo.”
EK
EK PHOTO TURBO NEWSLETTER MOTIVATION