STREETGODS WEIGHT LIFTING CLUB:

Traditional powerlifters are out:

I’m starting my own weight lifting club:

How I did it:

How to master shooting street portraits:

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If you’re hungry to conquer street photography, I cordially invite you to my insanely epic one day turbocharged CONQUER STREET PHOTOGRAPHY workshop in Philly, October 14th, Saturday, 2023:

Why Philly?

First of all, great coffee. Elixr coffee near City Hall.

Second, I find Philly, a.k.a. Philadelphia a very interesting and unique American city. So much history, and also diversity. And if you have never had cheese whiz on your Philly cheesesteak, you’re missing out.

So close to NYC

From New York City, getting to Philly is super easy. You can probably just jump on the Amtrak train, or even drive, or if you’re from Boston, even drive or fly or Amtrak.

So much left to experience in America

I remember when I was doing an epic road trip through the states, I drove through Philly. I loved it. Also my cousin Holly is from there, and she was able to show me around.

What is so cool about Philly is that it is so accessible, yet it is not really seen as a super critical place to visit.

For myself personally speaking, I had this very very interesting experience meeting a guy named Eric Rivera, smoking a Cuban cigar, apparently Eric is also a philosopher and ex stock trader, who actually even knows Nassim Taleb in real life.

Anyways, I love Philly. I love the parks, the architecture, and how historic it is. Also the people are phenomenal, and it is a truly interesting place to do street photography. If you’re American, you must go at least once.

What will we work on and focus on?

If you’re strapped for time, we can get a lot done in a little bit of time: I have designed this epic one day street photography workshop to turbocharge all of your photo senses:

1. How to conquer fear and hesitation in street photography
2. How to deal with negative interactions or responses from people in street photography
3. Building the courage to shoot directly, without having to shoot from the hip
4. Learning how to use a flash in street photography, and having the opportunity to practice it, especially in the context of street portraits
5. How to get closer to your subjects in street photography
6. Practical and pragmatic lessons from the masters of street photography, without all of the mumbo-jumbo
7. How to master the technical settings on your camera; if you shoot with a Leica M rangefinder, or Leica Q camera, how to best effectively use zone focusing, manual focusing, or even learning how to shoot layers and deep depth in street photography using auto focus and P program mode.
8. Knowing when it is intelligent to shoot candidly without permission, and learning when it is a better idea to ask for permission
9. Master shooting street portraits: the art of charm, self-confidence, and learning how to direct your subjects
10. How to fulfill your creative potential

Conquer it all

The reason why I love street photography so much is that it is hugely pragmatic in terms of both creating artwork, and also boosting our own self confidence and self-esteem.

How you will benefit from the workshop and post workshop

1. Increased self confidence and self-esteem
2. Greater knowledge in terms of the past and history of street photography
3. Greater courage and chutzpah in shooting street photography
4. More creative thinking in context of photography and street photography
5. A huge high: the insanely blissful high of a workshop, both during a workshop and after
6. New friends! One of the greatest benefits of a workshop is you could both conquer your fears, and also meet new peers! I think in modern day life, the ability to meeting you like-minded people is very difficult, especially after college.
7. More innovative thinking
8. More excitement and enthusiasm for your photography
9. New personal photo projects that you could pursue after the workshop
10. The chance to join the ERIC KIM street photography ilumiNATTI

Fortune favors the insanely brave

This workshop is unique, because when you register for this workshop, you can bring a friend, colleague, or family member for free! Feel free to bring your partner, your friend, even your kid!

If you want to go solo that is totally cool too.

Invest in your life

It is funny, because we will drop $10,000 on a new Leica M11, or even Leica monochrome, or drop $8000 on a new like a new Leica APO lens, yet we won’t invest in more substantive things, like life experiences, and actually working on our photography?

One of the great things about attending a workshop is that it gives you an excuse to actually work on and practice your photography! I can personally guarantee you that this workshop will allow you to add at least one great photo you’re proud of that you could add to your portfolio!

How to secure your future

The typical tuition for this workshop is $5500 USD. However, if you register before October 1st, 2023 the early bird discount for this workshop is only 999 USD. This also includes bringing your extra person for free!

Typical Tuition Portal

$5500 USD tuition if payment submitted after October 1st, 2023:

$5500 USD PAYMENT PORTAL >

Early Bird Discount Portal

You can secure your early-bird tuition for this workshop if you submit in full before October 1st via the link or PayPal Buy Now button below:

Early Bird: 999 USD PAYMENT PORTAL >

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The 411 for the workshop

1. Meeting Spot: Elixr coffee near City Hall, (207 S Sydenham St, Philadelphia, PA)
2. Time: 11am-4pm
3. Date: October 14th, Saturday, 2023
4. Contact email: my workshops manager Lea Chung at Lea.s.chung@gmail.com

How do I know if my spot is secure?

Once you’ve submitted your full tuition for the workshop, your spot is 100% secure. Prior to the workshop I’ll just send a friendly email, with no critical information, just to create an email chain and say hello!

How to prepare for the workshop

Before the workshop, just prepare your three best photos of all time on your phone or iPad, or feel free to print it out and bring it to the workshop! In the morning, while we are enjoying coffee, we will have a chance to review your portfolio, and get critical feedback on your photos.

I’m insanely pumped!

Life only happens once. Don’t miss your chance.

Jeff Bezos says the best way to live life is via the regret minimization framework. That means, fair to risk something, and die without any regrets on your deathbed

What the hell are you waiting for?

Normal tuition of $5500 USD if paid after October 1st, 2023:

Typical Payment Portal: $5500 USD PAYMENT PORTAL >

Early bird tuition if paid before October 1st, 2023 for only 999 USD:

Early Bird Discount: 999 USD PAYMENT PORTAL >

Insanely excited to (finally) meet you in the flesh!

ERIC

Creativity is our lifeblood. Typically when I think about creativity, I think of aberrant thinking, and doing things differently from what is considered traditional.

Some thoughts:

1. Ignorance is good

Something I have discovered is that going to art school, studying art history, etc. might be one of the worst things for your creativity. Why? Honestly a lot of it is so fake; a lot of artists tend to be insecure introverts, and I think that all people seek some sort of supremacy. Therefore, if you are a young insecure artist, or even a more mature insecure artist, you will seek external validation for your art.

Therefore, I think some knowledge of the past is useful, in so far much as it can help expand your thinking. For example, the reason why I really like Pablo Picasso, Jackson Pollock, studying cubism and other forms of abstract art is so interesting because it teaches us:

Art does not need to be photo-realistic to be legitimate.

For example, even people don’t know that Jean Michel Basquiat really knows how to paint, photo realistic paintings. The same thing with Jackson Pollock, Picasso, Matisse, all of them. Also the same goes with other surrealist’s, and abstract painters.

Typically this is how it goes:

1. The artist will get a traditional painting education
2. The artist will make really really great photo realistic paintings
3. The artist will eventually get bored of this and seek some sort of innovation
4. The artist then figures out a more unorthodox form of visual expression

Even when you think of an artist like Kanye West in the context of art, he started off as a traditional producer, making music and beats for other artists. Then he wanted to get into rapping. And got in. Then he wanted to go to fashion, and then he did. And also if you think about his more innovative albums like 808s & Heartbreak, and also his Yeezus album, Kanye West was at least 20 or 30 years before his time.

2. What is creativity?

I think the best definition of creativity is having the propensity to create. That is, you like to create and make stuff.

Therefore, I think a creative person is somebody who derives joy from creating things. Creating, modifying, customizing, painting, drawing, making photographs, making videos, etc.

Whenever you transfigure something, or the world, you create something new.

3. What gets in our way?

My personal thought is so much of the difficulties behind art is that everyone is trying to put us down.

For example, I can speak from my personal experiences. When I got started in photography, street photography, started traveling the world and meeting all this famous people, etc., at the ripe age of 22, this is what I have discovered:

When other people see you as a young rising star, they feel small compared to you, and they feel less bad about themselves, when they try to put you down.

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4. Think different

To become more creative means to think differently. What does it mean to think different?

First, I think there is a moralistic ethical perspective behind things. That is, one is not permitted to think differently, in modern day society. Also, it seems that the modern left-wing liberal bent is becoming more intolerant.

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5. Insane audacity

Another thought I have is when it comes to creativity, insane audacity is a good idea.

For example, Who are some of the most creative geniuses we have witnessed on planet earth? Steve Jobs, Jony Ive, Kanye West, Elon Musk, etc.

“Name one genius that ain’t crazy!” – Kanye

I think in order to become a creative genius, you need some sort of level of insane audacity.

“A genius is just a kid with good parents.” – Kanye

What is a genius anyways? I think all kids are geniuses, and are born geniuses. The problem:

Typically, when most kids go through the traditional K-12 education system, their genius like curiosity is beaten out of them.

When I think about Montessori education, it isn’t a perfect system, but, I think that general bias is that they indulge more creativity in their kids.

6. Kids are smarter than you think

Something that I have discovered with Seneca, him only currently being 2 years two months old, he is 1 billion times smarter than I think he is.

And I think this is the secret,

Just talk to your kids as if they were 12 years old.

Kids are so much more capable than we think they are. I think the bias in America, also eastern schools of thought is that kids are not that intelligent. However, I think the geniusness of your child will rise to the occasion. This means:

If you treat your kids like a genius, they will become a genius.

However,

If you treat your kid like a baby, they will remain a baby forever.

This is also age independent. It doesn’t matter if you are two years old, three years old, 35 years old, etc., I think maturity is a mentality thing.

7. Do you even desire creativity?

I think 99.9% of creativity had to deal with courage. That is, having the courage to be different, act different, and approach things differently.

For example, do you have the courage not to have an Instagram?

I think in terms of creativity, the downside is that often when you are more creative, you are actually praised less. I don’t think one should pursue creativity for the sake of being praised. The trap is when you seek to be praised, you’ll actually not to do creative things, you’ll just do the same old boring thing as everyone else, and be praised for that.

For example, in the context of art, kids who could draw or paint more photo realistically are praised more than kids who draw abstract. Yet ironically enough, at the upper echelon of things, like if you think about the end works a Picasso and Matisse, their ultimate works are indeed, childlike. Consider the beautiful sublime simplicity of Matisse and his Turkish blue cut outs of the silhouettes of women. Literally any kid with cardboard paper and scissors could do it. I think the ultimate hybrid of an artist is this:

Have the intelligence of adult, but create like a child.

8. The genesis of creativity?

Something I am personally curious about is where does creativity come from?

My thought is perhaps the genesis of creativity is dissatisfaction with things. The deep desire to change, transfigure, modify things and the world.

For example, let us consider a Steve Jobs, one of the most creative human beings who has ever lived. If you read the Walter Isaacson biography on him, this is what I learned:

The genius of Steve Jobs was that at heart, he was like a child, and ultimately was a creative tyrant.

You cannot bend.

For example, it would have been impossible for Steve Jobs to have started Apple Computer without Steve Wozniak. But ultimately, Steve Wozniak was simply a steppingstone. Why? Steve Wozniak wanted to add ports, and all of this hacker like things to the Apple OS. But Steve Jobs knew that this was not the way. And this is why no one will remember Steve Wozniak, only Steve Jobs.

Even Jony Ive, who is pretty much the design mastermind of most things at Apple. I think the problem of Jony Ive is that she is almost too soft-spoken, too nice, not enough of an asshole like Steve Jobs.

In fact, when someone calls you an asshole, what does that mean?

How dare you talk to me in a non-nice way.

But like Kanye said —

“I’m not mean, I’m just focused!”

Even in Steve Jobs‘s told Jony Ive that in fact, Jony Ive was the dishonest one. When Jony Ive retarded angrily about this, Steve Jobs told him:

“The reason why you’re the bad guy is that you just want everyone to like you. Therefore you don’t tell people what you really think.”

To say what you really think, takes much courage, and also, a healthy dose of being “unethical”, and “immoral”.

Also for myself, and I consider myself a “nice guy“, this is what I have discovered:

I just want everyone to like me.

But the problem is ultimately, I’m starting to think that this is a little bit disingenuous. Why? When you want everyone to like you, you often bend yourself in dishonest ways.

Therefore, my simple thought:

Better to be honest and “bad“, than to be dishonest and be “good”.

9. Why be creative?

I think the ultimate end goal is creativity for the sake of advancing humankind.

There are lots of ways to be creative. For example, a simple one is just to be more creative in your thinking. To think more creatively. To think more aberrantly, to think more unorthodox, and ultimately, to publish share and propagate your thoughts.

Simple ways to do this is on your own blog, your own email newsletter, YouTube, podcast etc.

The best way to build a blog is through bluehost.com and install wordpress.org, for email newsletter I like sendy.co, and for podcast anchor.fm which is now owned by Spotify (search ERIC KIM on Spotify).

10. Creative assignments

I think ultimately, the best way to achieve creativity is through creative restrictions, or creative constraints.

1. Only shoot macro mode for a whole week
2. Only shot jpeg for a year
3. If you shoot with a manual focusing lens, only shoot the minimum focusing distance for a month. For example, if you have a like a rangefinder M camera, pre-focus to .7 meters. LEICA MANUAL // FREE PDF

Upload your best creative photos to arsbeta >

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Now what?

1. EK CREATIVITY SHOP// CREATIVE EVERYDAY PRINT // MOBILE
2. Just create something. Use your iPhone, your iPad, the Procreate app. Install Zen brush 2, do calligraphy.
3. Deleting and getting rid of stuff is also a creative act: maybe even a simple idea is get rid of all the unwarranted clothes in your wardrobe, and just donate it to the local Goodwill.
4. My friend Stan Hudecki did something good, when he moved houses, he purged all of his camera equipment, and gave it to friends and families and kids in need/people who would use it better than he could. He is now part of the Ricoh mafia, Ricoh GR 3X

CONQUER WITH EK

Fulfill your creative potential:

• June 17th, Saturday, 2023: DOWNTOWN LA CONQUER YOUR PHOTOGRAPHY AND LIFE
• July 15-16th: ERIC KIM SAIGON VIETNAM TRAVEL STREET PHOTOGRAPHY EXPERIENCE 2023 – New!
• Oct 14th (Saturday) PHILLY WORKSHOP (details TBA)

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Things on my mind

1. What is the best car? The greatest flex? Maybe a murdered out, all black matte Prius prime. Or a matte pink genesis G 90, with Tonka neon green rims. Or a rolls Royce spectre in Morganite (blush pink)/ customize
2. The Texas power bar, the Texas power squat bar is totally worth it. I just lifted 895 pounds with it, and I feel great.
3. Seek the more clever solution: in life, I think my passion is discovering novel solutions to things. Don’t do basic.

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Forward the turbo!

If you feel like you even got one creative thought from this, and you have a friend or family man number who will also benefit from it, feel free to forward this as an email to them!

EK NEWS >

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Fortune favors the insanely creative!

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When I was about to max out the bar at my local crunch fitness gym, the manager Chris told me that I should just buy a “Texas Power Bar”, and bring it in, and leave it at the gym, and just work out with it.

I was intrigued so I googled it, and I came across it.

Long story short, I thought about it for a long time, and I even joined a local powerlifting gym, trying to avoid buying unnecessary equipment. However, this is what I realized was the downside of joining my local powerlifting gym:

The equipment, aka, the squat rack wasn’t what I was used to.

Also interestingly enough, some thing I discovered about powerlifting gems which I had no idea, it seems that equipment is actually relatively fragile, and is not meant to be used and abused. This befuddled me, because I always thought the purpose of powerlifting was to yell, shout, grunt, throw shit around, and beat shit up.

Anyways, finally after much thinking, and much reflection, it seems like a pretty obvious decision, and I did some more research on the Texas squat bar, which seemed to be good because it had longer slaves on each side, which means that I should be able to work on more weight, which should be able to accommodate more weight while still being able to clip on each side.

The tricky thing was trying to figure out which color combination or materials to choose. I just wanted to get the bar as quickly as possible.

Ultimately, after reading all the reviews, it seemed that the black zinc shaft, and the chrome sleeves seemed like a good combination, and a crowd favorite, and therefore, I just ordered it. Much to my surprise, the bar came in insanely fast, it only felt like three days or so. And I suppose this is shipping from Texas to Southern California!

So does it work?

I suppose the billion dollar question is this, does it work? Yes.

First and foremost, this bar is 55 pounds, which is about 10 pounds heavier than the standard 45 pound bar at the gym. Also, it is way bigger and taller and longer than the traditional bars. Third, the knurling, a.k.a. the grip, the serrated grip on it is phenomenal. it is just grippy enough, and the hand feel is phenomenal. It is literally one of the most beautiful pieces of physical objects that I have ever handled, almost reminding me of the first time I was shocked I was handling a brass Leica M9 camera and film Leica MP camera, and Leica Summilux/Summicron lens.

Why is the “knurling” so important?

This is the tricky thing when it comes to weight lifting equipment, and barbells: the grip, a.k.a. the knurling, is insanely important.

For example, when you are doing a squat, especially a really heavy squat, you want the serrated edges or the knurling or the grip in the center of the bar, which means that the barbell has better grip on your upper shoulders back and traps, and doesn’t simply slip away.

The bend?

Some thing interesting I noticed with this bar, when I mixed it up with nine 45 pound plates, a 10, and a five pounder taped on top:

It bends.

Apparently the bar should be rated to at least 2000 pounds and beyond. I read a lot of things of all these world records being set with it, around 1200 pounds squats, etc.

One of the main motivators I had in mind this bar was a safety concern thing; if I really wanted to keep adding weight to the barbell, I just wanted to be 100% certain that the bar would not break. Or snap.

I was able to successfully atlas lift 890 pounds on the standard hdR green bar at the gym, but was uncertain whether it would hold any more.

The other day, the first day I brought it to the gym, I was able to hit a new personal record with it, 895 pounds. Doing the math, considering that the bar is 55 pounds, I did nine 45-pound plates on each side, a 10, and a safety clip on the side, and I simply placed and taped a five pounder on top. 895 pounds. 5 pounds short of 900!

How to get it to the gym?

First and foremost, this thing is really big and long. Way longer than you might expect.

I am lucky that I am within a short walking distance of my local gym, maybe a 10 minute walk. Therefore, I just took it out of the packaging, put it on my shoulders, and simply walked it to the gym.

Also my attitude is I want it to be like common property at the gym; anyone anyone could use it! And it doesn’t need to be babied, it is meant to be used and abused.

Next steps?

Unfortunately, it seems that the standard 45 pound black plates at my local gym is a little bit thick, which means that I cannot load up the bar as much as I would like. I would prefer the skinny 25 kilogram (55 pound) red iron powerlifting plates that they have a powerlifting gyms instead. But fucking c’est la vie!

I’m trying to think of a safer way to tape or wrap or maybe elastic band heavier weights on top of the barbell. Maybe buying some gorilla tape, or I’ve actually seen some guys the gym use those elastic rubber bands to rubber band on more weight on top of the weights.

Very short

Short

All out: