Perhaps the key to interesting photos and better black and white photos is disdain for detail. Higher contrast and blacks. Crush the blacks. More extreme post processing. RICOH GR III in high contrast black and white JPEG, with maximum contrast. Lower exposure compensation — as dark as possible (ADAP).

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Something on my mind: what is the philosophy of anger? for example, modern society says that all anger is bad and should be extinguished. That anger is dangerous. That anger is a vice.

But this betrays common sense. Certainly anger is a very important biological function, as it denotes injustice. Perhaps the foundation of all law is based on injustice and anger.

But other cases were certain types of anger or more justified than others? This is the royal task of the philosopher and law legislator.

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A great thought: realize and recognize that you are not responsible for the happiness or the well-being of others. This is not our duty, nor our responsibility. And also maybe we shouldn’t think that to improve the happiness or the well-being of others is a virtue.

Maybe the best thing is for us to simply focus on augmenting our own happiness and well-being. And if others happen to feel our surplus happiness and well-being, so be it.

What do we want from our photography? Self-development. To continue our self-growth, self-development.

To what ends? To make more interesting photos (to ourselves), to increase and heighten your visual acuity of the world (to see more photo opportunities), and to share these insights with others.

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1. Freedom from distraction (ability to focus)
2. Great sleep (no devices or screens after dinner and shower. No more “work” after dinner).
3. Physical exertion: Weight lifting, or kettlebell lifting at home
4. Creative publishing on your personal blog or website
5. Financial freedom (no longer needing to work for a living)
6. Consumption or great artwork and music
7. Thinking, philosophizing, speculations in ideas and knowledge, and having the freedom to share them without persecution (in praise of American freedom of expression).

If anything that the Facebook outage has taught us is that social media is fragile. Do you want to be in a fragile position? I think not.

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Another entrepreneurial idea: if you want maximal Internet success, both become a blogger and vlogger.

The mistake that a lot of youtubers and vloggers make is that they don’t own their own self hosted domain and blog. And they refuse to write. But writing will always be king.

Also a lot of bloggers and writers are camera shy. This is not good, if you want online entrepreneurial success. People trust videos more than they do writing. And people also want to see your real life face.

Life is not binary. you don’t need to buy one while not buying the other. You could buy both.

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We all know the Tesla is the by far cooler car. but the question is which is the better car?

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The harder and more stoic and indifferent you become, the better.

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Perhaps instead of some sort of pseudo-virtue on trying to “save the planet” or “save others”, the most virtuous thing we can do is to focus on our own self-formation and self-development and becoming.

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It seems in today’s world we are all obsessed with innovation. But it seems that all types of innovation are directed towards technological innovation, instead of anything else.

But what if the most important type of innovation was self innovation, that is, innovating yourself?

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An integration of our photography in our life. The both as the yin and yang.

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What if pain is a necessary ingredient to greatness? Not something to be avoided but harnessed?

Pain as the father of all pleasure, growth and becoming?

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Why do I love street photography so much? Simple: I love to people watch. and street photography is great because you could both people watch and make photos!

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What is the best industry of the future? Anything that requires creativity.

Industrial design. Architecture. Interior design. Furniture design. Creative forms of web design and computer programming design. We need great UI/UX experts.

ERIC KIM NEWS

Dear friend,

If you’re hungry for some photographic motivation … here are some honest and practical thoughts for you:

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My friend Don told me this funny saying — “No risk it, no biscuit”. As I follow a no-carb diet (only meat and butter leafy greens), I prefer my version — “No risk it, no brisket”.

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As many of you know, I am hopelessly addicted to coffee. I don’t think I’ve ever written a coffee review, but it looks like death wish coffee that you could just buy on Amazon is the one.

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The more things you own, the more things own you.

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This is one huge pitfall I’ve seen occur to many a great thinker: after losing their faith in God, their thoughts move towards mysticism. Thus interest in strange and foreign past mythologies, belief in aliens, belief in extra terrestrial life, and belief in strange conspiracy theories. (more…)

In todays world, it seems we all want to become someone else. But shouldn’t the goal be to become yourself … and more of yourself?

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We think we want more pleasure in life, but in fact what we desire is more power. In fact the feeling of having more power IS the feeling of pleasure.

What’s my hunger and desire as a photographer? To see, witness and experience it all… and capture it all.

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I remember when I first came back to the states after living in Vietnam, my first thought was:

Wow, so much space in America is wasted … there is too much matter and surface area being wasted.

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Through seeking the maximum efficiency in life, something I’ve realized:

Often the suboptimal route and path is in fact, the most optimal choice.

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SENECA PROJECT >

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One of my good ideas:

Perhaps if you want to increase your visual acuity for photos and photo opportunities… undergo a ‘visual detox’.

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A thought while making my morning coffee:

I don’t need to ‘force’ myself to drink coffee. Instead … my addiction for it dictates my activity and behavior.

What if we could apply this line of thinking to our photography?

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Something interesting I from the ‘Inspiring Greatness‘ series on the Rolls Royce website:

What drives you? Passion and curiosity (SIMON DE PURY).

I have written on curiosity before, but a little less on passion.

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CHARISMA. Wiktionary says:

From Ancient Greek χᾰ́ρῐσμᾰ (khárisma, “grace, favour, gift”), from χᾰρῐ́ζομαι (kharízomai, “I show favor”), from χᾰ́ρῐς (kháris, “grace”), from χαίρω (khaírō, “I am happy”).

Perhaps the simplest way to think is —

To be charismatic is to show others you are happy, and to impart that happiness unto others.

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Train your visual acuity:

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Thinking about the holy Roman empire, I’m thinking about the new Foundation series on Apple, I’m curious what the future of America is going to be.

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Influence, not popularity is what we desire as photographers.

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A thought about life —

Perhaps living a ‘more efficient’ life is all about doing more, in less time, with the knowledge that our life is short.

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What do we desire? Speed. We truly do have the “need for speed”. And in todays world and economy, speed wins.

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It seems a lot of people get into photography once they have a kid. And rightfully so.

I think we as parents, whether old or new, desire to photograph document and memorialize the growth of our children. some personal lessons:

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As humans do we strive to do more with less?

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ERIC KIM NEWSLETTER

Question:

Why have I never met a happy photographer?

Especially on the upper-echelon levels (Magnum). It seems that all these photographers are perpetually dissatisfied (in a pessimistic, bad way).

Certainly happiness isn’t the end of life, but it is a good stimulus for our photographic progress. Some thoughts:

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Our motto (from Steve Jobs, via Whole Earth Catalogue):

Stay hungry, stay foolish.

To stay hungry — means, to continue building your appetite for progress and life.

To stay foolish means to be naive like a child, and allow yourself to become more reckless and ‘foolish’ in life.

My photos will never die:

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The difference between your greatest photos of all-time versus the most meaningful photos to you

The greatest photos– outward (public) facing. More objective.

The most meaningful photos (personal, inward facing). Far more subjective.

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Something I thought about for a long time, that is what is the best car color?

The simple answer is red. Why? My theory:

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What makes certain aesthetics beautiful or not?

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In life, what is the best course of action? My thought: optimize for beauty. Beautiful people, beautiful life partner, beautiful children, beautiful things and tools, beautiful fashion, and beautiful products you create.

And when selecting your photos, optimize for what you consider your most beautiful photos.

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Level up yourself, appreciate your own inner wealth.

Take more bold risks, avoid the cockroaches and ticks.

Be brave and bold, no regrets when you’re old. Stay focus and straight, it’s better to start now than late.

If you ever have the opportunity in your life, always up to live abroad or somewhere foreign. lots of growth opportunities.

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If you haven’t already, watch FOUNDATION. Great cinematography, story, and creativity.

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Or how to see more photo opportunities in black-and-white:

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Some thing I have realized: the best is a cul-de-sac. Or another words a dead end. End of the road.

End of the road is bad.

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Our goal as photography adventurers:

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Our goal and task as photographers: to make great photos.

But how do we actually do this? Some thoughts:

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ERIC KIM NEWS

Dear friend,

Thought:

What is the future for you and your photography?

Or in other words,

What type of photographer do you desire to become?

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Contrary to what Marc Andreesen says (Software is eating the future), hardware is the future. What do I mean?

Let us consider … if you control the hardware, you control the software.

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I thought in my mind as a new parent: what is exactly that we desire our children to become? To become new consumers? To become new producers?

What morals and ethics do we want to instill them with? And how do we want to raise them differently than our parents raised us?

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I love Apple. I’m a Steve Jobs and Jony Ive fanboy until I die.

Plato once talked about tyrant-kings, philosopher-kings, and in modern times we refer to this notion as “benevolent dictator”. The question —

What is Apple as a company?

It is an epicurean walled garden. A good walled garden. But note how Apple is anti Google and Facebook. Apple as the only company trying to protect our privacy and focus. Perhaps Apple as a benevolent dictator is a good thing.

A machine is just a mechanize slave. Why do we human beings desire to become more machinelike, or more slave lake? Perhaps out of some sort of sense of duty or virtue? That’s the only way to become more virtuous is to become more servant to others?

Or like machines, we desire to live forever?

Thought: to desire to become more slave lake or machinelike is unworthy for us thinkers and philosophers.

Never work out when you’re tired, just get more sleep and rest. Spend longer time for rest and recovery, and only work out when you have accumulated excess strength.

Or another words, don’t get back to working out right after the birth of your child. Just focus on extreme sleep and recovery.

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What is the best marker of success? How many “haters” you got, as opposed to followers. Why? The more despised someone is, the more enigmatic and interesting they are.

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Building upon this notion of play, my thought —

We as photographers are essentially over-grown children.

There is no pragmatic or ‘practical’ use of photography, especially when it comes to artistic matters. Thus, don’t think about the economics of photography too much. Instead, think of your art and photography as a form of play and creative self-expression:

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We should play more for the sake of playing, and avoid games.

Another thought: there is a great difference between playing, and playing a game. A child who is playing is actively learning and exploring the world. A game is structured rules created by some foreign entity, and it’s designed to trap you rather than liberate you.

In today’s pandemic world, it seems that digital art is the answer.

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It is the year of 2021. The COVID-19 pandemic has reached havoc all across the globe. Nations are becoming more isolationist. Travel is usually restricted. Seems like the plot of a accurate dystopic future.

As a sociologist, I always wondered what future society would look like. My practical take away is that rather than waiting for this society to come, we are the ones who are going to build and fashion it.

For me, this is the most exciting time to be alive. Especially the most exciting time to raise a child. When we are relatively isolated, what new innovations could happen?

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Luxury goods are good because of longer longevity. Less consumption. Fewer things, higher quality.

Ironically I think the solution to less waste is more luxury, fewer goods.

Why deny others are different?

You’re not allowed to be different in a different way. You can only be different in the same way. Put inside a box.

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An entrepreneurial guide —

For success, create your own products.

For example, would you rather buy NIKE shoes or aspire to create and design your own shoes? (Kanye and YEEZY). Creating your own personal name brand (your first and last name) as superior to becoming a brand slave to others.

Or, would you rather buy a Lamborghini, or design your own hypercar?

Also, perhaps more interesting to aspire to design your own ideal camera than to just become a Leica follower.

Similar — Elon Musk was into cars (after he sold PayPal he bought a McLaren). Yet more interesting to innovate with Tesla instead.

Is the goal for us to make timeless photos? perhaps not. Why not? Because once you’ve made a timeless photo, what motivation or need do you have to keep making new photos?

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