Perhaps it is best for us to think that there are not more favorable or less favorable photographic conditions. But better to think that all opportunities are ripe for out photographic undertaking.
As artists, what do we tire of, and what *don’t* we tire of?
First thought:
We quickly bore and tire of aesthetics.
We bore and tire of fashions, car design, phone design, and certain aesthetic trends. Any consumerist or materialist thing or trend … we tire of so quickly and easily. Even when I imagined getting a black-paint Leica M9 (later sold it and traded it for a film Leica MP) and a Leica 35mm f/2 Summicron Lens … how quickly I got tired of the design and the concept. I can also imagine one would quickly tire of owning a Lamborghini (even if you had the black on black Aventador, matted/murdered out with the Lambo/Billionaire/scissor doors).
What *don’t* we tire of? Art. Specifically, the act and process of creating our own artwork. This means creating digital art (Procreate/Zen Brush on iPad/iPhone) or photographs (in praise of street photography and photography in general).
If you are hungry for an epic street photography adventure and experience, I cordially invite you to my upcoming ADVANCED DOWNTOWN LA STREET PHOTOGRAPHY WORKSHOP (Saturday, September 11, 2021):
What is it that we *really* want in life and out of life?
The hunger and desire for new experiences to test us, challenge us, provoke us and awaken us.
An indoor and “safe†life as the worst life. The best life being outdoors, in public, on the streets, at the gymnasium, with other people.
So it’s not the thing we want, but what the thing *promises* us. For example we desire a certain car to become more “adventurous†(go hiking more often, explore and test the outdoors) or the sports car to live a more “extremeâ€lifestyle — stunting in front of other humans or driving fast to get your adrenaline up.
So let’s not get suckered by things — let us pursue these new epic embodied expediences to build ourselves, develop ourselves and become more of ourselves.
Certainly there is a hierarchy of favorable or unfavorable life situations and scenarios. But it seems the trick to extract the maximum out of life and existence is to take your current (“inferiorâ€) scenario and exploit it to the maximum.
Life is too short for the boring. This is why Lamborghini design is still probably my favorite, because of the unabashed extreme and excessive nature of it. Anything that is restrained and pedestrian is bad. In life, be extremely picky and optimize for insane. Even Steve Jobs said his favorite quote was he wanted to make “insanely great†products.
When it comes to aesthetics, start with black and figure out how to add the colors later. Better to have black as a base and have a pop of color somewhere else.
For example, think about a black Camaro with white racing stripes. Even Leonardo da Vinci said start with a black canvas. With clothing, start with black. Black never goes out of style. Same goes with cars and Apple devices, it seems that black always has the best resale value.
The more you can extend what you decide to photograph, the better. The uber-photographer as the individual who shoots more of everything — tramples over all boundaries and captures all of life, embodied existence and disdains any categories which attempt to hold him/her in.
This means, better to start something (half-ass) and half-way, than to never attempt and start at all! Because my theory:
When you start something, you’re more likely to continue it until you get bored, versus never starting at all out of paralysis of too many options or uncertainty or fear.
Or in other words:
When you just start it, you will achieve more, do more, and become more in life!
For myself, only visual things and artwork interest me.
My fascination with forms, shapes, colors, lines, tones, textures, aesthetics, design, fashion, art, sculpture, photography, industrial design, the human body, architecture, 3D (virtual reality/augmented reality), video, cinema, film, paintings– it is all good.
All of existence, your life will be worth it just for the sake of one interesting thought– a thought which excites you, motivates you, and uplifts you.
Perpetual photography is the goal. This means to never stop shooting. Imagine like having perpetual energy for your photographic and creative pursuits. This means always be shooting throughout the day, always be reviewing selecting and editing your photos, and always be sharing your photos. In praise of photography blogs where you update and publish multiple times a day. Also, harness the power of video, which is just another photography tool in our photographic toolkit. Thus in order to optimize for perpetual photography, strive to walk around as much as you can. It is impossible to make photos if you’re not walking, and the best photos always come to you while walking.
Some thing I realized: all design is social. There is a certain sociology of design, which means there is some types of designs which are created for impressing others (public design) then there is design which is designed for your own private enjoyment.
For example, would you desire a Lamborghini with the infamous Lamborghini scissor doors if there was no one else to witness it? Would you enjoy it for your own private enjoyment? Or do you only get joy from stunting or flexing in front of others?
Same goes with designing your body. For example, do you want impressive muscles so you can flex in front of yourself in the mirror before taking a shower naked, for your own enjoyment? Or do you want big muscles to impress others?
The other day I went to an Amazon fresh store for the first time. It is truly an epic view of the future. Essentially they have carts that could way in automatically check you out, and I love the design of the place. The thought that came to my mind was bare bones. Imagine like a futuristic Costco without superfluous elements. Ultra and uber high ceilings, dark gray granite, and clean futuristic LED lighting. This is the place I would want to stay if there were a zombie apocalypse. I like the idea that a grocery store could be re-created carte blanche, or from a blank slate. Perhaps we should delight more in bare-bones design. For example the joy of the extremely spartan and minimalist interiors of the Tesla model 3 and now Tesla model Y. Think about other places in life where we can integrate bare-bones design in a minimalist minimally aesthetically beautiful way.
A simple thing I learned in life: health is far more important than money.
Why? Simple —
What’s the point of being a billionaire if you have the worst physiological pain and suffering in the world?
In life we often make the sucker mistake of trading health for money. This is the worst trade. If anything, we should be trading money for health. In this way, health is king and money is perhaps only a means towards health.
A thought on my mind: what will future humans look like?
Funny enough, it seems that future of humans will look like more of our ancestral hunter gatherers. For example when people become silicon valley tech billionaires and retire, what do they do? They go hiking camping backpacking get into working out and lifting weights and doing other “basic†things.
To get full engagement out of life … for things we care about, perhaps this is the secret to living the best and fullest life. And that is why living a more ‘dangerous’ life is good — we actually must use our faculties to FOCUS.
This is why powerlifting is so much more fun and interesting than bodybuilding-styled pointless repetitions. The element of danger is what makes powerlifting (one rep max) so fun and interesting.
Ironically enough, the fewer choices and options we got, the *MORE* creative we will become.
Lesson:
If you desire to be more creatively productive, perhaps better to SUBTRACT and GET RID OF superfluous tools, equipment, gadgets, tools, cameras, etc from your life … and to maximize the use of just one.
When it comes to our personal ethics or how we live our lives or how we design it, ask yourself — am I doing this out of strength or weakness? All things done out of strength and superfluous power is good— all things done from weakness and desperation is bad.
Our pride and joy is to be uber-unique — uber unique in what we drive, what we own, what we wear and how we interact with the world.
Our greatest hate is when we see someone else similar to us. The distaste of seeing someone drive or own the same car as us, wear the same brands as us, or live like us.
Photography is the most effective when you subtract from the frame. That’s when you’re shooting a scene, strive to subtract superfluous elements from the frame. The fewer distractions in your photos, the better.
What is creative daring? To dare convention, to dare your own past ‘style’, and to create with the bold audacity of a child — unrestrained, wild, and naively pure.
In today’s world there seems to be this mania towards ‘productivity’. And what is ‘productivity’ according to modern thoughts?
To always be doing something, in order to become more virtuous (like a machine, in the spirit of ‘Taylorism’), in order to produce and create more in order to make more money.
Thus the modern goal of productivity is money-making.
But what happens once you become a crypto billionaire, and money is no longer a concern to you? Then it seems more of a focus on our artistic endeavors, our creative endeavors, our health, and the desire and hunger to explore more, become more, and to become stronger, wiser, and more bold.
Next time you incur an injury or wound, rather than bemoaning your foolishness or regret a “mistakeâ€â€” better to instead think:
This injury can and will be a benefit to me — it will help me address my weaknesses or inefficient movements in order to make me stronger than I was before the injury.
For example getting wounded with a standard deadlift form helped inspire me to start doing sumo deadlift form — which both increased my one rep max and got rid of any back weaknesses. My back as stronger now than it was before.
Or knee pain and injuries— teaching me to focus on building hip and abductor strength, and to focus more on stretching, which will and has made me stronger.
It’s all profit.
Perhaps the uber-Stoic way to approach life:
All injuries, pain, suffering is here for us to benefit and profit from — to make us stronger.
iPhone as the ultimate creative device — how come nobody has truly discovered the insanely awesome powers of this miracle device? And instead just using it for basic email, texting and time wasting games?
Just gave away my iPad Pro to my mom, who has been making great art works with Procreate app. Which leaves me without an iPad — just my laptop and phone.
Been doing some sketches with iPhone and procreate and zen brush 2– and there are some upsides of having a smaller canvas:
Our motto in photography: to never stop shooting, to never stop exploring, never stop moving, never stop drinking coffee, and to never stop exploring and desiring more.
Excelsior, ever upwards. The joy of the architect in creating and building things, always to strive for more, to strive to always build more and go higher.
And this is also why I understand about people who work in construction, that is the joy in constructing new buildings, and it seems that the goal is to keep building to no end. Thus realize that happiness is not a final state, but the act of creating, actively building more, higher and greater.
Much to my disappointment, the Ricoh GR 3 didn’t have an integrated flash. I think the stunted me a little bit creatively. However after around poking around the App Store and I discovered the Provoke Camera app. It’s built in the spirit of Daido Moriyama, that is high contrast black-and-white. It works really well with the iPhone, and especially shooting with the flash on the Provoke cam with the ultra wide lens might be a very interesting new creative outlet for me and other street photographers.
Instead of seeking the turbocharged or supercharged car, or even the tri-motor PLAID Tesla Model S, or a hypercar, or a McLaren, or a Lamborghini, or the uber-fast sports car of your dreams, isn’t it better to turbocharge or supercharge yourself?
This means:
More intermittent fasting (eat your dinner as late as possible). Don’t break your fast until sundown (Ramadan style, every day, all day).
More black coffee during your waking hours. Also figure an optimal time to cut your caffeine intake so you can sleep better at night (for me, it seems cutting coffee at 9am is ideal). Best to drink coffee between 6-9am.
More working out during the day. Instead of seeking to drive fast, perhaps better to hit the gym and powerlift (deadlift, squat, heavy dumbbell press), or just go for max reps for chin-ups at home (get a chin-up bar that fits over your bedroom door frames), or get a kettlebell and go for max-reps one-armed swings.
Optimize for sleep, not ‘productivity’. If you sleep well, you will inevitably be productive. Sleep is godlike— even the Greek gods of the Iliad sleep. If Tom Brady goes to sleep every day at 7:30pm, and doesn’t drink any coffee or caffeine during the day … can’t we?
Our obsession with brand-named things, ‘brands’, consumer goods, etc.
For example, we want the Porsche 911 Turbo, but what is a ‘Porsche’ anyways? It is just a dude’s last name. Same with Lamborghini — it is the Lamborghini *SPIRIT* we desire, not the Lamborghini itself. And once again, Lamborghini as a man’s last name.
Our joy in street photography is the joy in the riskiness! Thus rather than trying to avoid risk and confrontation in street photography, delight and joy in it!
In terms of aesthetics, not “all black everything “, but harnessing both black and white.
For example, best to start with a black base or a black background, and add the white afterwards. Even Leonardo da Vinci said start with a black canvas. So start with a black canvas, then add accentuating white afterwards. In photography this means to shoot your photos as dark as possible, and have that one glimmer of a subject or a figure outlined in a silhouette in white.
Perhaps it takes more skill or a compositional ingenuity to make interesting photos in the boring suburbs, then make interesting photos in an interesting city.
Something I learned about street photography or just photography in general, just photograph like it’s not a big deal. For example if you see strangers just photograph them and shrug it off like it’s not a big deal. This is kind of a hybrid between asking for permission and not asking for permission, in the sense that if you treat photography like it’s not a big deal, other people won’t treat it like a big deal, which means others are less likely to get offended confused or scared when you photograph them.
Or in short, Street Photography and Photography is not that big of a deal. So don’t treat it like a big deal, and others are less likely to treat it like a big deal.
It seems that many of us desire to find satisfaction or joy in material things. So for example, the desire to buy a new exotic sports car, or even certain clothes and fashion items. However, it seems that the true joy is the joy of creating it, making it, customizing it, and making it in general. For example, better to buy a basic car, and modify it then to buy already a hyper sports car. Also with design, better to design it yourself then to pre-purchase the design of someone else. Also with design objects which are also tools, like cameras, find less joy in the design, just take the simplest design possible of a camera and just focus on making your creative art.
It seems that now that Jeff Bezos has retired from Amazon, he is working on his side passion projects which include blue origin and his charity ventures. Which makes me think, once you become the worlds richest man in the world, what next? Then it seems perhaps the end goal in our aim should be to only pursue our passion projects.
So the million dollar question that is what is a good photography project to work on? I say only work on a project that you internally personally care for, assuming you will not get any likes followers or make money or gain fame or notoriety for it.
To explore embodied reality, to test our courage when photographing strangers, the joy of interacting with strangers, and to discover new cultures, peoples, and compositions (street photography as compositional art with human beings and human bodies).
I’m seeking a new photographic and visual bliss.
This is my personal passion in photography art, and visual art. To seek a new photographic bliss. This means to discover new techniques approaches and philosophies which will take my visual explorations to the next level.
Yes, you can shoot street photography in the suburbs. Technically if you think about it, a suburb is still urban, just sub urban. As long as there’s human beings around, whether it be on the streets, in the neighborhood, at the local Costco, it is all street.
Something that is on my mind: what is the motive of criticism, or why criticize?
The word criticism comes from the Greek word kritikos which means judge, or to judge. Thus, when you criticize somebody, you are laying a judgment upon them.
Certainly it is good to judge things as “right or wrong “, or to judge what is your own personal preferences. But I think in today’s world people seem to criticize others to make themselves feel better about themselves, or to put others down.
I think perhaps better than wasting your energy on criticizing others in a negative way, only criticize people if it is constructive and you think it could actually help them. The motive must come from a good heart, with good intentions.
Otherwise, best to just ignore others and leave them to be.
