I used to be very shy, and no longer am.

How did I become less shy? And how has this helped me in my personal, photographic, and entrepreneurial life?

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If your photos aren’t good enough, you’re not close enough.

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The genius of Robert Capa:

Making his subjects more epic, grand, and larger than life.

How? Physical proximity. Getting super close, and shooting from a low angle (while being close to the ground).

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Action and reaction. Do what’s interesting not taxing. Rather than beach relaxing, be out waxing poetic and levitate higher.

Act even when you feel tired, and strive for a life which is epic, not tired.

Retirement is death, unless you let it propel you forward. Higher and above — black winged dove.

ERIC

What drives our consumerist desires and wants?

Boredom and dissatisfaction of ourselves.

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How much of the frame should we fill in photography? What percentage, ratios, and proportions?

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One philosophical notion from Taoism I find absolutely fascinating— that of “wu wei”— which means “action without action”, or “effortless action”. Here is what I think it means and how I apply it to my own life:

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Where do my ideas come from? My brain, body, and muscles. My mind is simply an external manifestation of my body.

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Gas stations — currently a mainstay, but perhaps will eventually be made redundant with electric cars, etc.

Thus, perhaps right now it is a good opportunity to pursue a photography project of gas stations! These will one day become a relic of the past:

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Simple ideas:

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Strive to become a great individual, instead of trying to start a movement or join a movement:

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Why is it that Leonardo da Vinci was so fascinated with human anatomy, nature, and all of reality?

Because he was BOTH a scientist and artist. Perhaps we shouldn’t separate the both. It is one in the same.

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I don’t think anyone has really given a great effort in trying to create a philosophy of composition — especially in photography.

Here we go:

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A realization and new goal in photography:

Never stop striving to make MORE dynamic and MORE powerful photos!

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Lesson: Do more of what you love doing, do less of what you hate doing.

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What does it mean to have a “meaningful” life, or a life full of meaning?

Some thoughts:

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Uber small, always with me, super close macro ability, phenomenal dynamic range, the most sublime JPEG for high contrast monochrome, even smaller than Ricoh GR II (more pocketable), and convenience of charging USB-C (same as my MacBook pro charger).

Long story short:

Buy RICOH GR III.

ERIC

To edit your photos means to select and choose the photos you love and which are meaningful to you.

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Photography is truly magical — it has the power to transform our reality into something more surreal, beautiful, simple, and elegant.

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A new goal:

Wisdom for wisdom sake, knowledge for knowledge sake, and virtue for virtue sake.

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A thought while getting acupuncture (a new great source of creative ideas):

Style in art is highly overrated.

Let me explain:

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A thought:

The biggest benefit of blogging — it gives you a chance to think, flesh out your thoughts. Essentially blogging is augmented thinking.

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Focus on physical and mental self-development, and track your physical and mental gains.

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The most empowering feeling in the world:

To attempt something truly epic, and then fail– and realizing that the failure wasn’t so bad or scary!

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When it comes to physical fitness, we talk much about “recovery”–the days you don’t lift in order to become stronger.

My thought: instead of calling it “recovery”, better to call it “augmentation”.

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A thought:

Perhaps when we are always trying to “over-optimize” and “improve”, we are actually becoming LESS productive, MORE distracted, and less effective.

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The goal is to make beautiful photos. But why? And what constitutes a ‘beautiful’ photo?

Let us essay some of these ideas:

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The purpose of photography:

To express our joy of being alive and of society and reality.

Also, for us to spark joy into the lives of others — those who look at our photos and experience our joy in our images.

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Build your body, build your mind, and build your own empire.

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My buddy Jeffrey Lam is currently working on this notion of ‘existential health’, which is basically this:

Wondering the philosophical underpinnings of health.

For example when a doctor sees a patient, the doctor will ask the patient about their existential life goals, not just to “lose fat”.

I often do this at my workshops: I will ask my students:

Why do you make photos?

To piggyback off my friend Jeff, I want to start exploring more of this notion of ‘existential photography’:

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The biggest benefit of technology, blogs, and websites:

You can always adjust your portfolio of images. Adding and removing whenever you feel like it!

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Ideas for your street photography:

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There is nothing more interesting than human life, human sociology, human politics, human ethics/morals, artwork (related to humans).

Humans are the ultimate ruler of what is beautiful or ugly.

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What if hope is holding us back?

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Necessity is the mother and the source of all innovation. When we need to innovate, we will discover new innovations. We don’t need to force innovations — seeking to innovate for the sake of making money, etc.

Perhaps this means:

Don’t seek innovation for the sake of innovation. Perhaps it is better to innovate for the sake of dealing with problems or issues which actually affect our real lives.

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For too long philosophers, thinkers, and common people have believed the body and soul (spirit) to be separate. But what if the body and soul were one in the same? Two sides of the same coin.

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What hinders us?

Striving to be “good”at something. But instead, I believe we should strive to be GENUINE— authentic, real, naked, exposed, transparent, and courageous to own your own opinion, thoughts, and beliefs!

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Something I’ve been thinking about a lot:

Which individuals are remembered in history, and who isn’t remembered?

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My great joys in life:

Making photos, and philosophizing about photography.

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In praise of making photos for yourself:

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Choose fun:

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Currently really into shooting 60 FPS videos on RICOH GR III, then using Giphy Capture on the Mac to covert the images into GIF’s.

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Deepen understanding, wisdom, knowledge, art, aesthetics and philosophy and share this knowledge and wisdom with others.

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The famous quote from Archimedes.

Basic idea:

Determine which city or location is optimal for your personal creativity, self-development, thriving, and strength — and stay there and leverage your strengths to maximize your impact on the world!

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Thanksgiving passed, but this is what I am grateful for:

1. Health
2. Cindy
3. Friends and family
4. RICOH GR III
5. Powerlifting and gym
6. Philosophy, photography and art
7. Zen focus and strength
8. Minimal and simple living
9. My tiny apartment
10. Ability to walk, think, and communicate with others
11. Being born in America
12. Excitement towards the future— new things to see, discover, witness, document, analyze, and essay about.

And the great idea:

Life is all upside, no downside.

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When in doubt, best to procrastinate, wait, hold back, and decide later.

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The most beautiful strap on planet earth: MUSE.

Order Now >

Don’t strive to ADD superfluous technology to your life. Instead, strive to REMOVE technology from your life. Keep subtracting until you only have the bare essentials necessary to your personal artistic and creative thriving.

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In terms of aesthetic, my favorite are abstract, simple, and open-ended images:

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This holiday season invest in experiences for yourself, your family, and others.

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This is the simple assignment:

Focus on photographing triangles, by shooting multiple-subject photos (three subjects), or just by connecting visual elements.

Then upload your best photos to arsbeta.com

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Fewer choices .. more happiness, focus, and productivity?

1. Minimal clothing choices: Less stress how to dress yourself everyday. Easier to get out of the house.
2. Minimal photo choices (one camera, one lens): More focus on shooting. Less “paralysis by analysis”.
3. Fewer choices for work, play, or eating/drinking: The joy of getting to know a few places very well, than to know lots of places superficially.
4. For travel: Better to travel to a few places you really really like (and going back multiple times), than to see all the cities in the world only once.
5. Better to have a library of a few books you truly treasure, and read them all over and over again, than to read many books only once or so.
6. The fewer apps on your phone or computer, the better.
7. The smaller your apartment or home, the less stress, the better.

Sleep: the ultimate performance-enhancing drug!

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Discover MUSE — the supreme strap.

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If your desire is to become the apex artist, you must CHANNEL your ego, and press your ego into your service, instead of striving to destroy your ego.

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Good failure:

The type of failure which REMOVES fear from your life and attempts.

For example:

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It seems one of the American dreams is to cultivate uniqueness. This is what fuels a lot of our consumerism:

The desire to purchase something which exhibits our personal vanity of our own personal uniqueness.

But the philosophical question:

Why be unique?

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ARS is the online photography feedback platform on the planet which can actually help you IMPROVE your photography!

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We all want to improve our lives. But in order for what?

Testing these turbo thoughts with ZEN OF ERIC:

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What is consumerism, and is it really as “bad” as people make it out to be?

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Why is photography so fun?

Practical ideas:

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Today’s turbo thought:

To be human is to MOVE!

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No judgements. No hesitation. No self-critique or self-judgement.

Pure unadulterated joy in photography.

Black and white— classic, timeless, and personal:

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The great joy of life:

Knowing that trillions of new fun, exciting, and great adventures and experiences await you!

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