This is what I look for when I’m shooting.

Simpler is better.

Are you driven by passion and your own internal motivation and fire, or by something or someone else?

Do you like it because you really like it, or because it is expensive?

What’s the most essential capital (caput, head)— human capital. Social capital.

Seneca as the heir to my throne.

Why every father desires a son.

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Let us assume Apple is a photography company. What does that mean? Photography as a trillion$+ market which is ever-expanding and growing.

Even the new iPhone SE — camera and photo and video quality is insanely good!

When a new parent gets a kid — what do they become obsessed with? Photography.

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Surprisingly a really good family car.

Great for long road trips, great design, solid silhouette, very little use of plastic trim, great front grille (looks like an Aston Martin), a proper midsize sedan that can squeeze into small parking spots. Big trunk fits a large stroller. Backseat big enough to fit Seneca car seat in middle, with Cindy and her mom or my mom in the backseat. Also good on gas mileage, comfortable on freeway. Super solid car.

No fatal flaw in the design.

The most essential nutrition— deep. Maximal concentration of nutrition (fat, saturated fat, cholesterol) for muscle synthesis and growth.

Seneca loves beef ribs, bone marrow, beef brisket, aged cheese, goat milk, avocados, burger patties (70-80% lean to fat ratio). All ideally grass fed.

What you feed yourself and your kid — insanely important.

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Beef ribs as the supreme meat food item? Get it for $14 a pop at Fogo de Chao— all day bar menu. I can eat 3 or maybe 4 of them.

Seneca loves them too!

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In praise of belts — you know what your waist size is (how many notches on your belt), better to track your bodily fat (adipose tissue) percentage. Prevents you from eating stuff that will make you fat.

Why prison inmates get fat (sweat pants with draw strings)— you have no idea how fat you’re getting.

The downside of loose fitting clothing — you don’t know how fat you’re getting. Jeans with belts are good.

Limited portion sizes (a la carte) as superior to buffets. My joy of getting individual beef ribs at fogo de chao (3 of them) instead of the all you can eat experience.

More zen, less distracting.

Especially ethnic, Korean ones. Costco is good too!

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If there’s nothing for you to eat, or you’re just really exhausted, maybe best to just go straight to sleep and fast until the next day dinner time.

It is newer, smaller, more zen and better.

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Some fresh photo thoughts for you:

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1. Optimize your life for photography

The first thought for you is that perhaps when it comes to existence, life, etc —

If it were all for the sake of photography, it was worth it and justified.

For me, it is all photography. Anything and everything photography is good. Anything that uplift and motivate you towards photography is good.

2. Standalone digital cameras

Don’t get suckered by iPhone — if you want to optimize your life towards photography, standalone digital cameras are the way.

And what is the best camera? RICOH GR IIIX hands down. No debate. The camera is literally 100% perfect.

3. Money isn’t real

Money isn’t real, it is just a concept. What does this mean? This means —

If you can use money to gain yourself more experiences, more sights, and more embodied reality (physical) exposure … this is good towards photography.

For example recently thinking about my recent family trips to Joshua Tree, and Lake Arrowhead (the money and time for renting the airBnb, gas, etc) — it was 110% worth it.

Once again, don’t get suckered. Channel, invest, and funnel your money into photographic experiences. What does this mean?

Use your money on travel (buying yourself plane tickets, paying for gas if you want to do road trips) or for airbnb/hotels, etc — to push yourself outside of your comfort zone, and channel those new exposures to make new photos, and just share the photos to your blog.

4. Just blog your photos

What is the best way to share your photos? Not social media; your own blog.

Digital and online publishing as superior to print-based publishing.

Why this preference for printing your photos? It is a pretentious French notion (the notion of art salons, etc). But in this global ‘endemic’ (the pandemic is here to stay… indefinitely) — isn’t it more effective and superior to share your photos online (infinitely scaleable)? And it is ‘responsive’ to any device your viewer sees your photos (whether on a phone, tablet, laptop, TV, etc).

5. Physical is the new privilege

I am a huge fan and proponent of virtual reality, yet my thought:

In the future — the lower-class will be addicted to virtual reality (Netflix, Oculus, Facebook/Instagram), and only the rich and privileged will have the access to ’embodied reality’ or physical reality.

Let us consider that nowadays, it only seems that the less educated are not vaccinated and do not wear face masks. I see it like a social class thing:

If you lack education, knowledge, and common sense … you do not vaccinate yourself, and refuse to wear a mask for ‘freedom’ purposes.

Like Nassim Taleb said:

If you truly do believe in ‘libertarianism‘, the first rule is ‘do no harm unto others’. So wear your f*cking mask.

Which means —

Any experience you can do in embodied reality (without the risk of catching COVID or any other future disease) is a massive privilege.

What does it mean to be a slave? To be chained at home all day, or even worse … in your cubicle.

Or even worse:

Chained to your phone.

Even one of my uber-successful Silicon Valley friends–

Even though he is super successful, he is still chained to his phone notifications.

This means he cannot sleep through the night without the anxiety of having to check his phone, to respond to his (big) boss.

So I say–

In terms of lifestyle, strive to make yourself less ‘important’ and less rich — and strive to free up more mindspace and more soul-space for your creative pursuits (travel, adventure, photography).

ERIC

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If this gave you any inspiration or motivation, feel free to share with a friend!

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New turbo thoughts on ERIC KIM BLOG.

New things in progress:

1. Just returned iPhone Pro. Testing iPhone SE (the new new one).
2. RICOH GR IIIX is perfect. If in doubt just buy it.
3. Better to buy Bitcoin than a TESLA.
4. RIVIAN truck (in real life) is actually surprisingly nice. More of a ‘statement’ than having a Tesla (even a Model S PLAID), even though the Tesla might be the superior car.
5. Bitcoin or nothing. Don’t get suckered by ‘alt coins’. Alternative is bad.

START // BOOKS // SUPPLY

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ERIC NEWS LINK

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Really beautiful.

It is not enough to have ‘free time’ or even ‘mindspace‘– you need ‘soul-space’. Emptiness and less concern in your heart and soul, in order to focus on your creative and artistic pursuits.

The notion from Nassim Taleb:

A duties-based form of libertarianism.

Which first means:

Do no harm unto others (ie wear your f*cking mask).

How should you share your photos? Just on your own blog. The best, most efficient and effective (open source) way to share your photos. The future of photography is publishing your photos online.

Digital and online publishing as *superior* to print-based publishing.

Channel, invest, and funnel your money into photographic experiences.

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You can only hate or criticize things you really love.

For example your ‘haters‘ are really your lovers.

Why ‘standalone’ digital camera? Perhaps if your goal is to maximize your photography, to get a device which is optimized *ONLY* for photography (making photos, shooting photos) is best.

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RICOH GR IIIX is insanely good. ERIC KIM APPROVED. 0 regrets. 100% perfect.

Superior optics and image quality, resolution, sharpness, contrast, blacks, and dynamic range. 40mm is surprisingly good as a focal length.

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But perhaps this is a good thing? This is what drives me forwards and upwards?

A thought: maybe it is best for us to strive towards 100% satisfaction. In terms of our tools, things, devices, cars, homes, lifestyles, etc.

For example, I am 100% satisfied with my son Seneca. And with Cindy. And with RICOH GR IIIX.

Not with iPhone Pro.

Why this dissatisfied approach? Because if you strive for 100% satisfaction, it actually makes you less wasteful. Perhaps for myself, because I’m so insanely picky, this is what makes me a “minimalist”. That I’m not a minimalist for the sake of being minimalist, but for the sake that nothing is ever good enough for me.

Ironically enough, even though I’m a huge fan and proponent of buying stuff in person, in order to witness it firsthand, in your hand, and how it feels in terms of the ergonomically, perhaps it is better for us to just become enamored with the marketing language of some thing, order it online, save yourself time and wasted effort, and if you don’t like it just return it — online by printing out return labels and receipts. Very much like how we do with Amazon purchases and things. Maybe it is better for us to do this instead of deal with a cumbersome approach of interacting with humans in terms of returns.

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I am a Steve Jobs fan boy, not an Apple fan boy:

On the pursuit for finding and discovering a perfect device, I experimented using the iPhone Pro in white/silver, but much to the dismay of myself, I hated the glare that it gave when I was driving (the polished stainless steel sides of the phone are beautiful, but give very bad reflection in clear and shininess when in direction sun). I recently switched it out for an iPhone Pro in graphite (black), and I’m very dismayed. It is just boring.

How can we make iPhone exciting again? Some thoughts:

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If you want more inspiration for your photography, just have a kid.

Your children as the ultimate work of art:

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A simple thought: if you optimize your whole life and your whole existence for and towards photography, how can you go wrong?

That is, to optimize your life to expose yourself to new experiences, thoughts, and approaches in order to maximize your inspiration and motivation to make photos.

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In terms of marketing language, one of the best concepts that Apple came up with is the notion of “space grey“. However, since then it seems that Apple has gone astray without Jony Ive at the wheel.

One suggestion I have is with the iPhone Pro, bring back the notion of black. Don’t call it “graphite”, which is a very confusing and strange way to describe it. Perhaps better to just call it “pitch black”— similar to their “midnight black” colorway for the iPhone 13.

What is my greatest passion? My passion for innovation. My passion for attempting and truing new things, creating new things, and creating new methodologies and approaches.

My personal ambition:

To become to photography what Tesla (Elon Musk) is for electric cars, what Kanye West (YEEZY) is to fashion/music/hip-hop/rap, and what Apple is for technology.

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The more and more I think about it … with gas prices this insane (and will probably go higher into the future) — why would you ever buy a non-electric car again?

And also–

The only electric car to get is a Tesla.

Just like how the only smartphone to get is an iPhone. Essentially, the Tesla will become the iPhone for cars.

Display on iPhone Pro is quite phenomenal — when viewing your photos.

Don’t go alternative. No alt coins, no “alt culture”.

The joy of all you can eat Shabu Shabu — the feeling of overflowing bounty!

Something I think about a lot when shooting photos and composing:

Which composition is the best?

The first trick:

Shoot all iterations of the scene, and figure out *later* which you prefer.

For example, when photographing this abstract of a cross … which do I prefer?

The best way to study design. Study and observe the silhouette you see.

Lower your exposure compensation to as dark as possible (ADAP) to reveal more. Low key shows more design components and silhouettes.

Why do I have so much joy in shooting and making photos? The joy of playing with compositions.

I cannot be placated. Perhaps this is my super-power?

Perhaps this is my great drive?

Something interesting I’ve observed in Seneca:

There is a strong link between him touching things, and learning what they are.

A secret on capturing the decisive moment in photography:

Start shooting *BEFORE* the decisive moment happens!

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Something very tricky about exposure —

In photography, we often try to capture the ‘perfect’ or the ‘ideal’ exposure.

But what is the purpose of exposure? I say to be creative!

A simple thought:

To either make your photos very very dark (as dark as possible, silhouette) *OR* to make your photos very very bright (high-key, very white).