What do we desire and strive towards, in terms of our physiology?

Creative vigor.

That is, to have the vigor, the strength, the strong desire, and the ‘chutzpah’ to create recklessly, dangerously, and freely:

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Big fan of the new M1 chip iPad Pro. Great design, aesthetics, comfortable in the hand, and fast and buttery smooth performance. Highly recommended. Might also be great for AR/LIDAR  artistic and creative production!

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I typically see goal setting as a bad thing, and as a trap. But perhaps to have some sort of general loose goal(s) in life can be good, at least with strength goals. For example, 100 kettlebell swings in a row, or a certain one rep max for your deadlift.

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Just got the new iPad Pro (M1 with LIDAR, the normal 11 inch size), and my thought —

This is great as a creative tool.

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No need to hate the virtues or vices of others
Stay deep in yourself
Focus on your own vision, your own ideals and your own code of ethics
No need to pity the pathetic or honor the mighty

Iterate yourself to greatness. You pave this path.

ERIC

Physiological strengthening. That is if the aesthetic gives you physiological strength or not. Or even worse, ugly design as ROBBING you of strength, high spirits and physiological strength.

New thought: rather than thinking of a design as “good” or “not”— better to think and consider what kind of physiological effect it has on you.

Great design strengthens and gives vigor to your muscles and legs!

As photographers, what do we aspire and strive towards? I say we strive for a photographic eudaemonia, that is, photographic and artistic flourishing.

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What is the best way and the best direction to live? This is what I say: establish personal ideals for yourself, and strive with all your might and will power towards those.

A simple entrepreneurial thought: when in doubt, just risk it.

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HAPTC INDUSTRIES

HAPTIC AMAZON

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My joy of re-discovering these older KODAK PORTRA 400 photos of Cindy:

1. The Cindy Project
2. Take Photos of Your Loved Ones on Film
3. Film 101
4. PORTRA 400

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To make the future a more creative and prosperous future for yourself and others.

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In praise of low-key luxury — luxury goods which aren’t obvious and loud. For example OUTLIER NYC t shirts (expensive, simple yet great), Hyundai Genesis car, Leica M-P (no red dot) camera, RICOH GR III, iPhone Mini and other non branded things.

HAPTIC INDUSTRIES — also low key luxury is my aesthetic.

FREE TURBO THOUGHTS

Dear friends,

The turbo thought of today:

Perhaps the best trait for us is curiosity– to become MORE curious.

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What do we really want? Not the Lamborghini but the RAGING BULL concept and aesthetic. When watching the new COUNTACH video, I realized this.

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If I started street photography all over again, some thoughts:

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Why do we love images and visual artwork? It acts as a tonic for our soul and physiology. A life without beautiful images ain’t a life worth living.

What is paramount for us creatives and creators? Our physiology— that is, our health, muscles, rest, outside sun exposure, sleep, napping, fasting, fatty meat consumption, digestion, exposure to fresh air, and physical exercise and walking. Prioritize your physiology and all of your creative work will take care of itself!

Cross-over between photography and video:

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How do I judge my own photos, and figure out which photos I love?

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Perhaps the goal in Street Photography is not to become a “better” photographer, but to become a more profound and philosophical photographer.

Therefore our goal is to think about the philosophy of our photography, and the philosophy of our street photography in general.

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Perhaps this is our inner motivation and impetus behind our street photography?

Heraclitus on my mind.

I was always curious on how Kodak Portra 400 looked. Here are some files and examples, with different scanning settings. Some shot with flash, some without:

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The secret to making better monochrome photos:

Make your photos as black as possible (under-expose your photos to the maximum darkness, to the point where you can still see *something*).

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How and why self critique in photography is good:

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Like our friend JAY Z says:

Don’t be good, be great.

And something I realized:

In studying the masters (great photographers) of photography, what we are truly seeking is our own personal greatness.

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Something on my mind: we all strive towards productivity, but productivity towards what ends?

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My life in photos:

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What do we delight in? Faster flow. A faster and higher bandwidth for internet (5G and Fiber Optic Wi-Fi at home), faster recharge times, less lag and bigger and faster spouts to stream more, faster!

What’s the biggest benefit and boon of photos? The ability to spark and conjure up great past memories.

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What is our goal as photographers? To become more free-spirited. To see fewer boundaries between different types of things to photograph, and to just photograph it all; the fullest and widest scope and depth of human existence and experience.

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This is our goal as visual artists!

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We all seek betterment in our photography. But why?

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Stronger compositions, becoming more fearless (more brave, more brazen and audacious). Less hesitating. More prideful in our work and more optimistic for the future of our photographic life!

Resentment as a vice and disease. To us high and lofty philosophers let us banish resentment as below us and as a cancer to our mind and soul.

ADHERE
Steer clear of gossip and distractions, things that blind you from action
Adhere to your goal and own path in life. Stab it close, hardened knife.

Adhere and stay solid
Stay woke
Disregard what’s broken or missing
Just follow your own internal muse and listen.

ERIC

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FREE TURBO THOUGHTS

Dear friend,

Some real thoughts on creativity:

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The notion I got from Berlin which I love:

The notion of ‘upcycling‘.

Essentially it is the new hipster notion of ‘recycling’, but to *UP* cycle it means:

To take the old, add to it, IMPROVE it, and then put it back into the human ecosphere.

All photography is creative. The goal then is this:

How do we maximize and augment our creativity?

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We are often told that being ‘stubborn’ is bad and being flexible is ‘good’. Why is this?

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Why street photography? As being good for the soul:

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Advance
Know how to take epic chances in your life
When the time is right, strike the iron while it is hot
Bring the fire, bring the flame
No need to explain your blame or shame your chains
Bring on the pain and the difficulties
The pain is great, but the reward is greater!

ERIC

To become more ethical means to figure out what *NOT* to do in your actions and activities with others:

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FREE TURBO THOUGHTS

Dear friends,

The turbo thought of the morning:

Perhaps we all just need to become a bit more philosophical in our photography.

Because what is needed in today’s world in photography? Not more cameras, equipment, or lenses or better iPhone cameras, but more philosophical understandings and notions in our photography. More ‘photolosophy‘ (photography philosophy).

To spark you and ramp you up, I am now offering PHOTOLOSOPHY OPEN SOURCE COURSE (produced by ANNETTE KIM x HAPTIC) for free. Feel free to share, store, download, and use on unlimited devices, and share it with your friends!

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If you want to create your own YouTube channel (or even make podcasts) just use the iPhone. Best microphone on the planet according to Kanye (Kanye West even used the default voice recorder app on the iPhone for many of his new songs!!)

Some photo turbo thoughts:

Every photo you create, is just a stream.

Each and every photo like a particle in a light stream (Einstein vibes).

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Philosophical musings:

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A concept I got from my friend Ryan from Backyard Brew in Palo Alto (I am quite sure Ryan is the one who truly invented the notion of a ‘minimum viable product‘ in Silicon Valley). I wonder — how can we apply this concept to our photography?

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Perhaps rather than striving to “train until failure” (not a good concept)— best to strive for the best “simple and sinister” (Pavel) concept of workout. The minimum viable workout in terms of time, but with maximal force and difficulty (like one rep max powerlifting), and once you’re done, just get on with your day! Like a single Turkish getup with a kettlebell as great.

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1. If you want more photographic inspiration and opportunity, black-and-white is best.
2. In terms of the most versatile lens, a 28 mm prime lens is your best friend.
3. When you got nothing left to photograph, just shoot your selfie.
4. If you want photographic composition motivation, watch old-school films. For example, any film by Akira Kurosawa, or any of the film nor classics.
5. Rather than optimizing for the best camera, strive to optimize for the best shoes.
6. In my experience, the best all day carry camera is a ricoh gr 3. 
7. Any camera that collects dust on your shelf and isn’t shot with all day every day, is useless.
8. The ideal number of multiple subjects to photograph is three. Strive towards triangle compositions.
9. My three favorite photographers of all time include Henri Cartier Bresson, Josef Koudelka, and Richard Avedon. The three black-and-white masters.
10. The best way to improve your photography is to walk more. Perhaps best to use your walking tracking app to see how many steps you walk in a day, and accord that with your photographic productivity.
11. Better to shoot a bad photo than no photo.
12. The best photo you have shot should be easily recallable in your mind.
13. The best way to become more innovative and your photography is via negativa: that is, to delete your Instagram.
14. With COVID-19, the best place to travel and shoot street photography is Mexico City.
15. The more photos you shoot in a day, the happier you will become.
16. Buying a new iPad is a better investment than buying a new iPhone.
17. To best way to study the compositions of other master photographers, is to trace over their photos. I recommend using the Procreate app on iPhone or iPad.
18. Approach your photography as if you were already a billionaire.
19. The best way to spread your influence as a photographer is to start your own blog, and to post every single day. Ideally, several times a day.
20. The best way to think about the future of photography is to think about the past of photography.
21. How to know if your photos are good or not: ask yourself, will these photos still ring an emotional feedback 300 years from now?
22. No photography project is ever finished. All photography projects are always a work in progress, and always in flux.
23. There is no right or wrong in photography, only tips and suggestions.
24. Going on on the photography road trip is a very productive practice.
25. Ultimately digital photography is superior to film photography. However, studying and practicing film photography will make you a better digital photographer.
26. Do you never really know how you feel about a photograph, until 10 years later.
27. If you can make one memorable photo in your lifetime, your job as a photographer has been justified.
28. Never ask the opinion of another photographer about your photographs, until you have consulted your own.
29. What is photography composition? Knowing what to subtract rather than add to the frame.
30. Buy books, not gear.
31. Best to shoot photos while you’re hungry, and praise of intermittent fasting during the day when shooting photography. 
32. When in doubt, just shoot it.

FREE MOTIVATION

Dear friend,

The turbo thought of today:

Paving your own path is the goal.

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Steve Jobs vibes:

Think different as a photographer.

1. Delete Instagram
2. Spend a year not looking at any social media or YouTube
3. Publish your works as open source.
4. Pursue your artistry and photography as if you were already a billionaire.

The future is yours:

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To ‘pivot’– one of the good concepts which have come out of Silicon Valley. I think it is a great notion to apply to our photography and artistic pursuits:

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A turbo thought:

What if your past self were in fact *INFERIOR* to your past self?

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What is ‘progress’? And why does this matter, and is this what we are striving towards?

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FREE TURBO THOUGHTS >

Dear friends,

A quick turbo thought to start the week:

Being unique in photography is overrated.

It doesn’t matter whether you shoot with a unique camera, whether your subject matter is unique, or your project idea is unique. What matters more is whether you truly LOVE what you photograph, and whether your photography is self-motivated (autotelic) or not.

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A thought:

In America, to be ‘unique’ is heralded as the apex of worthiness.

But what if this is just a consumerist trap?

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A random thought I had one driving, and seeing a matte black Mercedes coupe: it seems that the design is very self-assured. This means, it doesn’t desire to follow trends, and its content into itself. Compare this with other car brands, like Audi or BMW, in which is always trying so hard to impress others and always uncertain of its own design language.

Certainly at the end of the day assurance and self assurance should not be predicated on the car you drive or the things your own. But perhaps a more important thing is for you to become self-assured. This is, assured into yourself without always having to look over your shoulders and see whether others are watching.

If we take this further to art and art work, perhaps our real goal as artists is to become more self-assured in our personal artworks and creations. That is, we don’t need others to tell us whether our artwork is good or not. Rather, we simply share artworks because we love it, and the small chance to others might like it too, makes it worth sharing.

Just watched INFINITE the new Paramount+ film, and some quick thoughts:

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ADAMANTINE MIND
My soul divine

Let my mind, body and soul be free
Free as can be, with no shackles, limits or ‘needs to be’

Free yourself free your mind
Dance in the twine and melodic dance
Prance further, dance further, godlike light toes
How far can you go? Only you can know.

ERIC

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What do you live for?

For me, I live to create, think, share, make, propagate myself, and to empower humanity.

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FREE MOTIVATION

What is the most difficult thing we face in our photography? The will to photograph.

Some thoughts:

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