COVID ain’t going away anytime soon. Thus, it seems a wise decision to *not* delay your street photography pursuits! Some practical ideas:

1. Broaden your definition of street photography
2. Shoot at the grocery market
3. Shoot socially distant street photography (12+ feet away outdoors)
4. Wear a mask when you’re shooting street photography
5. Shoot street photos without people in it
6. Photograph signage which mentions COVID-19. Historically this will be interesting because sooner or later… Covid-19 will be a thing of the past. This means at least you got a visual documentation of what happened during all this Covid craziness.
7. Shoot street photography at the beach, mall, or any other place where humans congregate (which are still open for you, according to your local law).
8. Shoot selfies of yourself in the streets.

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This quote from Henri Cartier-Bresson has always puzzled me. But I think I got it figured out:

Even the smallest little detail can be beautiful, a theme (leitmotif) into itself.

In other words:

The smallest most tiny, most mundane, most ordinary details can be insanely beautiful in photography!

In praise of shooting macro photos, and just looking for small details:

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In photography composition, we deal with planes in two dimensional space (in photos), whereas the reality is three-dimensional.

Therefore what we are doing in photography composition:

How can we play with planes and perspective, to make more dynamic photos?

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Simple idea:

Considering photography is our passion, and considering there is no ultimate purpose to life, and considering that photography may be our Archimedes lever in life … isn’t the optimal approach to life to optimize for your photography and photographic output?

This then means:

1. If your thing is street photography, preferably live in a downtown city. This will maximize your photography opportunity moments.
2. Use the smallest and most convenient always carry with you type of camera setup would will minimize the friction and barrier for you to shoot more photos. This may be RICOH GR III, iPhone Pro, or Google Pixel.
3. Expose yourself maximally during the day for the maximum of novelty of environments and situations. This means it is perhaps better to be more profligate (“wasteful” in money) and frequent more coffee shops, restaurants, or just going out to shop or buy groceries. To be surrounded by other humans is best.

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For me, photography is the joy of seeing, observation, and creative insight. This is how I see:

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Creativity as an approach and technique, not some sort of god-given gift to the select few.

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A thought while at the local Chinese grocery market:

Why do we feel like we must stay “consistent” artistically?

For example in photography, why this pressure to stick to only color or only black and white?

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Simple assignment:

Print out a bunch of 4×6 photos of meaningful life moments and memories, and collage them with your partner and soulmate.

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Gratitude
I’m on a new spiritual latitude
With the oceans and waves
I love life, I want to stay.

Gratitude takes skill
and physiological will

No need for hundred dollar bills
or basic thrills

Your life is trill and great
You don’t consume life, you make.

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The first step in philosophy — always challenge and question what the ultimate purpose of x, y, z is. To use the ERIC KIM “why?” chatbot to discover deeper meaning and purpose in your life, and what you decide to do and what you decide *not* to do.

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Not to be petty. To prioritize the joy and happiness of your partner over your own. To strive to become more stoic, zen and strong. To take things in life like it’s “not a big deal”.

To attempt great things in life. To love risk and not to shirk from it. To avoid doing anything in life which we consider base, unworthy and dishonorable for ourselves.

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Dear friend,

A thought:

Life is far more interesting and engaging when we can see MORE photo opportunities.

And the realization:

With monochrome (black and white), there are more options for seeing potentially interesting photos.

As a consequence, we find more motivation to shoot monochrome and to see in monochrome.

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A thought:

Perhaps ‘happiness’ and ‘joy’ are a bit overrated.

Perhaps better to focus is on strength — specifically, physiological strength.

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Very quick thought:

The very big upside of shooting high contrast monochrome, and also post processing your monochrome photos to look more dramatic is this:

— You can have more opportunities to make interesting photos in your eyes!

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Post processing as also fun, creative and an art:

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What I think interests me the most … humans and environments. Perhaps this is my interest in street photography? Humans in environments which are new, foreign or different/novel to mine? The interest of mine in exploring and discovering and witnessing new environments, and my joy of also my fellow human beings!

Perhaps this is why I love traveling and being outdoors, or in public spaces? And I also prefer living in apartment complexes, surrounded by other humans?

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In experimenting with virtual reality, augmented reality I’ve been very interested in the notion of depth. Depth perception — the use of our two human eyes. Why depth?

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Why do we love the new so much? Life is about the new.

For example, what would life be like without new babies and new humans? Without new technological innovations? The economy is all about producing new things.

Also for us artists … we must also delight and frolic in the new!

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Why photography? To me, photography is visual poetry.

Visual poetry — visual sublime. Elevated mood, heightened joy and delight in life!

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Very simple thought:

The purpose of art is to inspire and motivate us in life … to give us bright new light. A new excitement for living! To live for tomorrow, the day after … and theoretically, until infinity!

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Some ideas:

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What is our prime worth as a photographer? Our vision. Our ability to see artistically is the goal:

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New epiphany:

In life, prioritize for aesthetics. Let the function take care of itself later!

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We photographers are artists. Let nobody else tell you otherwise.

There are a few things that bring me as much joy in life as photography.

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To see the world in color; a skill:

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Christmas is just around the corner. What gifts are best for us photographers? Some ideas:

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What we artists delight in — a world of appearances, and the profundity and beauty of superficial forms:

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As of late, one of my visual muses has been studying Archimedes, math, and visual proofs of mathematical equations and concept ideas.

Which made me think:

We as photographers are doing something similar … except we are trying to untangle reality, and perhaps discover and uncover interesting, deep, profound and hidden beauties in embodied reality? 

Composition and framing as beautifying reality (hyper reality beauty), and also discovering interesting new visual proofs of reality?

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Typically street photos you shoot which are head-on are more dynamic, engaging and energizing. This is how to do it:

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Simple ideas to get you shooting:

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Often I forget the old photos I’ve shot in the past! To look at my old photos is almost akin to experiencing it for the first time:

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What is the best? Typically that which has the most utility.

What is the most utility? That which gets utilized and used the most!

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FREE MOTIVATION ON ERIC KIM NEWSLETTER >

Dear friend,

In today’s topsy turvy world, being optimistic is hard. But my happy thought is this:

The future world will continue to exist, and you will continue to thrive as a photographer.

Just imagine —

What new photos have you yet photographed?

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Or why California is overrated:

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To study composition means to steal visual inspiration from anywhere and everywhere.

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In my opinion, I believe it takes more skill and courage to be hopeful, joyful, cheerful and optimistic than pessimistic and nihilistic. Our goal as photographers is to have motivation to shoot until we’re 120 years old. So how does one do this?

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Hopeful photos … the promise of a more beautiful tomorrow and day after tomorrow. Photos as the great bringer of optimistic hope and joy!

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Henri Cartier-Bresson once said he had a passion for geometry. This mixed with his pursuit of photography is interesting — hybrid of both geometry/shape/form, and photography (instant sketches of life).

My new interest — studying Archimedes, mathematics, and projective geometry to cross-pollinate with photography and composition:

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Too long we have separated the two. No, we must integrate them. 

A photographer is an artist. Artists are also photographers.

Almost everyone I know who is interested in photography has an artistic spine and bones within them. It’s simply a matter of other artists who act pretentious and try to talk down on photographers.

Photography as just another medium or media, as Aristotle said (On the Soul).

So photographers … we express our souls via the medium or media of photography?

Also—

No photograph is sacred. We can remix, reshape, glitch, filter, adapt, change, paint, sketch, or trace our photos and repurpose them as we see fit!

A type of photo “upcycling”. Photographic renewal, visual energy.

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On iPad and Procreate app:

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Archimedes “On the equilibrium of planes”— a fascinating look into how mathematics, art, science, design, and visual architecture are all interconnected:

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An effective photography composition technique — circles:

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For me a “good” photograph is a photograph I find personally interesting, curious and worth lingering over.

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Visual acuity means “the art of seeing beautiful scenes and potentially interesting photos”. The concept behind our book “How to See”:

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First sent on ERIC KIM NEWSLETTER >

Dear friends,

Some quick black and white photography assignments to get you going:

1. Photograph your hand. Shoot in RAW, and increase the contrast, to see more details in your hands
2. Inverse your photos: Choose some monochrome photos of yours which you like, and inverse them, to gain a more interesting view into them.
3. Shoot with a flash: Monochrome and a flash renders interesting scenes. Shoot everything you see with a flash and without a flash. You can experiment with RICOH GR II Program Mode and the integrated flash, or the integrated flash on your Fuji, or even the iPhone with Noir mode with the integrated flash!
4. Make a portfolio of your favorite (current) monochrome photos and upload them to your website portfolio.
5. Study the masters of monochrome photography. Andre Kertesz, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Josef Koudelka, Richard Avedon.
6. Experiment with RAW or JPEG high contrast for monochrome. You can download ERIC KIM PRESETS for free to experiment with.
7. Exposure compensation: When you see something interesting, shoot it at -1 exposure compensation, 0, and +1 exposure compensation.
8. Abstract your photos as much as possible. This means, blur your photos, shoot your photos out of focus, and make them more surreal!

Upload your favorite monochrome photos to arsbeta.com

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The goal … to make more personally meaningful photos. Monochrome/black and white is an effective way:

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Black and white; my first passion and love:

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Your style in photography is always changing and evolving. As Heraclitus would have said:

Your photos and style and creative/artistic vision is always in a stream of becoming.

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Not more ‘happiness’ or even more ‘joy’ in life … more physiological energy, power, and force!

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Simple ideas to get you going:

1. Spend a day shooting photos only on your phone, and explore all the filters in the default iPhone/Apple Photos app, or the default filters in Google Photos.
2. Spend a day shooting only creative selfies of yourself. Selfies of yourself in a mirror, your reflection, etc.
3. If you have the urge to buy a new camera or lens, buy a new photography book instead. For new photographic inspiration and motivation, buying books not gear is the way.
4. If you’re lacking motivation to make new photos, start shooting videos instead! Shoot lots of random video clips and drag them into imovie and export them as a ‘life vlog‘ of your video photograph snapshots. Best way I would describe it as “creative snapchat like” photo-videos.
5. Take some photos of yours which you like, and glitch and apply fun and creative filters to your images to re-imagine them in novel ways.
6. To give feedback on the photos of others is also creative. Upload your best photos and provide feedback on arsbeta.com
7. If you got a standalone digital camera, choose a jpeg filter you like and stick with it for a month, as a way to cultivate an artistic style. I like high contrast monochrome and cross process filter on RICOH GR III.

The purpose of life to create, be creative, and never stop creating and iterating your creations!

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The other day, for some reason after sleeping at midnight I woke up, wide awake at 4am. Drank a few coffees and did some creative work in the morning, but for the rest of the day I felt like absolute shit and it was one of the most physiologically painful and unpleasant days I’ve experienced in a long time. But I suppose the good that came out of it was realizing:

What I truly desire is more physiological energy, physiological power to pursue my artistic, creative and philosophical ends!

To advance photography for all, not just the privileged few.

Also, to innovate in photography for the sake of opening up new opportunities, new avenues for photographers to express themselves creatively via photography. Also, photography philosophy and entrepreneurship … photography as risk taking, and life living!

What’s Your Higher Mission in Life?

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One of my favorite Nietzsche quotes. A realization —

When I am listening to music (especially with noise cancelling headphones, BOSE QC 35 Mark II), I can actually focus. My mood and physiological energy levels are improved probably 100x, and my delight and joy in life and existence is magnified to an insane degree!

Which makes me think:

Perhaps we should listen to *MORE* great music, to augment our lives and our life experiences?

What we are trying to do as artists is not to give a factual depiction of something, but the *impression* and the *feeling* of something!

For example, with hyper cars … the sensation and impression of speed and dominance, even when it is stationary!

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When should you photograph? I cannot speak for you, but let me speak for myself:

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If you desire to make more “artistic” photos, try to make photos that *don’t* resemble reality!

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Photography is interesting when our photos can be used as a stimulus to imagine … to imagine what was *really* happening behind the scenes. Also, when we apply filters to our photos, we allow our viewers to imagine more!

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Something that philosophers of the past haven’t figured out (for some reason or another):

To study philosophy or to philosophize about non-utilitarian things is the ultimate luxury.

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In life and entrepreneurship, and art… the worst:

To be ignored.

Thus it seems a better position to put yourself is this:

Create, produce, share, and be yourself insofar much as you cannot be ignored by others!

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Towards becoming a fully-realized full-stack visual artist:

Combine photos videos and also music (making my own beats).

Total independence:

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A view into my workflow:

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New visual arts:

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Photography as a movement of light:

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There are no rules to photography … just guidelines and suggestions. But with all suggestions in life, you can either take it or leave it!

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In life, the end-game:

To create.

Create … anything!

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If you’re in a position in which you’re trapped at home and want to be creative, virtual reality may be a good option for you (Oculus Rift S + Gravity Sketch or Google Tilt Brush) as great avenues to create in 3D!

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I’ve had the privilege of living in many different types of living situations, homes, lifestyles (digital nomad, location independent, etc).

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We talk much about the “hedonic” treadmill (a life in which we are just trying to maximize our base sensual pleasures). Why don’t we ever talk about the social media treadmill — in which we just keep producing things and uploading things to get more likes and followers and social media fame, towards what end?