What are the necessary conditions to become strong? My thoughts:

We have all been trained that all collaboration is good. Why is this? My refutation:

My thoughts:

My philosophy (and yours) cannot be refuted. Beyond physics and math, all is opinion. “All is permitted, all is false”.

Inspire your inner-genius:

Almost everything in America now is “affordable”. The better question:

Do I think it is “worth it”?

“Until you own yourself, you can’t be me.” – JAY Z

1. Own your website, hosting and domain
2. Own your mind [self employment]
3. Own your car, phone, or whatever. No lease, payment, etc.

My thought:

When it comes down to it… it all comes down to being open or closed.

Open or closed-minded. Open source or closed source. Open borders or closed borders.

If your goal is immortal fame amongst mortals, certainly to make your things free and open source is the way.

How I cook meat and more:

Practical thoughts:

Ideas:

In praise of becoming more self-centered and self-focused:

Why I might prefer working out at the park than the gym:

Check it out on Stephen Obi’s website here. You can subscribe to his podcast here.

Dear friend,

Some practical thoughts, which I hope can inspire and motivate you.

I have finally cleared myself of the Leica hype. Leica isn’t cool anymore; RICOH is the new king. Even if I had a quadrillion dollars, RICOH GR III is still superior to Leica M10 or any Leica camera; at any price point, at any option.

A lovely guest blog post by Savannah Condon, about learning lessons from Buddhism and Photography:

In kicking off my new ERIC KIM NEWSLETTER, here is an example of an opt-in email I created. A good starter:

My approach:

What is extreme responsibility? To have the extreme courage to face reality in all her cruel and joyful aspects and declare:

All the good and bad in life is good… and a stimulus to my own growth, thriving and strengthening.

Others don’t have free will. We may have free will (to a certain extent or degree), but even we don’t have 100% free will over our environment, health, societal conditions, hormones, and life circumstances.

Why don’t we have the courage to asset a certain opinion without quoting or referring to someone else?

Attempting the epic is noble. You are not guaranteed to succeed, but your true courage is the amount of bravery, audacity, and brazenness you pursue in your epic endeavors … it ain’t necessarily the final outcome. Consider you can be the most intelligent and skilled person in the world and still fail in your endeavors in life.

Let us not be fooled. The purpose of life is to become stronger. Infinite strength gains.

My personal and practical thoughts on money and what it means to me:

To become great is to become big, strong, magnanimous. Anyone and everyone can become great. What is required?

1. Time
2. Patience
3. Great industry
4. Perseverance
5. A spirit of playfulness
6. Curiosity to continue
7. Continual editing of your work and portfolio
8. Always striving for more.

Growing up I always hated “elitism”; rich and high class people who looked down on you because of your class, race, background, ethnicity, etc. But the question:

Why did I hate it so much, and what is the significance of this hate and my personal thoughts on elitism?

The art of image selection:

The best life: pursue only what truly interests you.

I am a man. I am me. This is my notion of masculinity.

The goal:

Not to become nobody else but yourself.

Towards a new sociology, or way to analyze society:

1. Upload your favorite photos (or photos you’re curious) to Google Auto Vision API to see how Google’s AI analyzes your photos. Machine learning x Photo.
2. Start your own website. Register on 1and1.com or bluehost.com and install wordpress.org
3. Upload your favorite photos to arsbeta.com and also give honest critique to the work of other photographers.
4. Create a new portfolio of your 10 best images, and make a new folder for it on your computer (JPEG’s) and share it with friends, family, and others.
5. Start a selfie face mask project, or a street photography shooting people with face masks on.

What is the apex for human physiology, growth, muscle augmentation, and fat loss or minimization? My thoughts and theories:

I really enjoy shooting intelligent auto (iA mode on lumix cameras) and JPEG on my Lumix G9.

Eating meat might be bad from an ethical, moral, or planetary level … but good for a physiological and muscle augmentation level. Best for human physiology and physique.

When in doing, prioritize your body and flesh over metal (watches, cars, motor cycles, etc).

Your Name is King.

You– your name, your self. The most valuable asset.

Never stop learning:

1. Steal inspiration ruthlessly from the past, and try to ADD to it, re-mix it, sample it, but ELEVATE IT.
2. Visual training wheels
3. Keep trying to increase your one rep max (or PR) for photography
4. Boxer x Ballerina
5. Duality ; yin and yang.
6. Dutch angle, deutch (German)
7. The third man (tilt the frame)
8. We will always be more interested in faces than objects and things.
9. The most beautiful human being on planet earth, or the most beautiful lambo, watch, purse, dog on the planet?
10. The most beautiful ape is still considered ugly to a human being
11. Arabesque

PDF Slides from my recent Online Advanced Street Photography Composition Workshop:

It ain’t about becoming more “brave” or “confident”— it is to become more brazen. More reckless. More ruthless. More audacious. More brazen.

Keynote: truly the most beautiful presentation tool ever made for mankind.

Life epiphany:

The end of life and artistry … to create beauty and nothing but beauty, to also transform yourself into beauty.

My synthesis and hybrid:

I am very happy with what I got and what I’ve accomplished, but I’m still very dissatisfied and want more.

The ultimate hybrid?

(more…)

Better to be honest, direct and uncensored than to be ‘professional’ and predictable.

The ability to create freely and share freely

How to compose:

The worst hate? Self-hate.

Why be productive? Towards what ends? What is some of the B.S. when it comes to productivity cult-like thinking? My thoughts:

The wisdom of delaying and procrastination:

Towards personal aesthetics:

The gist:

1. Look for old photos of mine which I like
2. Ask myself, “Why do I like this photo?”
3. Let my photos sit and marinate
4. Revisit old photos
5. Draw composition lines on iPad or procreate, or vision AI on my photos
6. Discover new insights into my photos
7. Repeat.

Why this trend towards this morose-type or thinking that good photography somehow must be depressing and angsty. Shouldn’t photography be more joyful instead?

What holds back many entrepreneurs? The idea that there is some ultimate truth or right or wrong.

But if we accept that there is no ultimate truth, no ultimate right and wrong … then certainly it makes the most sense for you to just share your own experiences, thoughts and philosophies with others!

If we strive towards a perfectly ‘equal’ society, this means a profoundly mediocre, boring, and average society. A grey society.

If you had the option, would you elect for the life of ease, or the life of full control and self-autonomy?

When analyzing your own photos and composition, segment and break down the frame.

Work harder, rest harder:

(more…)

Look towards the future.

Why strive towards great compositions? To inspire movement in us … quite literally for us to move, dance, and move around!

Helmut Newton — great at composing triangles.

(more…)

Certainly it is better to prefer humans over objects, homes and things.

Ethical thoughts:

What makes “tasteful” erotica versus “distasteful” erotica in photography or art?

Post contains nudity:

Insight … sight. Why sight?