When I look at images, what do I look for? Strength. Role models. Idols and icons. Individuals I can imitate and look up to.

Above all, images which augment my feeling of strength, power, virility, and courage.

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The best life is the most dangerous one:

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I’ve been very happy lately — currently settled here in Providence, Rhode Island and been able to hit the gym (at least) once a day. I’m the strongest I’ve ever been physically, the most muscle mass, and the highest weight I’ve been.

This is something I’ve noticed physiologically:

The way I’ve been able to get stronger is to eat more meat, attempt more, and spend time to recover/augment my muscles.

Which makes me wonder:

In order for us to become a stronger artist, perhaps we must also eat and consume more meaty and invigorating art works, philosophy, knowledge, science, and ideas of all kinds.

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Why I’m confident I will become a greater photographer than Henri Cartier-Bresson:

My enthusiasm for photography will never die!

Then my thought:

Perhaps the secret to success in all domains of life is rooted in enthusiasm.

So how do we live a life where you never lose enthusiasm? Some ideas:

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AD ASTRA: the latest film with Brad Pitt which I really enjoyed. It ain’t as good as 2001 Space Odyssey, but still a solid film. My thoughts:

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Great cinema is a great stimulus to your photography!

For example a recent film I like: AD ASTRA —

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To the stars

How far do you dare to fly? What’s better — being earthbound, or do you die to try?
Naive is good. How far can you go— however far you should!

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The virtuous cycle of emptying our lives and filling it— what gives life and creative force?

Download all the course content for PHOTOLOSOPHY below:

1. Introduction (830mb)
2. Street Photography (2.6gb)
3. Personal Photography (1.8gb)
4. Entrepreneurship (1.5gb)
5. Audio (100mb)
6. Presets (40mb)
7. Transcripts (29kb)

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In photography we are simultaneously capturing life AND death.

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I really love the iPhone Pro for the ultra wide angle lens, and ability to share your perspective.

But the biggest problem:

Phone cameras don’t have a beautiful aesthetic.

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What makes photography so interesting? Your position. Where you’re standing, and your particular viewpoint or perspective.

For myself what photos do I love most? Photos which make you feel like you’re standing in the shoes of the other person!

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What is your ultimate aim in life? Don’t waste time with the middle — go get what you really want.

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The eternal creative return:

To work on things you will never tire of, never bore of– things that will always interest, entertain, excite, and thrill you.

For example:

1. Photography: I will shoot photos until I die at age 120–140
2. Writing: Writing and blogging as ‘meta-thinking’, or ‘augmented thinking‘. I don’t put any ego or pride into my writing. I simply write because it is the most effective way of getting my thoughts out there. And I derive great joy from sharing my thoughts.
3. Teaching: I derive great pleasure and deep existential joy from teaching. What is the point of learning if I couldn’t teach?
4. Reading: To me, this is the most effective form of getting new ideas, or resonating the ideas already inherent within myself.
5. Powerlifting / Weight lifting: Powerlifting as zen meditation to me, and infinitely fascinating. Testing to extent of the human body.
6. Music: Life without music would be a mistake (Nietzsche).

Then the other side:

Don’t waste any time or your life working or building things you cannot imagine doing for an eternity.

ERIC

Philosophy by Kim >

My gut says making great photos. But in order to make great photos, we must also live a great life.

How do we balance the two?

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The primary skill of a photographer:

To be visually astute, and to SEE photo opportunities.

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Play + Work = “plork”.

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A thought:

If your goal is to maximize your happiness and joy in life, you must embrace the extremes (in the dark ends).

Let me explain:

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Practical tips and ideas:

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What makes photography so fun, interesting, and magical?

Randomness, chance, chaos!

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There is a LOT of pretentiousness in photography, art, and life.

Why?

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Thoughts on influence:

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Make photos that express your joy, happiness, and gratitude towards life! To deify and beautify whatever you photograph!

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Photography is light writing. Graph means to write, carve, or create.

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Take screenshots of photos you’ve shot:

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In praise of NOT planning ahead.

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“I think that what you’ve got to do is discover the essential truth of the situation, and have a point of view about it.”

Burt glinn

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The importance of reviewing old photos:

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Practical ideas:

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The other day I realized that my website can only hold ~1 million files. I’ve hit the limit several times, and had to go back and delete old files to free up new space.

But came the question to me:

Do I feel OK with having “only” 1 million files as an upper-limit?

Which made me think more about the philosophical notion of limits vs unlimited.

Some thoughts:

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I will die, but my photos shall remain.

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You’re free as a bird, the third eye looking into the sky
Why do you feel so chained? Is it in your brain, or in your hands? Are you addicted to the marks and brands? Do you doubt, or do you can?

You can do anything you want. But how bad do you want it?

You’re free to pursue your passion and what makes you feel alive. You’re free to thrive— beyond survive. What you need is a dose of naive thinking, without the weed and drinking.

Embrace the mind of a kid and child— have fun, play, and go wild.

You’re free my friend. Live your life today as if you could live your life without end!

ERIC

To me, the more abstract the art work, the more YOU must exercise your brain to interpret the image!

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Thoughts on black vs white in photography, approach, technique, etc:

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Why this camera is so insanely good:

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When I talk about art, I consider it extremely loose and open. Art as anything which is superfluous in life, which brings us aesthetic joy and delight. Art as non-utilitarian.

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Calligraphy (Chinese) to me is like writing meets pictogram art, meets Lamborghini brush strokes.

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What is good? Anything which augments your strength. What is bad? Whatever weakens you.

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The simplest composition possible:

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While legislation to set a standard “8 hour workday” was good to prevent workers from being exploited to have to work 14+ hour workdays, if also seems to have been a huge detriment, making it the standard to work at least 8 hours a day (not less).

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Epiphany while studying Robert Capa:

Think about life OUTSIDE the box while you’re shooting and framing photos.

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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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