A great essay by my buddy Martin who is starting a YouTube series on analyzing the masters of photography:

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Currently shooting with RICOH GR III and 21mm adapter. I’m having SO MUCH FUN! Some ideas on shooting with a 21mm lens:

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Flow like the water. Flow relentlessly. NEVER STOP!

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It seems a big ingredient of success (especially to us mortals) is the virtue of relentlessness— never giving up on our endeavors (until our death).

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Outlining my ideal:

1. Supreme energy: From morning until evening, having apex energy, alertness, wakefulness, and enthusiasm and excitement. Perhaps this requires extreme amounts of sleep in the evening (9-11 hours a night), intermittent fasting during the day (no food consumed during the daytime), and ample black coffee during the day. Also ideally sunlight, lots of walking.
2. Supreme artistic output: Tons of writing, thinking, and artistic creation. For myself this means being enraptured all day in ideas, thoughts, and artwork. To keep exploring deeper into the depths of art, beauty, design, and philosophy. To keep outputting much writings, thoughts, photographs, videos, music, and poetry. To create great products and things to empower others. Necessity: great coffee shop, great music to get into the zone.
3. Supreme physical and physiological health and strength: Much muscle, physical strength, low bodyfat percentage. Attained by eating lots of meat and bitter herbs (no carbs or sugars). Also through testing and training your body via feats of strength.

Let me strive to attain my own ideal, and I will share my findings and I go along!

ERIC

There’s a trillion ways to interpret your photos. Use Photoshop or Procreate to analyze, break down, remix, and reinterpret your photos.

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ZEN ZONING, creative honing
Missle right on target
Lion hearted

ZEN ZONING, creative throwing
You’re the king, complete with a 5 finger ring.

Keep making creative things replete with the shimmering bling
Cling to your creative soul and yield it like a creative sword.

The whole world is your zone. Never stop building it, stone by stone.

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“What doesn’t kill me only makes me stronger!”

NIETZSCHE

If we believe that which doesn’t kill us only makes us stronger, then certainly life is all upside, no downside (Nassim Taleb).

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A life without photography isn’t a life worth living:

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My thought:

It takes more wisdom to USE wealth (than to simply acquire it).

It is pretty straight-forward in accumulating wealth (live extremely frugally, have a higher income than your expenses).

For myself personally, I grew up poor and now (with the guidance of Cindy), I got many racks in the safe. Now the more interesting question:

How should I use my wealth? What is the ‘wise’ way to use wealth, and for what?

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Why read? My thought:

Reading is one of the best and direct creative stimuluses we can do in order to improve and quicken our own thinking.

I’m against the notion of “reading for the sake of reading”. Reading which doesn’t quicken you or spur you to action is bad.

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As adults what capacity have we lost? The ability to play! To play for the sake of play. To play with our super abundant energy. To play as a form of creative activity and outpression.

To play with no tinge of guilt or “pang of conscience”.

Playing is what makes us (super) human!

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It takes more skill, sincerity, and magnanimity to share your joy (rather than your pain, dissatisfaction, and suffering).

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Simpler is better:

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The art of solo travel: travel at your own cadence, follow your own internal rhythms. No rush, no obligations. Just do what you want to do, and don’t do what you don’t want to do.

No obligation to see tourist spots. Instead, using your travels as a means of self exploration, self understanding, self meditation, and self reflection.

Using your travels as a chance to disconnect, to spend more time by yourself in order to think, write, read, create, blog, photograph, experience, and reflect.

In short, spend more opportunities you can to travel and fly solo!

ERIC

TRAVEL MORE with TRAVEL NOTES >

A thought:

Perhaps our impulse to make photos is this innate desire for us to control, capture, or transform the world or reality to our whims.

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What pushes you forward in life? What motivates you towards creative activity? What motivates you to wake up in the morning?

What pushes you to write, read, think, or create art? Do you create from a source or abundance, or from a source of need?

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Art — the act of expressing something from the deepest recesses of your soul outwards.

But the question is— what do you want to express from within you, outwards?

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What if avarice (greed) were a good thing?

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If you’re looking for something to shoot, look for gritty textures.

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Photograph yourself. The goal.

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We love Elon Musk, Tesla, and electric cars. Why no love for “electric cameras”?

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My thought on how to stay inspired in your photography:

Tighten your feedback loop between shooting, selecting your photos, and publishing your photos.

This will keep you prolific to keep shooting new photos, derive new delights from your new photos, and also be able to share your new photos (preferably on your own blog).

Simple ideas:

1. Shoot only jpeg with an in-camera filter you like.
2. Import and select your photos quickly and effectively. Experiment using iPad to import photos from SD card reader (lightning to SD), favorite your favorites and then upload them straight to your WordPress blog.
3. Just use the jpeg files. Don’t worry about post processing. This will save you much time and effort, and free up mental energy to go out and shoot more new photos!
4. The best feedback you can get is from yourself: whether your photos bring you joy or not. Otherwise upload your photos to arsbeta.com for real feedback and critique.

Why tighten your feedback loop in photography?

The upside of digital photography: instant feedback, which allows us to learn and improve at a much more rapid pace. Why not use this to our advantage?

SHOOT ON!

ERIC

In extreme praise of photography.

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“Mens agitat molem.”- Virgil (Mind agitates [moves] matter).

Agitate comes from “ago” (Latin), which means to set into motion, to lead, to drive/propel/cast.

To agitate ourselves (self motivate ourselves to move, act, and to set ourselves into motion): isn’t this the goal of life?

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Many of us desire more money, however I believe a better goal is this:

Seek to maximize your leisure hours and mental space.

Better to be poorer with more leisure than richer with less leisure.

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Leisure as hours and emptiness of mind

Leisure requires an emptying of your mind. Fewer cares, duties, obligations, and responsibilities. Even if you had 10 hours of free time, as long as you got all these worries and concerns in your mind, you cannot leverage your time for creative, philosophical, or scholarly ends.

Or in short:

Seek more freedom and leisure to indulge your creative activities. Less concern with money, fame, and honors.

ERIC

In Praise of Diversity

Currently connecting through the London Gatwick Airport and something that I love about London (and a lot of cosmopolitan cities) is this:

I love diversity in human beings, culture, society, thinking, art and life!

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When I look through my photos, it is great– almost as if I am re-living certain life experiences (double joy from a single experience!)

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A thought while in transit:

When it comes to travel, nomadic living, or perhaps just life in general — the lighter, smaller, and more compact, the better.

Anti weight, anti matter, anti bulk, anti big.

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Flex, strive towards the apex, no baseless, just chase it.

Apex, the highest point. The goal for which we strive— the fire which keeps us live.

Strive towards higher heights sublime, dashed with wine and zest, nodding with your plumy crest.

Zest, test yourself and strive to be the best. Essay the limits and go beyond. Better to be a small fish in a big pond.

ERIC

In praise of (intermittent) degenerative behavior.

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Thinking about artists I admire, and what I think makes them great artists, and what makes their artwork great as well.

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Ricoh GR 3 has the most epic dynamic range for monochrome I’ve seen thus far!

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Starting a new life in Providence, Rhode Island:

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Something which is lacking in modern life:

Our ability (or confidence) to brazenly assert our OWN OPINION (quoting ourselves, not others!)

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There are no objectively ‘best’ things in the world (this is all subjective). But I think there are MANY ‘perfect’ things in the world!

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A thought:

Perhaps the joy of us as photographer is this: To discover beauty in unexpected places!

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Keanu Reeves: my favorite actor. JOHN WICK series: my favorite movie series.

I find the philosophy underlying the JOHN WICK universe absolutely fascinating. Let me share some basic ideas:

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A thought in photography and life:

Be highly selective.

For example in photography, be highly selective about the photos you decide to keep or ditch.

In life, be highly selective in terms of the people you decide to let into your life. Be highly selective of the foods you eat, be highly selective of the books you read, and be very selective about the music and media you consume.

Life is limited and short. We cannot do everything, we cannot read everything, and we cannot listen to everything.

Perhaps this is the secret to thriving in life: deciding what NOT do do, what NOT to listen to, and what to ignore.

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Is it possible to live life with only upside and no downside? I think so!

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Hero: a demi-god, a watcher or protector of others. In Ancient Greek a hero was any of the major combatants in the Iliad (either the Greek or the Trojan side).

I think today, we need heroes, role models, and people we want to emulate more than ever.

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If spontaneity is the goal, my question:

How do we actually become more spontaneous, and how do we (allow) ourselves to live more spontaneously?

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A spontaneous life is a better life:

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JUNWOO KIM is the inventor of ARS COIN, and a talented visual artist, engineer, and a good friend.

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Allen Iverson said it best: practice.

Perhaps this is the goal: not to become the “best” or even to become “successful”, but to simply never stop practicing whatever your art form is!

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Something fun in entrepreneurship, business and life is trying to accomplish “proof of concept”, whether or not your idea works in the real world.

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A realization in life:

Considering how short our lives are, it seems to be a waste of time, life, and energy to focus too much on small and petty lifestyle choices.

Better to focus on your big, massive, and audacious goal in life, and ignore the small and petty.

This means, don’t worry too much about the coffee you drink (or how to extract it), cars, clothes, devices, cameras, foods, modes of living (minimalist) or your aesthetics. Just do what works for you, keep it simple and straightforward, and devote your precious energies on artistic and philosophical creation!

The less energy we waste on petty decisions, the more energy we have to dictate and direct the great decisions in our life!

ERIC

Filling the frame: an essential photography composition concept:

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Cruise photography: something my buddy Todd Hata introduced to me a while back, and something new I want to explore:

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What is virtue and why strive towards it?

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As an artist (along with scientists), you IMPROVE life and the wellbeing and health of your fellow humans through your art creations and innovations.

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A question on my mind:

Where does our initial impetus to create art come from?

For example a lot of older Freudian philosophers assume that the urge to create art is sexual; creating art as procreation (of your own children). This might be plausible, but there must be more to it.

I cannot speak for others, but let me try to best describe where I think I get my personal impetus to create art from:

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Similar to Elon Musk — unified field theory of his companies (Space X, Tesla, Solar City) all working together and feeding into one another (Ashlee Vance idea from his biography on Musk).

Basic idea for us as photographers — let us create our own unified field theory to connect all the aspects of photography:

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My life purpose: to blog, to share ideas, to think, to plumb deeper levels of knowledge, aesthetics, and art, and to help motivate creators, photographers, and all individuals — to make, wonder, and challenge.

To push culture forward and higher.

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Once you have reached financial independence, location independence, you retire, and have ample free time and leisure, the question is this:

What is the best way to use my time and life?

Some thoughts:

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Zen photography:

1. One camera, one lens (RICOH GR III)
2. Monochrome (one color). Or for color photography, keeping the colors super simple.
3. JPEG only
4. Direct, honest, and genuine photos. Only photographing what you’re interested in or care about.
5. No metrics for your photos. Sharing your photos on your website or blog. No social media.
6. Enjoying the perpetual process of improving your photography. No finality, or no perfect state. Continually making new photos, and striving for more.
7. Photography as giving you calm strength, an invigorated calm, and a strong purpose of living and life.

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Get free photography tips on Eric Kim NEWSLETTER >

I had a nice chat with my buddy Don Dillonthe other day, and this was one of the big takeaways:

Once you’re a good photographer with a substantial body of work, NOW WHAT?

Meaning — what are your next steps in your photography? Some simple ideas:

1. Use Adobe Sparkto make a dynamic website/portfolio of your best work. Then share the link with friends and family and ask them: “How do the photos make you feel?” Then add testimonials to the page.
2. Publish your photographs as an “e-magazine” (digital magazine) by using iBooks Author (video tutorial)
3. Use Adobe InDesign to create a print book layout, and send the PDF file to a local printer, to make a ‘zine’ (magazine) of your work. Start by printing 20 copies, and distributing them to friends and family for free. Based on their feedback, try to sell them to your followers for $19.95 each afterwards.
4. Start blogging about your photographic experiences and life experiences. To keep it simple, signup on wordpress.comand start blogging! The secret: your blog posts don’t need to be “good”. Just make them honest, fun, and share your works in progress.
5. Get your photos printed: I recommend contacting my buddy Brian Milo at brian.milo@gmail.com(read my interview with Brian on the art of printing). I personally like printing my photos 8×12 inches as an optimal size.
6. Continue to build your following: Start an email newsletter via Mailchimp.com(what I use here) and keep your followers updated with your progress. 
7. The rolling stone never gathers moss: Keep on rolling. The purpose is for you to keep making photography FUN! (Don’s idea). As long as you’re having fun in photography, you’re doing all the right things!

SHOOT ON!
ERIC

Super pumped to share that PHOTO JOURNAL (Third Edition, 2019) is now available!

Also as an exciting promo: if you buy PHOTO JOURNAL right now, you can also INSTANTLY get a FREE digital download of PHOTO JOURNAL Mobile Edition! This means while you are waiting for your personal copy of PHOTO JOURNAL to ship to you, you can instantly engage with PHOTO JOURNAL, and reflect on more personal purpose in your photography. (Offer available only while supplies last.)

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What makes interesting photos? Interesting details.

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Reflection from PHOTO JOURNAL. Reflect what you love about your camera, and use this knowledge to empower you to keep making new and epic photos.

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Discover more about the hottest straps in the photography game:

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A visual and artistic gesture, a gist. 

Composition as an impression. Fleeting, moving, dynamic, full of life and vigor. 

To better understand your compositions and photographic and visual gist, sketch your images. I use procreate to trace my favorite compositions to better understand them, and to also deconstruct them for future reference — to create even more dynamic images in the future. 

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Make a dynamic photo composition — lots of angles, triangles, low perspective, hands and head in different directions.

The goal is to make a composition as interesting and dynamic/full of force as possible.

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Money is a mode of human and social interaction, of quantifying labor, and a medium of human trust. Money isn’t “real”— it isn’t a physical thing, it is a metaphysical notion of “value” and “worth”.

Thus a life chasing money is the wrong life. The better life — chase artistic creation, human interactions, and pushing sociology, culture, and human thriving forward.

Don’t use money to quantify yourself or your progress in life. When Achilles died we had no idea what his net wealth was. I have no idea how rich Steve Jobs was when he died (or when he was alive). Even Elon Musk’s net worth isn’t interesting to me; what’s more interesting is what he is working on, what his ideas are and what he’s building.

Ultimately the point I want to make is this:

Money isn’t the ultimate goal in life. The goal is personal and artistic greatness and creating a legacy which will empower future humans!

ERIC

One of the big problems about Silicon Valley startup thinking:

The aspiration to build an epic company and one day sell it for millions (or billions).

What if this was a bad way of thinking?

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It seems the purpose of utilitarianism and most of modern economics and philosophy is this:

Raise the collective well-being of all humans.

I think this is a good goal, but what does this even mean?

What is “well-being”? Is it tied to physiological health and wellness, or is it tied to material wealth, and having lots of possessions?

Let me make the claim that the problem of modern capitalist philosophy and utilitarian thinking is that “quality of life” is tied to material and consumer goods, not physical and physiological/mental wellness, thriving, and health. 

Why is this?

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In WordPress, you can use ‘Tiled Galleries’ (like shown below), which is a great way to publish, share, and view your work:

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All of life is ethereal. It will soon fade to dust. So why accumulate things, and worry so much about the material world?

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