A thought:

What if in life you enjoyed all elements of it– the good, the bad, the difficult, and the easy?

I’m having so much fun in my photography as of late, and I wanna share some tips with you (hopefully these can help you enjoy photography more!)

With abstract photography or art; I think the secret is looking for faces in things (eyes, heads, etc).

To find inspiration to make photos, don’t worry about whether the photo will be “good” or not. Simply photograph what makes you happy, what makes you smile; what you love and care about!

A realization:

Composition (and all design in general) is based on proportions.

Lots of new action on ERIC KIM YOUTUBE:

Aren’t you curious what your limit is? Aren’t you curious how far you can fly?

I’m happy, and I strive to maintain my personal happiness.

But why is happiness important? What functional purpose does it serve? And in what ways is happiness overrated, or underrated?

Some practical street photography tips:

Motivation literally means to move. Thus it seems quite simple:

To be more “motivated” in life, move more!

The more bold or brazen you are, the more likely you are to make strong/interesting photos!

The happy, active photographer as the most productive and inspired:

If you’re looking to find more personal meaning from your photography or to take your photography to the next level, commission ERIC KIM Consulting to gain personal feedback on your photos, mentorship, and direction for your photography.

Fleshing out some personal thoughts:

What exactly is “mood”? Why does it shift? Why are we sometimes in a “good” mood, versus a “bad” mood? Is mood a physiological thing? Is there an “ideal” mood to be in?

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For my whole photographic life, I’ve always stuck to shooting a 3:2 aspect ratio (the standard 35mm aspect ratio). But one day, I accidentally switched my Lumix G9 (Micro 43rds camera) into the native 4:3 format. And I’ve been shooting with 4:3rds aspect ratio, and have been having a ton of fun! Some of my thoughts:

In life, to ‘prioritize’ literally means to put 1 thing in front of everything else. You cannot ‘prioritize’ more than 1 thing (that is why the notion of ‘prioritie(s)‘ makes no sense).

If your main artistic outlet is photography — why don’t you make it tantamountly important in your life?

A reminder to self:

Always optimize for ultra-lightweight.

A thought:

Don’t worry so much about your personal ‘happiness.’ Instead, better to focus on your creative productivity.

Practical tips to get you going!

The only thing holding you back is you:

Joyful bliss:

A unique approach to life:

Personal tips:

As photographers, we have it in our DNA to desire to create new photos, for all of eternity!

Personal thoughts on happiness and photography:

Virtues that I care about in my own life:

Photography is only possible with contrast: contrasting subject matter, contrast with light vs dark, and contrasting elements.

What I’m currently living with on the road and traveling with:

My ideal of the photographer:

To delight in your own self-development in your photographic artistry– independent from the opinion of others.

Fresh new batch of videos out of my favorite city in the world– Mexico City:

My practical tips on how to become a more productive photographer:

There are a trillion and one reasons to become a photography blogger. Let me outline some of my personal reasons why become a photography blogger:

Practical thoughts and ideas:

Perhaps the cause of our ills in life is that our lives are TOO predictable, safe, and comfortable.

Upload your photos to arsbeta.com to get real and honest feedback on your photos (double-blind algorithm pairs you and a stranger). Otherwise when you sit down with another photographer (in real life), ask them: “Please help me kill my babies.”

Allow your style to constantly change, but be firm in your artistic vision:

Conventional wisdom says that contradiction is bad, evil, and wrong. But what if contradiction was the source of our creativity?

To keep photography (and life) fun, never stop challenging yourself, and pushing yourself to new limits!

Today I walked around the streets of Mexico City, shooting with my Lumix G9, Leica 12mm f/1.4 Lens (24mm full-frame equivalent) x Henri Wrist Strap Pro, in 4:3 ratio, medium-JPEG (vivid color preset, with max color and saturation), with the electronic viewfinder (EVF), and had so much fun!

Creative ecstasy 

I’m one with peace 

And an epic elation of soul 

I wish to dance and proclaim my joy to all the world. 

Feast your eyes with colorful, gritty, and multi-vareigated images:

To photograph is to dance:

Practical thoughts and tips on how to expedite your photographic workflow:

In praise of RICOH GR II for travel and photography:

Only work when your guts and instincts propel you to work, to create, and to produce. Whenever we “force” ourselves to work or create, it will never be any good.

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Some basic photography tips:

We have the power in our own hands to dictate our own personal values in life:

Resentment: drinking poison and hoping the other person dies.

A thought:

Perhaps we should prioritize our artwork over our own personal “happiness”.

As I’m typing these words, I am enjoying life in Mexico City (going to live here with Cindy at our AirBnb for the next month or so).

Practical photography tips when traveling abroad:

You are distinct, one of a kind. To distinguish yourself, creatively isolate yourself from others, then follow your own internal promoting, pursue your own creative and intellectual interests, and learn to respect your own curiosity, and deem yourself as a searcher of personal truth.

I hate being indoors. For myself, I’m happiest when I’m out and about in public spaces, surrounded by other people, and when I have the opportunity to walk and think.

Perhaps my ideal lifestyle is a “street lifestyle”; a lifestyle that maximizes my time outdoors (outside of the house), in coffee shops, at public parks, and surrounded by other human beings.

Charlie Kirk, one of my good friends and mentors has just released that his first and probably last photo book (Katil Var, “There is a Murderer”) is available for pre-order.

True Happiness and Human Flourishing is Achieved Through Creating:

New YouTube videos and vlogs, fresh out of Mexico City. See all on My YouTube Channel >

Currently walking the streets of Mexico City, enjoying street photography both on my RICOH GR II x ERIC KIM WRIST STRAP, as well as LUMIX G9 x HENRI Wrist Strap PRO.

To become more, see danger as the desired state:

The Gratitude of Life by the Photographer Artist

Question:

To what degree do you value life and being alive?

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Continually create new photographs!

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What feeling “wealthy” is to me:

Digital is convenient (no need to process film), yet also very frustrating. My gripe with digital is that there are TOO MANY OPTIONS (when post-processing your photos). Furthermore, another downside of digital is that there are often too many photos to look through (upside of digital is that you can shoot tons of photos, but the downside is that you have too many photos to cull down).

Thus a thought:

How can we make digital photography more zen?

A simple idea:

To have a more fun, enjoyable, and interesting travel experience, embrace the extremes (barbell) between super “scrappy” (cheap) and “bougie” (expensive/fancy) experiences.

Fresh new YouTube videos and vlogs out of Mexico City:

I’ve always been seeking the “perfect” or ideal lifestyle. So far, it seems to be living “intermittently” in different spaces, cities, and countries, for indeterminate periods of time. But is this a “better” life, or more ideal life, and for who?

I’m currently in Mexico City, and man– shooting street photography here is so fun and epic! But why?

A simple entrepreneurial principle which seems like it can help you become more successful is to upload more than you download.

A practical thought:

Make photos that delight you, impress you, and give YOU more motivation and inspiration in your life; this means, finding more beauty in the (real) world around you!

A silly bias in photography:

Why aren’t photographers seen as artists?

Furthermore– why don’t we photographers see ourselves as artists?

I’ve been passionate about high-contrast “crushed blacks” monochrome as an aesthetic.

Today, I realized and had a thought:

What if I tried to innovate a new aesthetic– a super high-contrast and super-high color saturation — essentially the monochrome 1600 look, except this time, focusing on color?