ERIC KIM ₿

Before asking yourself or others whether they like your work or not, ask yourself whether you like your own work or not, and then you must position yourself in such a way that you are *proud* of yourself and your work. Pride is not a vice; it’s a virtue. The more pride you have in yourself, your art works and anything you create the better!

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Epiphany:

Rather than complaining and bemoaning the facts of life, best to work with nature and physics in our favor.

For example, I’m currently living in this massive 4-story home and most of the home is cold … besides the top top floor (heat rises). Also, the top floor has the most natural light. The bottom “lobby” floor is insanely dark (no natural light) and even installing 5-6 lights, it is still dark and depressing. So my realization:

Why was I wasting time downstairs, trying to warm up the space when I could have just stayed upstairs the whole time and striving to enhance the upstairs?

So taking all my lights and nice furniture and bringing it upstairs instead!

So I suppose from a general and metaphorical sense, it means flowing *with* the river (in your benefit) than against it!

For some reason, it seems I am more motivated to shoot monochrome than color. Why?

Perhaps because with monochrome, everything just looks more interesting and abstracted? Considering we don’t see the world in monochrome!

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GYM — might become a relic of the past?

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Photos which enact an effect upon the emotions or mood of yourself or your viewer… this is an ‘effective’ photo. Photos which enact an effect is the goal.

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What is it that I desire? More energy, more physiological power (what we tend to think about “inspiration” or “motivation”).

Inspiration and motivation for the muscles and mind and body, in order to do anything you desire! The body as the proper starting point! Good stimuli for the body includes open air, walking, weight lifting, social stimulation, light, hot-cold contrasts, and randomness and variety in environment and schedule!

Video x Photography is the future:

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When we think that we want to be “happy” or to become “happier”, or to augment our “happiness”… I think what we really mean to say is to augment our joyfulness, cheerfulness, and sense of well-being and over-abundant joy.

What’s the difference? Some thoughts:

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If we believe that the purpose of life isn’t “happiness” or to be “happy”— then the thought:

Perhaps the purpose is to become more effective … to enact more change and impact upon the domains you care for.

For example as an entrepreneur, your goal is to maximize how effective you are in creating x, y, z and doing x, y, z.

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When it comes to the pure essence and form of photography, we must return back to monochrome:

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A thought while walking around today:

Once you no longer make money-acquisition the purpose of your life … then what?

It seems based on people I know and have observed … people then focus on philosophy, meaning of life stuff, existentialism, poetry, arts creation, photography, travel, etc.

Then the thought:

Photography is one of the ultimate privileges afforded to us mortals.

To have the privilege to walk around, see, witness, observe, analyze and make photos … isn’t this an insanely great privilege?

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In photography, let us consider the two subjects at hand:

1. The forms we strive to capture through photography (composition, the subjects we photograph, the shapes of things in our photos)
2. The idea or ideas we strive to capture and convey in our photos, for example the story in a photo, the message or moral/ethical takeaway in our photo, or our perspective in our photos.

Certainly both are important. The best photo as the photo that has a perfect hybrid between both notions! Beautiful form and forms, and also a powerful, impactful and moving idea or ideas in our photos!

First sent on ERIC KIM NEWSLETTER

Dear friend,

Wanted to send you a quick message on Thanksgiving. Lots to be thankful for and joyful for!

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Epiphany during one rep max attempt deadlifts:

Mental focus is overrated. It’s all about physical focus.

To focus my “mind” (body) to prepare myself and hype myself up and adrenaline boost myself to even *attempt* a new and foreign one rep max deadlift requires the elimination as many distractions as possible. No music, no recording myself (this throws me off), and no chit chat between sets (takes me a long time to focus).

Focus on physical focus … perhaps a new frontier?

The mistake we often make:

We strive to become excellent and to excel in things which society says is good (productivity, wealth generation, industriousness, etc).

But perhaps a better road to virtue and our personal thriving is instead to focus on becoming excellent in that which we actually like and love and are passionate about, rather than what society says is “good for us”.

Following in the footsteps of good old Aristotle:

It seems simple … if we desire to excel in a given field or activity, we must habitually practice it … for fun, self interest and desire for growth and depth and profundity.

Not to “force” yourself to perform certain habits against your own will, but to follow these habits from a source of pride and desire to excel?

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Certainly filters are good in photography. However I’ve also found a great joy in shooting with no filter — just intelligent auto (iA) mode on Lumix G9 camera. And the benefit of shooting small JPEG — less friction. Less future worries about storage, quicker transfer and upload times, and ability to shoot more carelessly! To enjoy shooting for the sake of shooting!

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All photos are images in a state of becoming!

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For creating, RICOH GR III as very capable; in praise of shooting 1080p on RICOH GR III in video mode at 60fps. Lots of new potential when shooting macro video!

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To cross-pollinate and find inspiration in *everything* and anything … isn’t this the goal?

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To live and experience the most supreme life … isn’t this the goal?

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The more visual information you can share, the better:

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Movement is the source of all (great) new photos:

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Anything you do that can physically move you (go outdoors and walk, etc) is good.

Then beyond that, creating art works that physically move you and others!

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To actualize yourself … to fulfill your potential. This is self-actualization, and a noble goal.

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To be motivated means having the bodily or the physiological power or desire to move, do things and attempt things. So the Aristotelian thought:

What is the prime mover, or the first mover which motivates us to do … anything?

A thought:

In today’s world, in which function is soooo easily fulfilled by cheap goods (made in China) available at Walmart, Amazon, Dollar Tree, etc… perhaps the future is pure aesthetics, for the sake of aesthetics and beauty?

And if we are truly honest with ourselves… who buys anything consumerist related for the function? To live a modern life is soooo easy. Now, beauty, shapes, forms, aesthetics, philosophy, ethics and approach reigns supreme.

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What should we pursue and what should we *not* pursue in life? Simple thought:

Listen to the physiological cues of your body to judge your enthusiasm or interest in something!

If you don’t got your soul in it, you will fail.

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Bodily awareness. More wisdom in the body, muscle and sinews than the “mind”.

When we think about “willpower”, we tend to think about the mind. Why the focus on the mind? We like to think that the mind is immortal… and after we die, somehow our mind or “soul” will continue to live indefinitely. Also, the hope of Silicon Valley utopists about somehow uploading your mind or consciousness to the cloud and living forever or whatever.

However, my thought:

When we think about “willpower” in the general sense, all our “willpower” actually is rooted and comes from our body.

In other words, respect and obey your body!

ERIC

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First, optimize for your physical, physiological health and well being. Sleeping 10+ hours a night without waking up to the agency of an alarm clock. Sleeping before midnight. Muscles full, supple and ripe and full of energy and zest to take on and to conquer the day. If we focus on our physiological strength, rest, recovery and bodily well being, everything else will come quite naturally to us!

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What we are seeking isn’t to “optimize” our lives in the sense of making our lives more “efficient”. Actually what we are seeking is to improve or “betterfy” or “betterify” our lives!

So in simple terms when making any certain life decisions ask yourself the simple question:

Will this action make my life better or worse?

If someone says to you:

“Not to sound racist but x, y, z” this means they’re a racist.

However if someone openly says something that *sounds* racist, it often isn’t. Things that sounds racist are often people who are ignorant or don’t “know any better”.

Beware, those who seem the most “woke”, “progressive”, “liberal”, and “democratic” are often the most low-key racist.

When you’re tired and have low energy, perhaps best to eat some meat and take a nap. Or just take a cold shower and a nap. Or a hot bath, followed by a cold shower and a nap. And to prioritize sleeping early that day, to power up for the next day.

Coffee as a best stimulant not when you’re tired, but ironically when you’re well rested and full of energy, and drinking coffee *enhances* your well-being?

The more we can broaden and democratize the notion of “street photography”, the better.

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What we are seeking is the *right* or optimal amount of stimulation. Too much stimulation is bad, but too little stimulation is also bad.

To discover this “golden mean” (Aristotle) is our creative flow goal!

The more I’m out on the streets or in public spaces, the happier and more creative I am. So simple thought:

Our physical and creative happiness is directly proportional to the time we spend out doors and in public spaces and in the city?

For example, lots of small fires can be controlled but one really huge fire cannot.

So also perhaps in relationships, better to have lots of small little scuffles and arguments (which can be quickly and easily consoled) rather than one really huge argument which can lead to a divorce or even something worse which cannot be fixed.

Focus on minimizing your downside when it comes to error, and also be very anxious and paranoid when it can come to a really huge accident which can end your life (for example, best to be hyper paranoid when driving a car or riding a bicycle in a city), because these accidents can truly end your life or end up leaving you having some sort of permanent disfigurement.

Some quick thoughts.

First thought:

When it comes to our abilities, we often under-estimate ourselves greatly. This is bad.

However we often over-estimate our ability to plan, forecast, and predict/control the future.

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Long story short, stoicism is good for us right now:

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A good stoic way to approach and live life:

If you’re part of society and not a recluse, when you interact or engage with others who are pretty, just ignore them, don’t acknowledge what they said, and perhaps just act if you didn’t even hear what they said.

This as a means to become less emotionally sensitive, and to become less petty, for us to become bigger and more!

Visual acuity — the skill, your creative and compositional sensitivity to the world:

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You’re a visual artist. You love the visual. Photography is just your core competency and passion, but all visual arts are good visual arts!

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A thought:

You express much via your photography in terms of what you consider beautiful and worthy to be shared!

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What is our goal being photographers and visual artists? Simple; not to become a petty and small photographer, but to strive towards greatness, magnanimity, and to become a great photographer!

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Everything is beautiful, if you look closely enough!

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A thought I had while looking at this warmup video I made:

Wow, seeing this video in monochrome, high contrast, sporadically going in and out of focus seems very artistic.

To me, it was interesting because even though the videos were out of focus, it promoted focus meaning–

The ambiguity of the shapes forced me (the viewer) to *actively INTERPRET* what was going on (using my brain power) in order to identify the human shape and form, and I found the whole thing to be very beautiful!

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More squats, more thoughts:

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How I warmup at the gym:

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We go to the gym to lift weights and get fit and exercise. Perhaps we should approach photography the same; the metaphorical gym for photography, replete with exercises, approaches, form and technique as well as programming and philosophy!

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We all seem to acknowledge the fact that fitness is essential to physical health. But why don’t we acknowledge the fact that photography is also essential to our creative health?

Why exposure compensation is so valuable:

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A realization:

It seems the reason I love coffee shops, the gym, the mall, the library etc is because they tend to be “public” spaces … often indoor, which creates a better sociological space where people and strangers can bump into one another and rub shoulders with one another?

In other words, I like being surrounded by other people, and strangers are hugely fascinating to me; friends and folks I have yet befriended! Perhaps this is also the root of our interest in street photography?

Also the reason I like living in apartment or condominium complexes is because I like seeing and interacting with other people?

Why do we typically join collectives or are interested in collectives? Perhaps because we lack the self belief that we alone … we as individuals can do, attempt and enact great change by ourselves!

In life, it seems what we are striving towards is this:

To be less foolish in life when it comes to our pragmatic decision making, and to become more wise.

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The grand master in chess (and perhaps in life) starts with the end-game, and works his/her way backwards:

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My #1 piece of advice for aspiring photographers:

Start your own self-hosted photography blog (via WordPress.org)

I see an uber-bright future for photographers and photography bloggers for the future — new unlimited heights of creative expression!

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Question —

What fun and interesting things can you discover about yourself or about reality through photography?

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Thought:

With work flow, and almost everything in life… strive to cut out the “middle man” or kinks in the pipe which prevent the directness of what you desire to do, or achieve.

For example, the upside of using the iPhone/iPad lightning to USB connector — to import photos from my Ricoh GR III — photos shot in small JPEG. Photos look great “out of the box” in the RICOH JPEG, and don’t require any further post processing! This is great then it simplifies and streamlines our workflow, because all you gotta do is shoot the photos in jpeg, import them to your device, then directly upload to your WordPress media library to quickly share!

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It seems evident that our de is nosire as photographer-artists is to make beautiful photos. But how do we achieve this? Some thoughts:

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Insight: when we perceive our personal growth and we see our self development augment itself, we are happy. When we see ourselves or perceive ourselves to be degenerating, we are unhappy.

Then the question:

What do we really want a a final end– happiness or self development?

Or are the two things like an interconnected flywheel and yin-yang; both powering the other?

Also perhaps when we perceive that we aren’t growing and developing ourselves into something further and beyond, we become frustrated and that frustration (unhappiness) becomes the spur to motivate us to seek that happiness (self-growth and self-development?)

My hypothesis:

It is self development which we seek, and happiness is the means to that end!

Because when we witness and the self developmental growth becomes factual and true in our eyes, we get a spurt of happiness (serotonin, other hormones and bodily-brain chemicals). Thus in order to feel the happiness, we keep striving for more self growth.

So happiness is the drug which addicts us, and self growth and self development is the true goal and end into itself!

Our desire … to beautify ourselves. This is what drives our desire for fashionable clothes, hair cuts, cars, accessories, shoes, body building yoga and health fitness things, our diet and lifestyle, etc.

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Our desire as artists, or as individuals with very sensitive eyes and visual senses:

We hate the aesthetically ugly in shape, texture, and form … and we desire to banish ugliness from our eyes by either changing our environment (our homes, exterior and interior design, architecture, community, city, climate, and neighborhood).

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Your photos will reveal your own personal politics and world view!

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Technically we don’t get stronger *as* we lift the weight. When we successfully lift a new PR (personal record) in any of our lifts, it is just an acknowledgement of our pre-existing and innate (latent) stength.

Technically we become stronger when we’re eating more meat, and sleeping and recovering and building our muscles through this “post traumatic growth” period. The weight lifting is the trauma trigger to stimulate growth. The “resting” or “recovery” phase is when the real growth is happening. Thus the thought:

Let us remember it is the times when we are resting, recovering, eating, and consuming and sleeping when the “real” growth happens, not when we are just “forcing” ourselves to work more!

Active rest, leisure, and emptying your mind as taking more skill and discipline than just “forcing” yourself to work more!

What we delight in as photographers and visual artists: form!

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Why are music videos so fun (BlackPink)? Because– it seems we humans love the combination of both the visual *and* musical:

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Words of wisdom from homeboy Publilius Syrus on ‘planning’.

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Some pragmatic tips and ideas on how to do a one rep max squat, with no silly belt, knee wraps, steroids, protein powder, pre-workout stuff, creatine, testosterone, crazy genetics etc:

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