One of the best silicon-valley thought concepts is the idea of the ‘MVP’ (minimum viable product). It is anti-perfection. It is PRO-quick iteration, and just getting it out there!
I think if we all lived more ‘MVP’-minded, we would be more creatively productive, confident, and happier!
What is the motive force which induces us to photograph?
Some ideas:
Desire to immortalize a moment. Great joy and thanksgiving towards reality.
Desire to create visual art works. Photography as faster and more efficient than painting or drawing.
Desire to play. Photography as fun visual gymnastics if shapes, colors, forms, compositions. To photograph is like playing a musical instrument.
Desire to share our perspective and viewpoint with others. To signal and educate others what we consider beautiful. The photographer as the value judge of beauty.
Are you living your life in a way in which you suck out the marrow of reality? Where you deify existence, and being alive? Or are you living in a way simply to kill the time, and to live an existence as un-miserably as possible — waiting until you die?
If we envision the entrepreneur as someone who creates our of hyper-abundance and super-abundance, certainly the entrepreneur must be the ultimate GIVER!
Perhaps it is our evolutionary advantage that we delight in visual change. Visual change in landscapes, our environment, our fashion, our cars, our objects, and the visual art works we consume and create!
Something I’m very interested in: the intersection of photography, technology, entrepreneurship, and philosophy. I feel this is very fascinating ground which hasn’t (yet) been fully analyzed in detail.
Don’t be afraid of failure or hurting/injuring yourself. Instead, just focus on building your own strength and become strong enough to pursue great tasks and aims in your life.
Generally speaking, buying books will always be a better investment than buying photo gear (#buybooksnotgear).
But at times, I feel a bit conflicted about photo books. In some regards, I think photo books are over-rated. And some ways, photo books are underrated.
Let me use this essay as an opportunity to explicate some of my thoughts and personal philosophies on photo books:
Super enjoying the RICOH GR III; which gave me a thought:
Perhaps we should only ever purchase a camera which we can imagine using forever?
Of course nothing is meant to last forever. And of course digital photography is moving so quickly, that to never buy another digital camera ever again is also a foolish idea. If I plan on shooting photos until I’m 120 years old, I want new technologies in photography to be created!
But as photographers and creators, we need to love the cameras and tools we use. Keep experimenting with your equipment until you find a few tools you love, then stick with them! If you just feel “meh” about the tools or belongings you have, ditch them.
Photography gives us more motivation in life. In order to photograph, we must move. Thus our personal curiosity about the world encourages us to move, explore, go on more adventures, and shoot more!
When I look at artwork, I like artwork which “moves” me– quite literally moves me. Which encourages me to move around, dance, and go out and make more of my own artwork!
It seems that success as a photographer in today’s brave new world of photography is 90% dependent on marketing skill, and only 10% photographic skill. It seems this is the truth.
Now, how are you to succeed and stand-out? Here are some practical ideas I’ve learned through my decade+ experience in photography, marketing, philosophy, and life:
To me, entrepreneurship is applied philosophy to reality. To become an entrepreneur takes 10000x more guts than to be a thinker and philosopher. Why? As an entrepreneur you are tied to reality (skin in the game, via Nassim Taleb). You’re a modern day hero. You’re taking on personal sacrifices and risks to better humanity and the collective.
Kind of random — but after years of experimenting with different headphones (noise cancelling, over-head, in-ear, bluetooth, wireless, wired, etc), I have decided:
To me true happiness is the feeling of hyper-abundance, the feeling of hyper-activity, supple movement, and the deification of existence.
Happiness as overflowing creative and physiological power. The ability and the desire to create. The faith in oneself — the faith that you are capable of great things, and you have the power to even attempt these great things.
Happiness as having total freedom — freedom over your time, thinking, and schedule.
Happiness as hope, excitement, and optimism towards the future. To also employ your day to the fullest, to supersede your self-perceived limits, and to sense positive progress in your life.
Which means — can you succeed in business or in life via your pure determination, willpower, and effort? Or do you need “luckâ€(the right opportunities in life, money, power, influences, network)?
