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PHOTOGRAPHY 101

Dear friend,

If you’re new to photography, start here:

  1. The Ultimate Beginner’s Guide to Mastering Photography
  2. Free Photography Bootcamp
  3. 100 Photography Tips for Beginners

Photography is Everything!

  1. In Praise of Shadows
  2. Photography Leisure
  3. FOCUS ON PHOTO
  4. Closer is Better
  5. POWER PHOTOGRAPHY
  6. Film Noir Compositions in Photography
  7. RAW PHOTOS.
  8. The Photographer as Story Teller
  9. Photograph Your Own History
  10. THE INTRINSIC JOY OF PHOTOGRAPHING
  11. My Desire to Become the Uber-Photographer
  12. How to Become a More Creative Photographer
  13. IMPACTFUL PHOTOGRAPHY
  14. My Higher Mission
  15. Photograph Human Affairs
  16. Why is Photography So Pleasurable?
  17. How to Shoot More Photos
  18. Why Do You Shoot Photos?
  19. Photo Zen Sublime
  20. Photo Wisdom
  21. How to Make a Digital Portfolio
  22. How to Master Photography
  23. Digital Photography 101
  24. My Photos
  25. Natural Photography
  26. Fit Your Photography Style to Your Personality Style, Not the Other Way Around
  27. 13 New Photography Assignment Ideas for You
  28. Photography Ideas
  29. Camera is God
  30. Put Your Hand In It!
  31. Even a Single Hair Casts Its Own Shadow
  32. PHOTOS RULE EVERYTHING AROUND ME
  33. Shoot More, Think Less.
  34. Why JPEG is Superior to RAW
  35. How to Have Inspiration and Motivation to Make New Photos
  36. Shoot the Sky
  37. The Art of Choosing Your Best Photos: How to Cull and Edit Down Your Portfolio
  38. The Art of Photography
  39. Never Stop Photographing
  40. Visual Kinesthesia
  41. Photography is Writing with Light
  42. In Praise of Shooting Intelligent Auto JPEG
  43. How I Mastered Photography
  44. PHOTOGRAPHY GAME
  45. Photography as Discovering Beauty in Unlikely Places
  46. What is the Secret of Making Great Photographs?
  47. Why Do You Do Photography?
  48. You’re an Artist.
  49. How to Edit Your Photos

Photography Tips

  1. PHOTOGRAPH FOR FUN!
  2. 15 Tips How to Make More Interesting Photos
  3. 10 Tips How to Shoot More Photos Everyday
  4. 7 Tips How to Shoot Surreal Photos
  5. 10 Tips How to Fill the Frame in Photography
  6. Look Up! 16 Photography Composition Perspective Tips
  7. 10 Simple Black and White Photography Tips
  8. 10 Simple Black and White Photography Tips
  9. 5 Simple Street Photography Composition Tips
  10. 5 Simple Street Photography Composition Tips

Photography Articles

Mad men. NYC, 2017. Pentax 645Z
  1. How to Elevate Your Photography to the Next Level
  2. You’re (Already) a Photographer!
  3. 7 Tips How to Shoot More Photos
  4. Everything is Permitted in Photography!
  5. 20 Dark Tips How to Shoot Shadow Photos
  6. How to Give a Constructive Critique in Photography
  7. 15 Tips How to Shoot Better Selfies
  8. Photography is All a Matter of Perspective
  9. Photography Warmup Assignments
  10. 5 Simple Tips How to Take Better Pictures
  11. 10 Tips How to Shoot Better Architecture Photography
  12. 7 Reasons Why I Love Digital Medium-Format Photography
  13. My Experience Shooting Digital Medium Format in Street Photography
  14. My Experience Shooting my Friend Wedding on Digital Medium Format

Photography Techniques

  1. Photo Technique: Look Up
  2. Street Photography Technique: Overlap
  3. The Fishing Technique in Street Photography
  4. The “Bookend” Technique in Street Photography

Everyday Photography

RICOH GR II selfie in mirror, double eye surreal. Prague, 2017
RICOH GR II selfie in mirror, double eye surreal. Prague, 2017
  1. How to Shoot Better Night Photography
  2. How to Shoot Better Macro Photography
  3. Everyday Photography
  4. 10 Tips How to Take Better Photos of Everyday Life
  5. 15 Tips How to Shoot Better Selfies
  6. 10 Tips How to Take Better Photos of Everyday Life

Color Photography 101

Photography Philosophy

Photography Inspiration

The Fundamentals of Photography


Photography Equipment »

How to Take Better Photos »

Composition Lessons »

Photography Assignments »

Contact Sheets »

Editing (Image Selection) »

eric kim laughing lady nyc

Creativity »

eric kim Cindy project reflection flash

Motivation »

eric kim portrait by Cindy nguyen

Post-Processing

dark skies over Tokyo eric kim

How to Create a Body of Work

AMERICA - ERIC KIM16 eric kim woman popsicle

Technical Photography Settings

eric kim mom glasses

Learn From the Masters of Photography

“He without a past has no future.”

Start here:

  1. Why Study the Masters of Photography?
  2. Great Female Master Photographers
  3. Cheat Sheet of the Masters of Photography
  4. 100 Lessons From the Masters of Street Photography
  5. Beginner’s Guide to the Masters of Street Photography
  6. Download All Articles >

The Masters of Photography

Prague, 1968. Josef Koudelka / Magnum Photos
Prague, 1968. Josef Koudelka / Magnum Photos

Classics never die:

Dominate street photography:

STREET PHOTOGRAPHY 101

walking woman umbrella crimson red
  1. Street Photography Mastery
  2. How I Became the Greatest Street Photographer Alive
  3. Antifragile Photography
  4. How to Conquer Your Fears in Street Photography
  5. INSANELY AUDACIOUS AND BOLD
  6. 5 Simple Street Photography Techniques
  7. STREET PHOTOGRAPHER.
  8. The Street Photographer Ideal
  9. 50 Street Photography Tips, Techniques and Ideas
  10. Street Photography Values
  11. STREET PHOTOGRAPHY DOESN’T NEED TO HAVE PEOPLE IN IT.
  12. Why Street Photography is So Great
  13. WHY BECOME A STREET PHOTOGRAPHER?
  14. Society Photography, Not “Street” Photography
  15. How to Street Photography
  16. STREET PHOTOGRAPHY OPTIONALITY.
  17. 10 Street Photography Tips
  18. The Street Photographer as the Apex Photographer
  19. Street Photography & Adrenaline
  20. STREETTOGS STARTING GUIDE
  21. 50 Street Photography Tips by ERIC KIM
  22. What I Wish I Knew If I Started Street Photography All Over Again
  23. Photograph like it’s not a big deal
  24. Suburb Street Photography
  25. What is Our Personal Motivation Behind Street Photography?
  26. WHY I’M SO PASSIONATE ABOUT STREET PHOTOGRAPHY
  27. Personal Street Photography
  28. STREET PHOTOGRAPHY AS A PRACTICE.
  29. Pandemic Street Photography
  30. AIRPORT STREET PHOTOGRAPHY
  31. How to Shoot Street Photography Right Now
  32. Towards a More Independent Street Photography Approach
  33. How Street Photography Improves Your Life
  34. How to Tell Stories in Your Street Photos
  35. Face Street Photography
  36. How to Start Shooting Street Photography
  37. How to Shoot Street Photography During a Pandemic
  38. 7 Street Photography Assignment Ideas

STREET PHOTOGRAPHY STARTER KIT

street photography starter kit by ERIC KIM

Master street photography with STREET PHOTOGRAPHY STARTER KIT.


STREET PHOTOGRAPHY 101

Hearts. Hollywood, 2011 #flash

If you’re new to street photography, start here:


Brave New Street Photography

Street Photographs

ERIC KIM layers hong kong
  1. How to Shoot Street Photography with Dads and Kids
  2. HOW I BECAME SUCH A GREAT STREET PHOTOGRAPHER
  3. Use Quarantine as an Opportunity to Pick up Film Photography
  4. Hong Kong Street Photography by ERIC KIM

Street Photography Philosophy

Street Photography Articles


Street Photography Techniques



Street Photography Ideas


Street Photography Composition Techniques


STREET NOTES.

Push yourself out of your comfort zone with STREET NOTES: Mobile Edition.

STREET NOTES PAPER EDITION ON AMAZON >


LEARN FROM THE MASTERS OF STREET PHOTOGRAPHY

Timeless wisdom from the masters of street photography.

Learn more about MASTERS >


FUNDAMENTALS OF STREET PHOTOGRAPHY

Street Photography Inspiration


Beginner Street Photography Articles

Get started in street photography:

Definitions in Street Photography

How to Shoot Street Photography

Street Photography Equipment

See all equipment articles >

How to Conquer Your Fears in Street Photography

See all articles to conquer your fears >


Intermediate Street Photography Articles

Take your street photography to the next level:


Advanced Street Photography Articles

Find deeper meaning in your street photography:


Street Photography Tips & Technique

Learn how to shoot on the streets:

See all street photography tips and techniques >

Street Photography Guides

In-depth guides on street photography:

Street Photography Equipment

The best equipment for street photography:

See all equipment articles >

Street Photography Editing and Workflow

How to Start a Street Photography Project


Learn From the Masters of Street Photography

“He without a past has no future.”

Start here:

  1. Why Study the Masters of Photography?
  2. Great Female Master Photographers
  3. Cheat Sheet of the Masters of Photography
  4. 100 Lessons From the Masters of Street Photography
  5. Beginner’s Guide to the Masters of Street Photography
  6. Download All Articles >

The Masters of Photography

Classics never die:


Free Downloads

See all free downloads >

Free Street Photography Books

Distilled information on street photography:

For more resources on photography, Start Here >

Economics by KIM

  1. THE PROMISE OF FUTURE MONOPOLY PROFITS?
  2. High gas prices are good
  3. What is Capitalism?
  4. Pride in What You Paid For
  5. On Making Money from Nothing
  6. Save Money Towards What Ends?
  7. No Regret Investment

Money thoughts:

  1. DONT BUY IT, BUILD IT!
  2. Silver US Dollar
  3. THE PHILOSOPHY OF MONEY
  4. THE FUTURE OF MONEY
  5. Price Insensitive
  6. WHY JOBS?
  7. The Future Economy
  8. What is Money?
  9. Individual Economics

The Philosophy of Money

  1. How to Become Economically Independent
  2. Economic Dependency
  3. It’s the Economy, Stupid
  4. ERIC KIM PHILOSOPHY OF MONEY
  5. Debt is the Devil
  6. Capitalism is Cruel
  7. In Praise of Capitalism and Consumerism
  8. Capitalism as the Road to Tolerance
  9. DIGITAL CAPITALISM
  10. Capitalism 2.0
  11. In Praise of Capitalism
  12. CREATIVE CAPITALISM
  13. ZEN CAPITALISM
  14. Universal Basic Income
  • silver certificate US dollar

Over Thoughts

Over is better than under:


Over Achieve

When I was a kid growing up, to be a “overachiever“ was seen as a double edged sword; on one hand, it was greatly respected admired, a desired thing. Yet at the same time, a lot of kids would tease and make fun of kids who were “tryhard“. That in fact, trying “too” hard, and aiming to achieve was seen as a negatively bad thing.

It is my personal thought that to overachieve is a positively good thing. For example, can one imagine an Elon Musk who wasn’t an overachiever? Or a Kanye West who wasn’t was an overachiever? Or a Jay Z who wasn’t an overachiever?

What does it mean to achieve?

Achieve — head? Same as chief?

To (ad) caput?

What does it mean to achieve, and what are the logical consequences of it?

*kap- head. Same word as capital.

Achever— to finish, to complete.

I think in modern day English, or modern day times, to achieve is to seen as succeed, to be number one, to advance, and a lot of achievement notions typically comes from academics and academia. For example, to achieve or scholastic achievement has to deal with getting straight A’s, getting a 4.0 GPA or a beyond a 4.0 GPA, getting into high-ranking universities, scoring high on standardized testing etc.

A generalize way we could think about achievement it’s a simply set a personal goal on something, and obtain it. To seize it.

*kap- to seize, to hold.

Holding?

HODL — hold on for dear life, a notion that we get from the cryptocurrency world.

To hold. What does it mean to hold? To grip onto something, to grasp. It has to do with grip strength, and wrist strength.

In the world of finance and economics, holding onto assets, or in Texas “hold-‘em”— you have the option to hold.

Perhaps true hold is a really really good idea. To hold is a good idea in so far much as holding seems like a passive action, but in actuality, it is one of the most virtuous things that you could do. It takes courage and skill to hold, rather than to quickly buy or to sell, in which people over act.

For example one of my friends used to own 50 bitcoin, a while back, but this is when it was valued very low, and after a huge spike, he freaked out, and sold it all. Perhaps the better strategy was for him to just hold, hold it for a decade or two, and if that were the case, he would be able to quit his job and retire.

The courage to hold?

Seneca is currently two years, eight months old. A new trick you could do is when at the park with me, she can grab the chin up rings, grab it, and hold his body up off the floor! The other day at Barnes & Noble, when washing our hands, she was actually able to Hold and grasp the edge of the sink table, and successfully hold and suspend himself on it!

Holding strength?

Maybe this is a new thing we could innovate; to see how strong and how much you could hold?

Even my 1000 pound infamous atlas lift, part of it is a lifting motion, in which I lift the weight off of the rack with my shoulder and legs, but then I hold it up for a second or two before putting it down.

Even when I think about the strongman competitions, there is this Hercules pillar hold competition in which there are two columns, each about 1000 pounds, attached with chain and hand grip. The contestant simply sees how long he can hold the weights together, before his strength gives out.

Tenacity

Maybe also the most virtuous path to entrepreneurship is towards tenacity? How long can you hold and be tenacious?

Mimesis?

A concept I am trying to currently think through is about mimesis and mimetic theory. The general gist is this; which desires are implanted in us by society, and which are truly inherent and natural?

Why does it matter? In terms of achievement, what you want to achieve… we need to set some sort of goal. But, is the goal you are setting inherently interesting to you, or is it a goal which is seen as desirable by society?


The Philosophy of Durable, Durability

Durable. Durability. Even Nietzsche once said, “Durability is the first rate good amongst human beings!”

The importance of durable, durability?

An interesting epiphany that I had is that it seems that with modern day consumerism, durability is actually not what we seek. For example, nobody truly seeks a 100% durable iPhone that will last forever. Why? We need some sort of excuse to upgrade. I think the same thing is with cars; cars are fashion. The second our car has any issues, or needs an “upgrade“, we are very very happy to jump ship, and then to seek some sort of new solution.

Why does this matter?

Durabilis: Durable, lasting.

I think this matters for many different reasons. First and foremost, with everything in life, we need to posit some sort of desired ends and outcomes. Therefore, if we know what we seek, and what we desire, then we can better straight shot attain, obtain, and pursue that which we desire.

Becoming harder

Duro— harden, make hard.

Studying some etymology for the word durable, it seems that comes from the Latin, duro, which means harden, make hard.

Durus: looking further into the Proto Indo European, it seems that it means far, long. Deros— Sanskrit dura which means “far”. Long, extended.

I suppose there are several interesting interventions with this line of thought. First and foremost, then it seems that the desired end outcome is for us to go long. An extended range, and also, to last into the future. Long, extended can be seen as distance, or time and years.

Extended range as good!

Modular solutions

Durability doesn’t just mean to be hard, to be robust. The philosophy of durability is to last for a long time, or for us to use the framework an ecosystem for a long time.

For example, cameras. I am a huge fan of the Ricoh GR series cameras, as it is so small compact and powerful. Yet the durability is poor insofar much as the duration you could use it only seems to be about a year. After hard-core use, all of my Ricohs have broken.

Surprisingly, the Lumix G9 that I bought in 2019 while in Japan, has lasted. Something about how it was engineered, and also the fact that it is an interchangeable lens system means that if the lens breaks (mine did), I can simply swap out the lens, and I could still keep using the system.

Whereas with non-interchangeable, non-modular systems, if one component breaks, it is all broken.

The same thing goes with computers. Laptops are bad in so far much as at least with MacBook laptop, you can honestly swap out the parts. This means, if one component breaks, you’re screwed.

Durable investments?

What is a durable investment? If we think long, long-term, maybe it is best to think in the 30+ year time span.

For example, a simple thought: will bitcoin prices go up or down in 30 years? Will more people use cryptocurrency or less in 30 years? Or, will we use our phones more for financial things? Or less? Will finances become more digital, or paper hard cash based?

30 years from now, what will we still need? A habitat somewhere to live, food.

Nobody likes to think 30 years ahead, because we want to live in the now. Yet this is my simple thought:

Live today, insanely frugal and scrappy, Spartan. Yet in terms of your investments, think 30 years ahead, like a demigod.

Durable body?

In modern day society, we have a strange relationship with our bodies. We know that it is important and critical, yet, we sacrifice it for other things like money, prestige, “productivity”, mental faculties, building capital, etc.

Yet at the end of the day, none of these things are possible without our bodies. And also a reverse thought:

What is the opposite should be done? That the ultimate endgame is to beautify and strengthen our bodies to the maximum, and money and capital and all these other things were simply to aid that end goal?

For example, modern day work and office work. I think I got it figured out. Essentially you sacrifice your health and well-being for money.

For example, if you work in the modern day office job, doesn’t matter if it is an investment banker, lawyer, attorney, money manager, programmer, etc.… essentially what you are doing is prostituting your body mind and soul for greater money and capital gains. Let us consider the inordinate amount of time we spent sitting; sitting in a car when committing to work, or sitting in the train, or sitting in the bus, sitting in the metro, or sitting in the office, sitting at our computer office chair, sitting down in meetings, etc. And all of that time we spend indoors which is positively bad for our health.


Why ethics and morality is the hook and the snare

My general thought is that morality “ethics“, religious rules of conduct is essentially soft forms of coercion and power control. For example, these “rules“ governing our speech, our social behaviors, our comportment and how we leverage and carry our bodies, what we do what we say, what we don’t do what we don’t say, what we desire what we don’t desire etc. Essentially almost 99% of our physical or mental activities is directed towards some other ends, which is often not our own.

For example, Confucianism. This ridiculous idea that no matter what, whether good or bad, one must always respect their elders. But why? Once again, another form of social control.

Or, the notion of “saving money“, or “not wasting“ water, electricity, etc. Yet once again, why are these things considered a virtue?


Solution.