{"id":34258,"date":"2016-11-23T03:49:16","date_gmt":"2016-11-23T11:49:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/?page_id=34258"},"modified":"2016-11-23T03:49:16","modified_gmt":"2016-11-23T11:49:16","slug":"the-beauty-of-being-a-beginner-photographer","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/the-beauty-of-being-a-beginner-photographer\/","title":{"rendered":"The Beauty of Being a Beginner Photographer"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_34250\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-34250\" style=\"width: 2000px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"34250\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/2017\/04\/23\/shoot-what-you-like\/eric-kim-street-photography-tokyo-0000324\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/eric-kim-street-photography-tokyo-0000324.jpg?fit=4928%2C3264&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"4928,3264\" data-comments-opened=\"0\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;4&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;MPANY,&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;1478838666&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;ERIC KIM STREET PHOTOGRAPHY&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;18.3&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;3200&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0.011111111111111&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;1&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"eric-kim-street-photography-tokyo-0000324\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"&lt;p&gt;Tokyo, 2016&lt;\/p&gt;\n\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/eric-kim-street-photography-tokyo-0000324.jpg?fit=2000%2C1325&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"size-large wp-image-34250\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/eric-kim-street-photography-tokyo-0000324-2000x1325.jpg?resize=2000%2C1325\" alt=\"Tokyo, 2016\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1325\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/eric-kim-street-photography-tokyo-0000324.jpg?resize=2000%2C1325&amp;ssl=1 2000w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/eric-kim-street-photography-tokyo-0000324.jpg?resize=660%2C437&amp;ssl=1 660w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/eric-kim-street-photography-tokyo-0000324.jpg?resize=768%2C509&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/eric-kim-street-photography-tokyo-0000324.jpg?w=3000&amp;ssl=1 3000w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-34250\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tokyo, 2016<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>When we are beginner photographers\u00e2\u20ac\u201d we want to go \u00e2\u20ac\u0153pro\u00e2\u20ac\u009d.<\/p>\n<p>But what if the secret to creativity, happiness, and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153success\u00e2\u20ac\u009d was to stay a beginner?<\/p>\n<h2>Beginners often have the right idea<\/h2>\n<p>Honestly, when I was a beginner\u00e2\u20ac\u201d I had the most fun in photography. I wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t limited by pre-existing beliefs, concepts of composition, or what made a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153good\u00e2\u20ac\u009d photograph. I simply had fun, went out, and lived my life (with my camera by my side).<\/p>\n<p>When I started photography as a beginner, I first lived life, and photography came second.<\/p>\n<p>The more \u00e2\u20ac\u0153experienced\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I became in photography, I started to focus on my photography first (and living a happy life, second).<\/p>\n<p>This fucked me up.<\/p>\n<h2>What is more important?<\/h2>\n<p>I forgot what it means to live a happy life. I started to value my self-worth depending on how much others liked my photos. When I got a lot of likes on social media, I would be ecstatic. When I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get as many likes as I thought I \u00e2\u20ac\u0153should\u00e2\u20ac\u009d get \u00e2\u20ac\u201d I felt dismayed.<\/p>\n<h2>The beauty of being a beginner<\/h2>\n<figure id=\"attachment_34251\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-34251\" style=\"width: 2000px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"34251\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/2017\/04\/23\/shoot-what-you-like\/eric-kim-street-photography-tokyo-0000545-2\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/eric-kim-street-photography-tokyo-0000545-1.jpg?fit=4928%2C3264&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"4928,3264\" data-comments-opened=\"0\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;2.8&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;MPANY,&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;1478962359&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;ERIC KIM STREET PHOTOGRAPHY&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;18.3&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;3200&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0.076923076923077&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;1&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"eric-kim-street-photography-tokyo-0000545\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"&lt;p&gt;Tokyo, 2016&lt;\/p&gt;\n\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/eric-kim-street-photography-tokyo-0000545-1.jpg?fit=2000%2C1325&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"size-large wp-image-34251\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/eric-kim-street-photography-tokyo-0000545-1-2000x1325.jpg?resize=2000%2C1325\" alt=\"Tokyo, 2016\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1325\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/eric-kim-street-photography-tokyo-0000545-1.jpg?resize=2000%2C1325&amp;ssl=1 2000w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/eric-kim-street-photography-tokyo-0000545-1.jpg?resize=660%2C437&amp;ssl=1 660w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/eric-kim-street-photography-tokyo-0000545-1.jpg?resize=768%2C509&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/eric-kim-street-photography-tokyo-0000545-1.jpg?w=3000&amp;ssl=1 3000w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-34251\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tokyo, 2016<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Beginners don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t care about becoming famous. They just like having fun, and making photos they like. They like to share their photos with a few people\u00e2\u20ac\u201d mostly their friends and close family.<\/p>\n<p>Then once ambition takes over\u00e2\u20ac\u201d they want to get a million followers, camera sponsorships, and have their work exhibited around the world.<\/p>\n<h2>Beginners for life<\/h2>\n<figure id=\"attachment_34212\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-34212\" style=\"width: 2000px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"34212\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/2013\/08\/29\/my-vision-of-open-source-photography-volume-2\/eric-kim-street-photography-portrait-photographer-by-luis-donoso-2016-profile-headshot-3\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/eric-kim-street-photography-portrait-photographer-by-luis-donoso-2016-profile-headshot.jpg?fit=%2C&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"\" data-comments-opened=\"0\" data-image-meta=\"[]\" data-image-title=\"eric-kim-street-photography-portrait-photographer-by-luis-donoso-2016-profile-headshot\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/eric-kim-street-photography-portrait-photographer-by-luis-donoso-2016-profile-headshot.jpg?ssl=1\" class=\"size-large wp-image-34212\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/eric-kim-street-photography-portrait-photographer-by-luis-donoso-2016-profile-headshot-2000x1331.jpg?resize=2000%2C1331\" alt=\"Portrait by Luis Donoso\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1331\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-34212\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Portrait by Luis Donoso<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>I say let us try to stay beginners, as long as we can live. If we stay beginners, we stay humble. We are more eager to learn. We become less trapped in our own thinking. We are more creative, and we have more fun. We don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t take ourselves or our work too seriously.<\/p>\n<p>Keep it basic, stay a beginner.<\/p>\n<p>Always,<br \/>\nEric<\/p>\n<p><em>Learn more: <a href=\"http:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/personal-photography\/\"><strong>Personal Photography &gt;<\/strong><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When we are beginner photographers\u00e2\u20ac\u201d we want to go \u00e2\u20ac\u0153pro\u00e2\u20ac\u009d. But what if the secret to creativity, happiness, and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153success\u00e2\u20ac\u009d was to stay a beginner? Beginners often have the right idea Honestly, when I was a beginner\u00e2\u20ac\u201d I had the most fun in photography. I wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t limited by pre-existing beliefs, concepts of composition, or what [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":34250,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-34258","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/34258","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34258"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/34258\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34258"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}