![\"film\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/film-800x800.jpg?resize=800%2C800\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Dear streettogs,<\/p>\n
I am excited to share that I just touched down here in Seattle! Absolutely beautiful weather (all of the other times I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve visited were in January), and have already had some amazing espresso\u00e2\u20ac\u201d and feeling pretty pumped up (the coffee here is seriously the best in the world).<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
![\"the](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/the-street-portrait-manual-cover-small-530x800.jpg?resize=530%2C800\")
<\/p>\n
First of all, I am proud to share a new free e-book I published titled: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Street Portrait Manual<\/a><\/strong>.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I realized that all of my other free e-books were only text, and because we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re photographers, it makes sense for me to add images.<\/p>\n I honestly have no design experience, but realized that Apple\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Pages\u00e2\u20ac\u009d app does a pretty good job with layouts. I know it looks pretty amateur, but I am still learning and I had a ton of fun putting it together. Moving forward, I hope to make more of these \u00e2\u20ac\u0153picture e-books\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u201d and always, keeping it \u00e2\u20ac\u0153open source\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and free to download, share, remix, translate\u00e2\u20ac\u201d whatever. I always remind myself that the purpose of my life is to help others, and use the best of my abilities to share the information that I have learned along the way.<\/p>\n I am also excited for my upcoming travels. Some of the places I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m going to for around 3 months: Seattle, Vancouver, Paris, Lisbon, Amsterdam, Prague, Vienna, Marseille, Berlin, London, and Stockholm.<\/p>\n Also got my shooting setup for the trip: 75 rolls of Kodak Tri-X<\/a> (not sure if I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m going to shoot it at 400 or push it all to 1600), and 20 rolls of Portra 400<\/a> (to continue my \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Suits\u00e2\u20ac\u009d project). The only camera I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m bringing for my trip is my Leica MP and 35mm lens.<\/p>\n The thing I have learned most about photography, travel, and life is that fewer options gives me more freedom, more happiness, and less stress. The last big trip I pared down to my Leica MP and Ricoh GR<\/a>, but I actually left the Ricoh GR back with Cindy for her to play around with. So now, I truly am down to \u00e2\u20ac\u01531 camera, 1 lens<\/a>\u00e2\u20ac\u009d (besides my smartphone, which has also been fun to shoot on).<\/p>\n Some people also ask me: why travel with all that film, isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t it just more convenient to travel with a digital camera?<\/p>\n While it is true that it lighter to travel with digital cameras, I found that traveling with film is more of a joy (and less hassle). I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have to charge my camera everynight (the Leica MP is purely mechanical, and can operate without a battery, the only battery it uses is for a meter), and because I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t download my photos immediately into Lightroom, I sleep another 2 extra hours a night (when I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m post-processing and editing while I travel, I usually stay up until 2am).<\/p>\n Furthermore, I found that I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have to worry about backing up photos to hard drives, and worrying about them crashing. Sure, I have to worry about running out of film, but I think 100 rolls (combined) should be enough for this trip. I generally shoot on average a roll of film a day, so I should be okay. Worst case scenario: I can always buy cheap film in some local drugstore.<\/p>\n I just spent the last week and a half with Cindy\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s family, and I was truly blessed to spend time with them. Ironically enough even though I do travel for a living and go to all of these exotic places, my favorite times have been in the boring suburbs (Garden Grove in Orange County, LA) but with the people I love the most. Small joys like playing board games with the family (Monopoly \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Deal\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and Starcraft Risk), enjoying a nice coffee and breakfast with the family (Vietnamese iced coffee and avocados), doing Yoga with Cindy (Corepower has a free 2-week pass somewhere online), and having barbeques in the backyard (Vietnamese BBQ is phenomenal).<\/p>\n I have also been re-reading a lot of books on Taoism, the translations of the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Tao Te Ching<\/a>\u00e2\u20ac\u009d by Stephen Mitchell is excellent, as well as his other book: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Second Book of the Tao<\/a>.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d It has helped me realized to live fully in every moment, cherish my relationships, and not to strive or desire for external things (all happiness exists in the present moment).<\/p>\n Funny enough, I have also been reading some new business books recommended by Tim Ferriss (the author of the \u00e2\u20ac\u01534-hour workweek<\/a>\u00e2\u20ac\u009d) on his excellent podcast, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Tim Ferriss Show<\/a>.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d The first book is: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing<\/a>\u00e2\u20ac\u009d which is a pretty sleazy-looking title, but actually great reading. It taught me to focus on my passion (street photography) and not to get distracted by anything else. Another book I just started is \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Million Dollar Consulting<\/a>\u00e2\u20ac\u009d which has taught me the importance of adding value through my workshops, and learning how to earn a living (without traveling more than necessary).<\/p>\n In terms of photography books, I really enjoyed \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Black Rose<\/a>\u00e2\u20ac\u009d by Trent Parke, which is an innovative photography book in terms of images and story-telling. You can see all the images online here<\/a>.<\/p>\n For a more affordable and available book, I recommend \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Magnum, Magnum<\/a>\u00e2\u20ac\u009d (only $25) which features hundreds of the best Magnum photographs.<\/p>\n I also just added a new workshop to my travel schedule: an Intermediate\/Advanced project-based street photography workshop in London August 21\u00e2\u20ac\u201c23rd<\/a>. What is the difference between this and the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Introductory\u00e2\u20ac\u009d workshop? The Introductory workshop is focused on conquering your fear in street photography and building your confidence. The Intermediate\/Advanced workshop is focused on finding your own voice, your own style, and how to work on a street photography project.<\/p>\n I also have some new workshops planned for San Francisco, Austin, and Downtown LA later this year. My full workshops schedule is below:<\/p>\n Seattle<\/strong> – Introduction to Street Photography Workshop<\/a> – SOLD OUT (contact neil.ta@erickimphotography.com for the waiting list)<\/strong>!<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Paris<\/strong> – Week-Long Intensive Travel Street Photography Workshop<\/a> – OPEN! (Early-Bird D<\/strong><\/strong>eadline: May 24th<\/em><\/span>)<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Amsterdam<\/strong> – Intermediate\/Advanced Street Photography Workshop<\/a> – SOLD OUT (contact neil.ta@erickimphotography.com for the waiting list)<\/strong>!<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Prague<\/strong> – Week-Long Intensive Travel Street Photography Workshop<\/a> – OPEN! (Early-Bird D<\/strong><\/strong>eadline:<\/span> June 15th<\/em>)<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Vienna<\/strong> – Introduction to Street Photography Workshop<\/a> – OPEN! (Early-Bird D<\/strong><\/strong>eadline:<\/span> June 30th<\/em>)<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Berlin<\/strong> –Introduction to Street Photography Workshop<\/a> – OPEN! (Early-Bird D<\/strong><\/strong>eadline:<\/span> July 7th)<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n London<\/strong> – Introduction to Street Photography Workshop<\/a> – SOLD OUT (contact neil.ta@erickimphotography.com for the waiting list)<\/strong>!<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n London<\/strong> – Intermediate\/Advanced Street Photography Workshop<\/a> – OPEN! (NEW!)<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Stockholm<\/strong> – Introduction to Street Photography Workshop<\/a> – OPEN!<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n SF<\/strong> – Conquer Your Fears of Shooting Street Photography – Register Intent<\/a><\/strong> – NEW!<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n SF<\/strong> – Discover Your Unique Voice in Street Photography – Register Intent<\/a><\/strong> – NEW!<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n New Orleans<\/strong> – Week-Long Travel Street Photography Workshop<\/a> – OPEN!<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Austin<\/strong> – Conquer Your Fears of Shooting Street Photography – Register Intent<\/a><\/strong> – NEW!<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Los Angeles<\/strong> – Conquer Your Fears of Shooting Street Photography – Register Intent<\/a><\/strong> – NEW!<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Los Angeles<\/strong> -Discover Your Unique Voice in Street Photography – Register Intent<\/a><\/strong> – NEW!<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n You can also learn more about my street photography workshops here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n I have tried to focus in life to worry less about \u00e2\u20ac\u0153efficiency\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153optimization.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think anyone lies on his\/her deathbed wishing that they were more \u00e2\u20ac\u0153efficient\u00e2\u20ac\u009d with their lives.<\/p>\n So I am trying to follow the advice of Nassim Taleb from his amazing book: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Antifragile<\/a>\u00e2\u20ac\u009d in the sense of taking things as they come, not to force anything (the concept of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153wu-wei\u00e2\u20ac\u009d from the book \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Tao Te Ching<\/a>\u00e2\u20ac\u009d). The idea is that I only write or work when I feel like it, and try not to start any days with having a pre-schedule.<\/p>\n But how does one be \u00e2\u20ac\u0153productive\u00e2\u20ac\u009d without forcing oneself to work all the time? Ironically not forcing myself to work all the time helps me recharge my creative juices, and really plow myself into producing a lot when I am in the mood. After all, when you force yourself to do work you don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want to do, it shows. You can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t fake passion and enthusiasm.<\/p>\n I hope to also focus on writing fewer articles, and writing more books. I love blogs, but the problem is that articles are so perishable. Books last. I hope to also publish and print some more books in the future, and collaborate.<\/p>\n As always, thanks so much for the love, support, and always helping me along in my personal journey. Keep rocking the streets, until next time!<\/p>\n Love,<\/p>\n Eric<\/p>\n 6\/5\/2015 @ WeWork in Seattle<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Dear streettogs, I am excited to share that I just touched down here in Seattle! Absolutely beautiful weather (all of the other times I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve visited were in January), and have already had some amazing espresso\u00e2\u20ac\u201d and feeling pretty pumped up (the coffee here is seriously the best in the world).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23866,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[17],"tags":[1736,85,1283],"class_list":["post-23865","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-posts","tag-newsletter","tag-travel-2","tag-update"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/film.jpg?fit=1280%2C1280&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23865","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"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=23865"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23865\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23866"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23865"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23865"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23865"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}What I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m packing for my trip<\/h2>\n
![\"cafe\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/cafe-800x450.jpg?resize=800%2C450\")
<\/p>\nThe joy of spending time with family<\/h2>\n
![\"in](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/in-and-out-800x450.jpg?resize=800%2C450\")
<\/p>\nBooks I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been reading<\/h2>\n
![\"magnum](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/magnum-magnum.jpg?resize=640%2C640\")
<\/p>\nNew street photography workshops<\/h2>\n
![\"toronto-xpan-800x404\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/toronto-xpan-800x404-800x404.jpg?resize=800%2C404\")
<\/p>\nJune 5-7th<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n
June 24-28th<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n
July 10-12th<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n
July 15-19th<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n
July 31st-August 2nd<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n
August 7-9th<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n
August 14-16th<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n
August 21-23rd<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n
August 28-30th<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n
October 1-3rd<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n
October 8-10th<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n
October 14-18th<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n
October 23-25th<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n
November 12-14th<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n
November 19-21st<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n
What\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s next<\/h2>\n
![\"shoes\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/shoes-800x533.jpg?resize=800%2C533\")
<\/p>\n