{"id":28808,"date":"2016-04-27T10:20:11","date_gmt":"2016-04-27T17:20:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/?p=28808"},"modified":"2016-04-27T10:48:55","modified_gmt":"2016-04-27T17:48:55","slug":"create-your-own-visual-diary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/2016\/04\/27\/create-your-own-visual-diary\/","title":{"rendered":"Create Your Own Visual Diary"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"SF,
SF, 2016<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The other night I met one of my good friends Geoffrey for dinner, and he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been having a tough time with his photography. He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s busy with work, traveling, and barely has any time to make photographs.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

One of the difficult things for us to do is to stay inspired and to keep shooting.<\/p>\n

One of the things I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m interested in (but haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t really pursued in earnest) is meditation. One of my new favorite books is: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Zen Mind, Beginner Mind<\/em><\/a>\u00e2\u20ac\u009d in which Shunryu Suzuki\u00c2\u00a0encourages the importance of repetition.<\/p>\n

For example, a lot of people who meditate (so I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m told) need to do it everyday. If they skip even one day, their whole practice is pretty much f*cked up. Like Jerry Seinfeld, you need to put the daily \u00e2\u20ac\u0153X\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s on your calendar, and to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153not break the chain.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

Discover the truth for yourself<\/h2>\n
\"Berkeley,
Berkeley, 2016 (photo by Cindy)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The more I study philosophy, books, and live life\u00e2\u20ac\u201d the more I get confused.<\/p>\n

I grew up Asian-American which encourages these stiff Confucian values. As an American, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been indoctrinated into this cult of productivity, efficiency, and work. Studying Taoist philosophy has helped me chill out a bit, and studying Stoicism helps me look death in the face everyday. But all this shit confuses me more than helps me at times.<\/p>\n

As an aside, I feel one of the most important things to do with your thinking is to create a hybrid of all the things you learn. Pick and choose from the different schools of philosophy, and find out what works for you<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Do what works for you<\/h2>\n
\"SF,
SF, 2016<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think you need to shoot everyday. But if you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re the type of photographer that needs<\/em> to photograph everyday to feel alive\u00e2\u20ac\u201d figure out ways how you can shoot more.<\/p>\n

Enter the concept of the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153visual diary.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d With a diary (or journal), you log in entries and reflect on your days. Apparently even Snapchat gives you the ability to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153replay\u00e2\u20ac\u009d your moments from your day.<\/p>\n

The wonderful thing about a diary is that it helps you appreciate the small and mundane things in your daily life.<\/p>\n

Most of us live pretty ordinary lives; but I find most of the beauty of life is from these ordinary moments. So if you make it a goal to make \u00e2\u20ac\u0153artistic snapshots\u00e2\u20ac\u009d of your daily life, you will stay inspired in your photography, and also stay appreciative and enthusiastic in life.<\/p>\n

You don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t need a public diary<\/h2>\n
\"SF,
SF, 2016<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For most people I know who keep a diary or a journal (the paper-kind), they keep it to themselves. They put in their most intimate moments, and do it for the sake of it. They don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t write in their diary hoping one day to publish it to the internet, and getting tons of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153likes\u00e2\u20ac\u009d or comments on it.<\/p>\n

Similarly, if you keep a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153visual diary\u00e2\u20ac\u009d, just photograph what you find interesting or meaningful in your daily life. You don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t need to upload all of your photos to the internet or social media. You can keep them for yourself, in your camera, in your hard drive, you can print it yourself, or make a book that only you and a few of your close friends will see.<\/p>\n

One of the good things about keeping a visual diary is that it keeps your eyes sharp. Similarly, I find that writing daily keeps my mind and creative juices slowly. In addition, I find that daily physical exercise keeps me \u00e2\u20ac\u0153pumped\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and in-shape.<\/p>\n

Keep an attitude of gratitude<\/h2>\n

Think about other things you can do on a daily basis. Say grace before you eat a meal and think about how grateful you are for the food. Give a loved one a hug or a call (or even a meaningful text message). Give a smile to a stranger. Give some honest feedback to another photographer on social media\u00e2\u20ac\u201d and do it with love.<\/p>\n

Don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t feel like you always need to be on the streets<\/h2>\n
\"SF,
SF, 2016<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Most of us consider ourselves \u00e2\u20ac\u0153street photographers,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d but I consider you to just think of yourself as a loving human being that happens to like to take photographs.<\/p>\n

If you don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t pigeon-hole yourself into a certain genre of photography; this will liberate you. You will be able to take any type of photograph.<\/p>\n

If you live in the suburbs, are always stuck at work, or on a bus\u00e2\u20ac\u201d think of other ways you can photograph in your life.<\/p>\n

Photograph on the bus, on the metro, photos of your co-workers at lunch, your hotel room, the ruffled sheets of your bed in the morning, strangers on the streets, photos out of the window you are riding in an Uber, or portraits of your loved ones over dinner at a restaurant.<\/p>\n

Every small moment is precious. Don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t let it slip from you.<\/p>\n

Always,
\nEric<\/p>\n

April 27, 2016<\/em><\/p>\n

If you want to make your photos more personal, download the\u00c2\u00a0on-going progress of my book: “The Personal Photography Manifesto<\/a><\/strong>.”<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The other night I met one of my good friends Geoffrey for dinner, and he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been having a tough time with his photography. He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s busy with work, traveling, and barely has any time to \u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_ek_photo_artist_note":"","_ek_photo_thesis":"","_ek_photo_camera":"","_ek_photo_place":"","_ek_photo_human_moment":"","_ek_photo_sequence":"","_ek_photo_question":"","_ek_photo_canonical_claim":"","_ek_photo_ai_summary":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28808","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-posts"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28808","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=28808"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28808\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}