{"id":29651,"date":"2016-07-22T09:00:44","date_gmt":"2016-07-22T16:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/?p=29651"},"modified":"2016-07-19T10:30:51","modified_gmt":"2016-07-19T17:30:51","slug":"getting-by-with-less","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/2016\/07\/22\/getting-by-with-less\/","title":{"rendered":"Getting By With Less"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Marseille,
Marseille, 2012<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Apparently in the Marines they take great pride in having the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153shittiest equipment\u00e2\u20ac\u009d with the least amount of support. They pride themselves in being able to get by with less. They make up for their lack of equipment through their hustle, determination, creativity, and hard work.<\/p>\n

What if we could do the same in our photography\u00e2\u20ac\u201d to pride ourselves in the fact that we might not have the best camera, lens, or equipment. What if we can achieve our creative greatness with \u00e2\u20ac\u0153less\u00e2\u20ac\u009d?<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

In my personal experience I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve found that having more<\/em> equipment only leads to more<\/em> stress, more<\/em> headaches, more<\/em> complications\u00e2\u20ac\u201d which ends up me having less<\/em> enjoyment in my photography, less<\/em> creativity, and less<\/em> hustle.<\/p>\n

I think the key of photography (and life) is to have the least amount of equipment possible, but nothing less.<\/p>\n

For example, as a photographer we of course need a camera and a lens and a laptop is preferable. But besides that, do we really need the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153best\u00e2\u20ac\u009d?<\/p>\n

By priding yourself in getting by with less, and not having the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153best\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u201d you force yourself to be more creative. By limiting your options, you force yourself to be creative with what you have.<\/p>\n

For example, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m really into physical fitness, and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve always been the slave of a gym. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m quite into powerlifting, so I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve always thought I \u00e2\u20ac\u0153needed\u00e2\u20ac\u009d a squat rack, a barbell for deadlifts, and a bench press. But recently (not having a gym membership), I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m trying to see how much I can do without<\/em> a gym. This has helped me be creative. Instead of doing bench press I just do lots of different push-up variations (normal, incline, on my fists, one handed, clapping, diamond). Instead of deadlift I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m just doing a lot of chin-ups (I go to the park to use the chin-up bar, or use whatever horizontal surface I can find). Instead of squats, I do bodyweight squats and 1-legged \u00e2\u20ac\u0153pistol\u00e2\u20ac\u009d squats.<\/p>\n

Of course at the end of the day I would still prefer<\/em> to have a gym\u00e2\u20ac\u201d I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve found out I can do with less.<\/p>\n

\"Berkeley,
Berkeley, 2015 #cindyproject<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For those of you who read this blog, you know that I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m a bit of a coffee fanatic. Living so long in the Bay Area has spoiled me\u00e2\u20ac\u201d I prefer single-origin espressos from small-batch roasters. But being at Cindy\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s family house, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m relying more on \u00e2\u20ac\u0153mass-market\u00e2\u20ac\u009d coffee. At first I was frustrated\u00e2\u20ac\u201d but I came to realize that I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t need the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153best\u00e2\u20ac\u009d coffee. Because honestly, the most important thing in coffee is the caffeine, not the taste (although I like having good taste).<\/p>\n

So what if we apply this principle to other parts of our life? Instead of having the most expensive BMW, we can get by with having \u00e2\u20ac\u0153less\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u201d a simple Toyota or Honda. Instead of having the best camera (Leica), we can just have a simple compact camera (like a Ricoh GR or Fujifilm). Instead of having the biggest and most expensive house, we can have a simple 1-bedroom apartment with affordable rent. Whatever we lack in resources, we make up with our own human ingenuity, creativeness, and resourcefulness.<\/p>\n

If you live in a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153boring\u00e2\u20ac\u009d place\u00e2\u20ac\u201d and we don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t live in the most \u00e2\u20ac\u0153interesting\u00e2\u20ac\u009d place like NYC, Tokyo, or Hong Kong\u00e2\u20ac\u201d perhaps we can photograph what we do have in front of our eyes. Even now, as I live in Garden Grove, Orange County (suburb central); I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m shifting my photography focus from street photography to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153personal photography<\/em><\/a>\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u201d documenting Cindy and my loved ones.<\/p>\n

Let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s say that your camera sucks. It can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t shoot high-ISO, has a slow lag, and other downsides. Perhaps that can be a benefit\u00e2\u20ac\u201d you can start using a flash, you can imagine the slow lag like shooting an old film camera (which helps you be more intentional when shooting), and the poor image quality can give your images a more gritty and visceral feel.<\/p>\n

\"London,
London, 2014<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s say you don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have a lot of money to print or exhibit your work. Then make the best out of social media to publish and promote your work.<\/p>\n

Let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s say that you don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have all the connection in the photography world, or access to curators, or other \u00e2\u20ac\u0153influential\u00e2\u20ac\u009d bloggers, etc. Then leverage the contacts you already have\u00e2\u20ac\u201d know that having a few strong connections with people who are meaningful to you is often better than having a weak connection with lots of random people.<\/p>\n

Trust me\u00e2\u20ac\u201d I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not perfect either. I always want the best. I hate \u00e2\u20ac\u0153settling\u00e2\u20ac\u009d with second-best.<\/p>\n

But the problem of seeking the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153best\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is that there is no objective \u00e2\u20ac\u0153best.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Rather, we should seek for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153satisfactory\u00e2\u20ac\u009d or \u00e2\u20ac\u0153good enough.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Or we can even pride ourselves in having worse or shittier stuff than other people.<\/p>\n

So given your constraints in life (your job, salary, age, mobility, family situation, kids, creative potential, equipment, etc) \u00e2\u20ac\u201d how can you best make beautiful art, and a meaningful contribution to the world?<\/p>\n

You got this.<\/p>\n

Always,
\nEric<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Apparently in the Marines they take great pride in having the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153shittiest equipment\u00e2\u20ac\u009d with the least amount of support. They pride themselves in being able to get by with less. They make up for \u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29653,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","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,"_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_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29651","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-posts"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/marseille-france_8465559399_o.jpg?fit=3087%2C2048&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29651","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=29651"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29651\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}