Learn more about HAPTIC ><\/a><\/p>\n I remember when I started photography when I was 18 years old. I had no obstructions. No rules to hold me back. No concepts which held me back, and nobody to tell me what to do, or what not to do.<\/p>\n I had this childlike na\u00c3\u00afvet\u00c3\u00a9 in my photography, which meant that there were only possibilities in my photography and art, and no restrictions. This is when I was the most creative, playful, and had the most fun.<\/p>\n However as I got older and more experienced in photography, I tried too hard to be too \u00e2\u20ac\u0153serious\u00e2\u20ac\u009d in my photography. I no longer had the spirit of play and experimentation. Rather, I only saw these hard rules that I had to follow. This meant that I started to die, and lose my creative spirit. I focused too much on being taken \u00e2\u20ac\u0153seriously\u00e2\u20ac\u009d, and making photos that others liked \u00e2\u20ac\u201d getting more likes on social media, and getting more \u00e2\u20ac\u0153acclaim\u00e2\u20ac\u009d from others.<\/p>\n The problem with this path is that I started to lose my zest for photography. Photography became less fun. It became a chore. I needed to go out for X amount of hours, to make a certain picture, then upload it to social media, and had to upload it at the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153ideal\u00e2\u20ac\u009d time to maximize my likes, favorites, and comments. Photography became this game of crowd-sourcing my self-esteem, rather than the initial na\u00c3\u00afvet\u00c3\u00a9 I had in just making pictures for myself.<\/p>\n In today\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s world, to be naive is seen as bad. If you are naive, you will be taken advantage of. If you are naive, you will not be taken \u00e2\u20ac\u0153seriously\u00e2\u20ac\u009d. If you are naive, you won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t make a bunch of money and be happy.<\/p>\n But, I have always been naive. I think it is my childlike na\u00c3\u00afvet\u00c3\u00a9 which has helped me innovate. Rather than following rules and customs, I have paved my own path. This has helped me challenge social norms, and helped me push myself into new areas and territories.<\/p>\n I have always hated people telling me \u00e2\u20ac\u0153no\u00e2\u20ac\u009d or reasons why not to do something. To me, true happiness is creative freedom \u00e2\u20ac\u201d freedom over what I want to do, make, and for me to not have any gatekeepers stand in my way, or prevent me from doing what I want to do as a photographer and artist.<\/p>\n Society wants you to be generic, and to fit into a perfect mold. It is children who are the most creative and innovative. Yet, as we get older, we become \u00e2\u20ac\u0153institutionalized\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00e2\u20ac\u201d these institutions like schools and workplaces tell us how to behave, act, and conform in society.<\/p>\n So my suggestion is \u00e2\u20ac\u201d return to your original childlike mind, beginner mind, where there are no rules, concepts, or theories to hold you back. Be naive, and return to your childlike na\u00c3\u00afvet\u00c3\u00a9, and I can guarantee you \u00e2\u20ac\u201d you will never run out of motivation, a sense of creativity, and wonder \u00e2\u20ac\u201d in your photography, art, and life.<\/p>\n ERIC<\/p>\n London, NYC, Kyoto, Tokyo:<\/p>\n See upcoming experiences<\/a><\/p>\n Find infinite inspiration in photography from the masters:<\/p>\n Learn more about MASTERS ><\/a><\/p>\n Buy MASTERS on Amazon ><\/a><\/p>\n Rediscover your inner artist with CREATIVE EVERY DAY ><\/a><\/p>\n See all Inspirational products in AMAZON SHOP ><\/a><\/p>\n Dear friend, Do you remember when you first started photography, and how fun and childlike it was?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":74366,"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,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-74541","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-posts"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/75D3AB81-769A-43CA-BF02-0E50CC385F0B.jpeg?fit=4928%2C3264&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74541","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=74541"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74541\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":74546,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74541\/revisions\/74546"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74541"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74541"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"HAPTIC](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/HAPTIC_WHITELOGO-1024x1024-800x800.jpeg?resize=800%2C800\")
<\/a><\/p>\n\n
\nI\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m a bigass kid<\/h2>\n
![\"Spiral](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/98631CB2-601F-4E61-9579-2197B6CD4989-2000x1325.jpeg?resize=2000%2C1325\")
![\"Artwork](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/B6F0ECDC-9DAB-465A-A178-3A635F9AB301-2000x1325.jpeg?resize=2000%2C1325\")
Damn the rules!<\/h2>\n
![\"Pink](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/AB94CEA0-8F66-46B6-A27A-2233EB0C7458-2000x1325.jpeg?resize=2000%2C1325\")
Losing my childhood mind<\/h2>\n
![\"Sunset](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/0DE66CB0-D7C7-44F4-840A-AFFC4F2C2011-1325x2000.jpeg?resize=1325%2C2000\")
Why is na\u00c3\u00afvet\u00c3\u00a9 a bad thing?<\/h2>\n
![\"Couple](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/061B2399-E41F-445A-92F6-1D6281A047E4-2000x1325.jpeg?resize=2000%2C1325\")
![\"Callisto](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/71C56A58-2265-48B3-BEDD-9B3B2A01E89D-2000x1500.jpeg?resize=2000%2C1500\")
<\/p>\n![\"Callisto](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/A8FEE15C-4173-4909-9753-9E17E6BA6C12-1500x2000.jpeg?resize=1500%2C2000\")
![\"Black](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/8A8655C9-A190-4333-8D4B-C593313D0E16-1500x2000.jpeg?resize=1500%2C2000\")
Return to your childlike mind<\/h2>\n
![\"Following](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/A48D40F7-C459-480C-9D0B-ADBECB72927D-2000x1325.jpeg?resize=2000%2C1325\")
![\"Triangle](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/F2F49910-F979-4BB6-B5EC-6A3082E41FF0-2000x1325.jpeg?resize=2000%2C1325\")
\n![\"Conquer](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/2-2000x1333.jpg?resize=2000%2C1333\")
<\/a><\/p>\n
\nRecent Articles<\/h2>\n
\n
\nLEARN FROM THE MASTERS OF PHOTOGRAPHY<\/a><\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/LEARN-FROM-THE-MASTERS-BOOK-COVER-ERIC-KIM-HAPTICPRESS-10-800x600.jpg?resize=800%2C600\")
<\/a>
\nCREATIVE EVERY DAY <\/a><\/h2>\n
![\"CREATIVE](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/CREATIVE-EVERYDAY-HAPTIC-PRESS-2-2000x1500.jpg?resize=2000%2C1500\")
<\/a>
\n
\n![\"Start](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/5DCD5BEE-8ACB-459E-857D-5207F5F0AFD2.jpeg?resize=1668%2C595\")
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