ERIC KIM

STRENGTH IS THE GOAL. https://erickimphotography.com/blog/2022/07/23/intermittent-fasting-to-become-stronger/

Move your world: https://erickimphotography.com/blog/2022/07/23/vlog-how-to-maximize-your-leverages/

Whether we like it or not, marketing works. It works on us, it works on nerds, it works on everybody.

In fact, the whole capitalist society and system we have is based on aspirational modes of thought.

For example with cameras, the aspiration is that we will become more creative, make better images, and become more inspired.

With cars, the aspiration is that we will live a happier life, a more sexy life, and a more adventurous life.

So how should we apply this to photography?

The first thought I have is that when it comes to marketing, it is an aspirational thing. To become more.

For example, if you are a photography teacher, the emphasis should be on helping people become more inspired, more created, more motivated.

If you’re a portrait photographer, wedding photographer commercial photographer, etc., then the focus is this; become more beautiful, look more professional in order to close more deals, gain more followers and likes, become the envy of your friends, etc.

Perhaps it is easier to just shop online, read the marketing copy, and if the marketing copy accords with your core values, just buy it. For example, I got these Lululemon license to train shorts, and I got drawn into it because the marketing copy said that it was abrasion resistant. In accordance with my value of wanting some shorts, that were insanely durable, which could maybe last me at least 10 years.

If you’re a photographer, and photography is your passion, I assume that your end goal is to go out and make more photos. To become more inspired, to see more photo opportunities, and to shoot more photos that you are proud of.

And then if this is your actual goal, what you should be doing is traveling more, going on more embodied reality adventures, attending more workshops, attending classes, buying photography books.

Often the problem is that we feel unmotivated in our photography, and we mindlessly scroll through these camera equipment websites, gear review websites, and camera rumor websites, looking for that new perfect camera that will satisfy our every single desire.

I know personally speaking, the one camera one lens to have is the Ricoh GR 3IIIx. Why? Is the newest digital RICOH GR camera, and it could always fit in your front right pocket. Now you have no excuse to never shoot. Beyond this, I find all camera equipment superfluous.

I say don’t sell yourself short. Better to over emphasize and over exaggerate yourself, than make yourself too small.

Some thoughts:

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Speed is paramount:

“Cool Prius!” (said nobody)

The funny thing is nowadays, the so-called virtuous say that it is more virtuous to take your time. To do things slowly is better. Slow food, slow living, etc.

However at the same time, ultimately we are more fascinated by speed. For example, we are fascinated by fast cars, fast sprinters, fast technology etc.

Even one of the great downsides of current electric vehicles is the recharge time. It is just too slow. Even with a supercharger; it takes 15 minutes to get to 200 hundred miles. Compare this with gasoline, where you get over 300 miles in less than a minute. Gasoline is still at least 10 times faster, maybe even 100 times faster than recharging your electric vehicle. This is why for ultimate ease and convenience in life, either a hybrid or a plug in hybrid car is still best.

There are many ways you could integrate speed into your photography. The first one is shooting extra small JPEG. Essentially no buffer time, and it imports into your iPad, iPhone, or laptop insanely fast.

Also upload speeds. Unfortunately even in today’s world, we are limited by upload speeds. Even if you have the fastest Internet connection, uploading takes forever. Therefore the upside of shooting extra small JPEG is that extra small JPEG images (around 2000 pixels wide) is insanely fast.

And a few years back, I borrowed a Pentax 645Z, and shot extra small JPEG, with a positive film preset. During lunchtime, I imported all the photos into my iPad, and by the end of the wedding, I already uploaded to Google Drive/dropbox, and sent the files to my friend. This is the ultimate; speed.

Even I have found with communication, whether email or text messaging, better to send a quick bad response, then a slow good response. Or you can always do the funny confirmation of their email, very quickly, and tell them that you’ll get back to them; even though you may never.

I think the main upside and benefit of speed is that it allows you to do more, with less friction.

My ideal is that every single day, you’re constantly shooting photos throughout the day, maybe around 300 to 1000 images a day, and either during the day or in the evening, you are selecting and flagging your favorite images, and exporting them and uploading them concurrently.

For me one of the biggest things was getting rid of post processing. If you shoot extra high contrast black-and-white in camera, let us stay on your RICOH GR digital camera, you literally do not need to touch any of the images, and you do not need to post process them! It is almost like the digital equivalent to shooting film; one of the great things I loved about shooting film, and getting my film processed and scanned by Costco was that after the photos were scanned by Costco, I just used the scanned JPEG images, which already looked great! (FILM NOTES)

In fact, I think in-camera JPEG photos look superior to processed RAW images. I say just experiment shooting in-camera JPEG; experiment with different color presets, for example I really like the “classic chrome” preset on the Fujifilm digital cameras, or use cross-pr

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What does it mean to be a photographer? Being a photographer means the camera is your way to engage with, interact with, and interpret the world around you.

I’m starting to think and believe that progress, and “getting better“ at something is too soft of a concept. Why? It is mostly a post industrial one, in which we are trying to use numbers, and other quantitative measures to rank one another. The ethos behind that is a new religion; the defecation of numbers, or data. For example, the underlying ethos behind Google and a lot of tech companies is if data doesn’t prove it, it is not substantial.

However, to live in life in which you are just relying on data is a cowardly one. Why? I think the reason why people rely on numbers so much is that they lack faith in themselves. Rather than pursuing their own inner artistic ingenuity, like Steve Jobs, people just allay their responsibility and outsource the risk to “control groups“, or “focus groups“. There is no focus group on earth that would have initially approved Steve Jobs‘s vision of the iPhone without having a physical keyboard. Remember just a decade ago when Blackberry phones with the physical keyboard was all the rage? And when the iPhone first came up with a touch keyboard, how much criticism and critique it got? Or when Steve Jobs first made the iPad, how much hate mail he got for not having USB ports?

In today’s world, I believe that one of the best ways to become more courageous, is a “via negativa” (Taleb) one.

For example, acts of subtraction makes one more courageous. Or acts of deletion make one more courageous.

For example, physically deleting, and permanently deleting files on your computer takes great courage. Or permanently deleting email, instead of archiving it and hoarding it forever. How funny is it that we millennials disdain how our parents hoard all of this physical junk in their garage is, yet we hoard all of our data on the cloud.

Therefore, a great act of courage you could do is just delete your Instagram.

Nowadays, I think having an Instagram is almost akin to saying you go to McDonald’s. Everyone has one, thus you should have one. But then again 80% of America is obese, should you? Most people drink Coca-Cola; should you? Most people prefer to drink a Starbucks Frappuccino; should you?

Another strange bias we have in America is that the more difficult the path, the harder is, the more virtuous it is. However, I believe this to be quite foolish. Maybe then it would be more virtuous for us to use a horse and carriage instead of an automobile car.

As for us photographers, perhaps the most basic thing we could learn actually how to do is how to build and maintain our own website and blog. Our own self hosted domain. Yes, there is some level of technical difficulty which is required of us, yet it is still a quadrillion times easier than learning how to code.

For example, I only know the basics of FTP, website domain hosting stuff, HTML, etc. I know the purest basics to just get done what I need to get done. But beyond that, I have no idea. I have no idea how to hand code my own website; I prefer to just use templates. And no, learning how to self build your own website by hand is not virtuous. I recently had a conversation with an aspiring artist hipster who said he wanted to learn how to build his own website from hand, but in reality, my sense was he was making zero progress on it. That for him, i

Never stop thinking >

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For us, minimalism is our ethos, and our approach.

For me, minimalism is all about pruning away the inessential, in order to allow you to maximize the essential.

For example, a simple act is wearing the same all black everything outfit every single day, thus, one less thing for you to worry about or think about first thing in the morning, and allows you to jump directly into what you care most about. This was Steve Jobs‘s approach, apparently he had 100 of those iconic Issey Miyake long black turtlenecks in his closet. The same goes with Mark Zuckerberg, and his simple great T-shirt approach.

Always the danger and the fear is becoming a lemming. Nobody wants to become a herd animal, and just follow the herd.

I had a funny realization when I was at a hipster coffee shop in Berlin: everybody in the coffee shop was wearing all black everything. At that moment, I knew I had to switch up my wardrobe.

However, upon deeper reflection: for me, perhaps the purpose of minimalism isn’t to be different, but just to strive towards the most simple and Zen approach. If that means just wearing whatever is in your closet on the day of, without worrying or thinking too much about it, perhaps this is a good thing.

For minimalism, 99.9% of the obsession is about stuff, and getting rid of stuff. However, perhaps a better approach is to think about your mind. Your clothes and stuff is important, but should maybe only comprise up of 10% of your life. 90% of your life should just be towards your mind, and your body.

I discovered that the most productive mind is an empty mind. The irony: once you empty up your mind, then you could fill it up with interesting thoughts, which come from within.

Let us say that you like to write, or do some sort of creative work. A very simple one is to not check your email first thing in the morning. Ideally uninstall email or work email from your phone. And just do it on your laptop once you get into work.

Seek the good greed >

The courage to be intentionally ignorant about things, takes more courage than prying into everything. For example, whenever I overhear gossip about other people, I just remain silent, instead of fanning the flame.

Similarly speaking, to intentionally remain ignorant about the news, and not prying to the news takes more courage than mindlessly always checking up on the news. Why? The reason why people are so addicted to the news is out of fear. FOMO, the fear of missing out. The fear that you will miss out some integral piece of information, that will somehow protect you from unforeseen circumstances.

Also, not checking your email. Not using email. Perhaps the most courageous thing I’ve ever done is to not check my email for 2 to 3 years. The courage to miss out on things takes more courage, and also more incentive on your end. Then you yourself have the incentive to go out and make things happen, instead of waiting for things to happen onto you.

MOAR: https://erickimphotography.com/blog/2022/07/02/ignorance-takes-courage/

Don't become 'happier', but more physiologically powerful. https://erickimphotography.com/blog/2022/06/30/physiology-over-happiness/