Peter Oshkai photography

January 8, 2015

On confidence

“We should devote ourselves to being self-sufficient and must not depend upon the external ratings by others for our happiness.”

-Bruce Lee

I came across an interesting article by Paul Graham, called “How to do what you love.” It is curious how similar are his thoughts regarding prestige, particularly in academic circles, to the words of Bruce Lee above. Graham goes bit more into details of why it is dangerous to let prestige be the guide in the choice of what we do. It is because the aura of prestige substitutes our own values with those “of the rest of the world.” Incidentally, he expands even further on this in “Hackers & Painters.”

I think there should be a balance between using the opinions of others as a constructive tool and being confident enough to disregard them when appropriate. In fact, it is in determining when it is appropriate to filter out the opinion of others that confidence is needed the most. After all, there is a thin line between confidence and arrogance.

For artists, photographers included, opinion of other people is a major factor that can influence the entire career. The challenge is not to let it dictate the direction of the art itself.

There is an effective way of approaching the confidence/arrogance dilemma in kendo. I have heard a saying that in practice (keiko), one should cultivate a feeling as if he/she is the worst (least capable) student in the group, while during shiai (read: real fight) one should feel as if he is the best. This way, we can be humble, yet not swayed by external factors during pivotal moments and decisions.

January 7, 2015January 7, 2015

Street photography in China

My first overseas trip of 2015 will probably be to a research meeting in Shanghai. I have been to China only once before, attending a similar meeting in Beijing. During that trip, I had an opportunity to explore a little bit of the city on my own, in addition to going on an organized tour of the Great Wall. I was pleasantly surprised how easy it was to take street portraits in China. Everywhere, people of various walks of life were incredibly friendly and easygoing, always willing, if not eager, to pose for a photo. I have probably the largest number of shots with strangers making eye contact with the camera from that trip than from any other country.

This time, I am looking forward to going to China gain, partly being inspired by my current bedtime read, “Reamde” by Neal Stephenson, where some of the action takes place in China. If time permits, I will try to find some part of the city a little bit off the beaten tourist path. In Beijing, some of my most vivid experiences were from a district containing a maze of narrow streets and run-down houses, which I sought out on purpose. Actually, it turned out to be not nearly as photogenic as I hoped, but I tasted the most delicious (and cheap) Chinese dumplings in my life. It was in a tiny hole-in-a-wall restaurant, where an old woman literally made them after I made a selection from an entirely Chinese-language menu (my rudimentary knowledge of kanji from Japanese lessons helped enormously, to my own surprise), inkjet-printed on a piece of paper, laminated into thick plastic.

Speaking about books, I would like to start looking through the Beijing and Shanghai travel guide that I bought before my last trip. Usually, I leave myself too little time for planning of the touristy part of the business trip. This is really too bad, because I find the anticipation and initial processing the information about the new destination nearly as enjoyable as the travel itself.

January 6, 2015January 7, 2015

Switching off problem-solving by reading books

Recovery is an important part of physical training, and it is also crucial for intellectual and creative work. However, turning off mental problem-solving is quite challenging. Tim Ferris, the author of the famous “4-Hour Workweek” mentioned in his podcast that he read fiction for an hour before bedtime to change his mindset. I have been trying to do the same, although even a leisurely pursuit like this apparently requires some discipline.

The book I am currently reading is “Reamde” by Neal Stephenson. I am enjoying it quite a bit, even though I cannot help constantly comparing it with his, very different in many respects, cult classic “Cryptonomicon.”

I find that another good way to re-focus mental activity is to look at the photographs on 500px. Doing so is very refreshing not only at the end of the day, but any time there are a few minutes that cannot be used otherwise, thanks to a smartphone or a tablet that I almost always have with me. In fact, I am looking forward to enjoying both photos and e-books on the great screen of my shiny (and huge) new iPhone 6 plus. At the first glance, the reading experience is much improved, compared to the old iPhone 5. Stephen King suggested to always have a book handy, and thanks to the ever-evolving technology, I have many of them in my (largest) pocket.

January 5, 2015

Reasons for writing a blog

“Human beings are works in progress that mistakenly think they’re finished.”

Daniel Gilbert

While blogging is different from keeping a diary in that blogging is inherently a public activity, while a diary is usually private, both activities are great tools not only for developing the writing skills and the expertise in the subject of the blog/journal, but also for providing a set of autobiographical benchmarks to the author.

Daniel Gilbert, who wrote a classic book “Stumbling on Happiness” explains in his short TED talk that people tend to underestimate the amount of change their personalities will undergo within the next ten years from the current point in their lives. Thus, it is useful to examine the actual amount of change that that one’s personality (tastes in music, favourite people and places, etc.) experienced in the past ten years. As Gilbert puts it, “it has to do with the ease of remembering versus difficulty of imagining.” A journal or a blog provides a record, a reference point for this retrospective self-examination.

For me, this blog is a way of organizing my notes and thoughts on commonalities between photography (as an art, a business and a research tool), martial arts (as a way of personal development, bushido) and academic life (that of a researcher and a teacher). It is commonly said among photographers that “your first 10,000 photos are your worst” as a reference to the large amount of practice needed to achieve proficiency and to develop personal style. Actually, I think that it is much more than 10,000 photos. Your mileage may vary, of course. After all, talent is a strange thing with a non-uniform distribution among people. Somewhat unexpectedly though, among my first 10,000 photos are some re-discovered personal favourites that I stumbled upon while writing the blog.

January 4, 2015

Making a good start

The first practice of the year is significant in kendo, because it reinforces the importance of starting things “right”, which is applicable to any activity. After all, there is only one chance to start moving, but afterwards, there are multiple occasions to continue, stop or correct the course. Certainly, there are direct parallels with calligraphy, where beginning of a brushstroke determines its aesthetic quality, and photography, where obtaining correct focus and, to some degree, exposure during the shoot is irreplaceable by any amount and skill in post-processing.

I try to carry this mindset, which we practice in kendo to everything else I do. In this sense, any activity becomes a practice. Is this another New Year resolution? Perhaps, but I believe the key is to practice daily; the beginning of the year just seems like an appropriate time to reflect on this.

January 3, 2015January 5, 2015

On planning

I wrote earlier that working with other people is beneficial for the various projects, including photo shoots. The flip side of this is that the more people are involved, the higher the level of responsibility . As a consequence, more planning is needed in order for the project to succeed. In fact, the planning can become a project in itself.

I am preparing for the start of the new academic term, and planning for the course that I will be teaching has been consuming my time for the last couple of days. Actually, I like the planning stage and understand importance of teaching, but in my experience, there is a point of diminishing returns, beyond which more planning would not yield any substantial improvement in teaching (or, indeed, learning, from the students’ perspective). In fact, Richard Reis in “Tomorrow’s Professor” wrote that a common trait among top performing academics is the ability (and willingness) to be less than perfectly prepared for lectures and other components of their teaching. Doing so serves two purposes: it saves time for other activities, e.g. research (or, perhaps, kendo?), and it allows one to teach in a more natural, spontaneous manner, actually improving the quality of teaching.

Without over-analyzing this fact, I am going to take it as a~~n excuse~~ reason for putting the work away for tonight, even though “being perfectly prepared” is not even on the horizon at the moment.

January 2, 2015January 5, 2015

Indigo

My favourite colour is blue. Or maybe, purple, because in painting, it can appear either cool or warm, depending on the adjacent colours. Naturally, I find the colour indigo, which is between blue and purple in the electromagnetic spectrum, fascinating, with all its history and applications in art (fashion) and martial arts.

The indigo dye was developed in India, and it was a very rare commodity in Europe in the middle ages. During Napoleonic wars, which coincided with the development of technology that allowed mass production and dyeing of fabrics, the French uniforms (habit à la française) were dyed with indigo.

In Japan, the import of silk from China was restricted during various prolonged periods, and cotton was difficult to dye with anything, except indigo. Over time, an intricate process, indeed an art form in itself, of indigo dyeing was developed. There is a belief that indigo dye repels bacteria and insects. Probably, for that reason, practice uniforms for kendo (keiko go) are traditionally coloured with indigo.

Nowadays, indigo is often used to colour denim fabric. Interestingly, the much thought-after Japanese denim is often made on vintage shuttle looms, developed by Toyoda company in the 1920s. These looms are slow and produce a nonuniform fabric by today’s standards, but for denim, this is a valuable feature, as slight variations and imperfections is what makes the jeans unique.

I took some macro photos of the fabric of two pairs of jeans that I own: a factory-distressed pair bought as a souvenir while I was on sabbatical in Japan (I was lucky to find a size that fit) and a brand new “raw” denim pair (i.e. it has not been washed after dyeing). True denim enthusiasts are rumoured to go month or even years before washing their raw jeans in order to develop the wear patterns that are unique to the wearer. I don’t think I will go that far (my kendo keiko gi is sufficiently sweaty, so I would rather keep my other clothes relatively clean), but breaking in the new jeans will be a fun little project, even just for observing the changing hue of the indigo dye. Perhaps, I will take more closeup shots of the fabric to record the process.

I don’t think I will be able to reproduce the cool wear patterns of the pre-distressed jeans, but it is neat to know that they will be will be one-of-a-king and, in a very direct way, an expression of my lifestyle.

January 1, 2015January 5, 2015

New Year resolutions

I believe New Year resolutions are often not effective because, fundamentally, the first of January is not different from any other day for developing new habits or making changes in daily life. So if it is challenging to make small changes, one-by-one, throughout the year, it is even more difficult to make many drastic changes all at once.

Still, there is something to be said for aiming high, as David Swartz explained in “The Magic of Thinking Big.” I am fascinated by people, who explored similarities and interconnections in the underlying principles of scholarship, arts, and martial arts. There are many illustrious examples in history, from Miyamoto Musashi to Leonardo da Vinci, which are truly inspirations to the world.

A few months ago, I came across a quote from a note written by Bruce Lee to his wife in 1963, when they were dating. It resonates so deeply that I would not be able to formulate my own resolutions more clearly or more completely.

Here it is:

“…To live content with small means;
to seek elegance rather than luxury, and refinement rather than fashion, to be worthy, not respectable, and wealthy, not rich;
to study hard, think quietly, talk gently, act frankly;
to bear all cheerfully, do all bravely, await occasions, hurry never.
In other words, to let the spiritual, unbidden and unconscious, grow up through the common.”

December 31, 2014

My favourite photos of 2014

At the end of the year, I move my old photos to external storage, which is a chance to look through the last year’s folders. I certainly have some images that I like, but that are still unpublished on the web. Mostly, however, my Flickr photostream is a good representation of the photos that I like most. Among them, the ones in this post are my personal favourites, in no particular order.

Happy New Year!

December 30, 2014January 5, 2015

Importance of routine

“The lack of interruption in trains of thought may be the critical ingredient in an environment that enables creative flow.”
Ronald T. Kellogg, “The Psychology of Writing“

Establishing a habit of working in a certain physical environment and/or during a particular time of day can be very effective for maximizing performance, whatever the definition of that happens to be. Writers are famous for following rigid daily routines and odd rituals, but the underlying principles apply to any creative work or work that involves concentration and/or thinking, such as reading, academic research (which is mostly reading and technical writing), drawing/painting, practicing martial arts, etc.

I like how the rigid structure of a typical kendo practice, for example, serves to establish confidence in the teaching methods in the students of all levels. This routine is reinforced by reigi, good manners or etiquette, which is the first thing taught to beginners and which permeates the entire practice, from the the first bow upon entering the dojo to the last bow upon leaving it.

In other things that I do, the routine is not as rigid, but there is some structure, and I find that I depend on it more than I thought earlier. For example, in my research, I like to read technical papers during certain times of the day, and I try to reserve specific amounts of time for my own writing. I find that brief, regular sessions, a concept that I learned from “Tomorrow’s Professor” by Richard Reis, work well for me, but the lack of interruptions during these sessions is crucial.

Similarly, I find that attempting multitasking while doing photo editing does not work for me. Initially, I followed advice of some professional photographers, who claim that they can go through large amounts of photos in Lightroom while watching TV in the evening, for example. I found that doing so detracts from both activities for me, so that I neither enjoy the movie nor have fun editing the photos. Working on the photos becomes just that – work, and an otherwise good movie becomes a distraction.

Having said this, a routine can be a double-edged sword, which can lead to stagnation or even burnout. For me, a nice thing about the part-time nature of my photography is that I can experiment with different strategies of organizing my work without the confines and expectations (whether real or imagined) of a conventional working environment.

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