In my natural habitat

Street Photography Editing Workflow: iPad Pro Culling, Ricoh GR JPEGs & Daily Shooting Philosophy

This morning we’re gonna be doing some editing on my iPad Pro, just culling through some photographs that I made throughout December and January — 2025 / 2026, going through the work and making the final selections from the months that I’ve got so far.

Ever since I came back from Tokyo, I actually didn’t make final selections of my work yet. I let the catalog sort of back up — all of the days of the month — and now I’m calling through them tediously.

I went through all the different days from December. I went through everything from January up until now. And so I’m just going through the work, making the final selections from the month, and trying to basically catch up on work that I neglected.

Immediate Selections vs Backlog

With my process particularly, I do enjoy looking at photographs immediately upon returning home from the day of shooting — simply due to the fact that I make lots of pictures.

I make too many pictures to allow them to back up for an entire month and then go back and look at them.

If I shoot for an entire month and don’t look at the pictures each day and don’t make selections, that means I’m gonna have an entire week of just tedious culling later down the line.

I photograph rigorously — lots of clicks of the shutter.

My normal process is:

Make photos
Come home
Make quick selections
Back up the same day

But this backlog built up since returning from Tokyo. I got lazy with my practice this new year, and now I’m paying for it.

iPad Pro + Photos App Workflow

I use the iPad Pro and the built-in Photos app.

I like looking at photos in small thumbnails immediately.

What I do:

Go through a single day
Quickly favorite images just by looking at thumbnails
Go through the favorites
Drag them into a monthly selections folder
Move monthly folders into a yearly folder

That yearly folder is not a portfolio or final keeper folder.
It’s just a place for images that I find interesting enough to revisit later.

I now have three years of photographs sitting on my desk — printed as 4×6 prints — roughly 13,000 photos in black and white.

Maybe that’s bad practice. Maybe I should’ve been more on top of things earlier. But I’m shooting more than I ever have in my entire life.

Shooting More Than Ever → New Workflows

Because I’m making more pictures than ever, I’m trying to adopt workflows that allow me to:

Move quickly
Back things up fast
Not overthink

I don’t take selections too seriously. I’m honestly not attached to the photos.

Photography isn’t that serious to me. I do this for fun.

Making selections should be quick, then you move on.

That’s why I love the iPad Pro — dragging images is effortless.

Small JPEG Files & Speed

I shoot high-contrast black-and-white JPEGs.

Small files. Fast imports.

This file is 3.5 MB.

My iPad Pro is 2 TB, almost full — and I’ve been shooting every single day, hundreds of thousands of frames, for three years straight.

Small JPEGs make this possible.

If you’re shooting with the Ricoh, I highly suggest giving it a try.

Macro, Flash & Isolating Plants

I work in a greenhouse and have access to a lot of plants.

I’ve been making macro photographs using flash to isolate plants from the background — crushing the blacks and illuminating the highlights.

Using flash allows me to separate the subject from the background cleanly, something I struggled with before.

Macro + flash has been fascinating.

Philadelphia: Christmas Village & Street Energy

The Christmas Village in Philadelphia is one of the best times of the year for street photography.

From Thanksgiving through New Year’s:

Tons of people
Vendors
Energy
Families
Atmosphere

If you’re a street photographer, it’s an incredible time to visit.

Crop Mode Experiments (50mm / 71mm)

I’ve been experimenting heavily with crop mode:

50mm on the Ricoh GR III
71mm on the Ricoh GR IIIx

I started this accidentally in Tokyo and carried it back with me to Philadelphia.

Being able to get this close with a small camera in a crowded city is unprecedented.

This is something that only exists right now.

Automation & Not Thinking

I shoot mostly in:

AV mode
Program mode

I don’t want to think about settings.

I want automation so I can focus on being present.

I embrace crop mode, flash, automation — whatever helps me stay out of my head.

On Discipline, Rest & Obsession

I don’t like stopping.

Photography, training, yoga — I struggle to rest.

I recently injured my shoulder doing Bujangasana in Ashtanga yoga and had to force myself to slow down.

Maybe that’s a blessing and a curse.

But I know one thing:
Being out there making photos is what gives my life meaning.

Books, galleries, final selections — they don’t interest me.

Flow does. Flux does.

Photography as Becoming

My philosophy is simple:

My next photo is my best photo.

I never want to feel like I’ve mastered photography.

I want infinite potential.

I want to change every day.

That’s why I photograph daily.

Style Comes From the Subconscious

Style is not:

Black and white
Grit
Grain

Style comes from your subconscious.

From who you are.

It can’t be forced.

It arrives when you stop trying.

Street Photography as Dialogue With Life

I don’t hunt.
I don’t plan.
I don’t chase projects.

I live my life and bring my camera with me.

Photography teaches me who I am.

That’s the art of street photography.

Mummers Parade & Embracing the Obvious

The Mummers Parade on January 1st is a Philadelphia tradition.

People say:

“Don’t photograph the parade, photograph the crowd.”

Fuck it. Photograph the parade — your way.

Crop mode, abstraction, proximity.

Make something new.

The Long Game

This editing process is tedious.

I don’t love it.

But I know that catching up now allows me to keep moving forward.

I don’t care what happens to the work.

What matters is doing the thing.

Final Thoughts

Photography allows me to live adventurously.

Every day is new.

Every day is interesting.

I wander aimlessly, follow light, follow instinct.

Photography is just the excuse.

Learn My Full Workflow

If you want to see how I work more deeply:

http://dantesisofo.com

Click Guides → Ultimate Ricoh GR Street Photography Guide

Full workflow video
Camera settings
JPEG recipe
iPad setup
Philosophy

Thanks for watching.
I’ll see you in the next one.

Peace.

You’re Not Bored of Photography — You’re Looking at It Wrong

Never Be Bored in Photography

What’s popping, people? It’s Dante.

This morning, I’m thinking about boredom in photography and how to overcome burnout and stagnation.

I think everybody is looking for that next best picture, right? Always searching for those moments that feel interesting or worth photographing. Maybe you’re burning out. Maybe you’re bored of your hometown. I think that’s a completely natural thing to experience. Even I go through this.

What I remind myself every single day is to return to a blank slate.

To recognize that I am in control of my perception.
That I am in control of my curiosity.

That’s ultimately what I lean on when I go out to practice photography.

I try to return to a childlike state—a state of being where I’m not necessarily seeking, hunting, or looking for anything in particular. And through that blank slate, through that amateur reset, everything becomes fresh again.

I think boredom is normal.
But overcoming boredom is internal.

You can’t rely on your city, your hometown, or where you are to fuel your inspiration. That responsibility falls on you. You have to cultivate it from within.

So this is just a simple reminder to think about how you can cultivate a garden in your mind—a garden of flourishing and creativity—by channeling that inner child and returning to a blank slate, so you can continue to create every single day.

Thinking Is For Idiots

Don’t Trust People Who Can’t Do Pull Ups

Cut Away Everything

This passage is Plotinus at the peak of his mysticism, describing how the soul comes to know the Supreme (the One).

What Plotinus is saying

1. The Soul must remain unified

“Thus, the Soul unlit remains without that vision…”

The soul cannot perceive the highest reality while it is divided, scattered among desires, thoughts, sensations, and external things.

Unity is required for vision.

2. The Supreme is not seen by borrowed light

“…not by the light of any other principle…”

You don’t see the One by:

reasoning
concepts
senses
imagination
external knowledge

Those are reflected lights.
The One is seen only by its own light.

3. The Soul becomes what it sees

“The Supreme which is also the means to the vision…”

This is crucial.

The One is:

what is seen
the light by which it is seen
the act of seeing itself

There is no subject–object split.

Just as:

the eye sees the sun by the sun’s own light

So too:

the soul sees the One by becoming illuminated by it

4. Seeing is being

“for that which illumines the Soul is that which it is to see”

You don’t look at the One.

You are transformed into vision itself.

Knowledge here is not information — it is identity.

5. How is this accomplished?

“But how is this to be accomplished?
Cut away everything.”

This is the method.

Not adding.
Not learning more.
Not accumulating insight.

Subtracting.

Cut away images
Cut away thoughts
Cut away desires
Cut away identity
Cut away even the sense of “I am seeing”

Until only simple unity remains.

The core meaning

Plotinus is saying:

The highest truth is not known by thinking, but by becoming simple enough to receive it — and in that moment, knower and known are one.

Why this resonates with mysticism

This passage aligns with:

Christian apophatic mysticism
Eastern non-duality
“Be still and know that I am God”
“Die before you die”

It is not philosophy about God.

It is a practice of un-becoming until the divine is revealed from within.

There’s more to life than what meets the eye

January 12, 2026 – Philadelphia

Street Photography as a Way of Being | Photographing the Mundane

Street Photography as a Way of Being | Photographing the Mundane Download

What’s poppin, people? It’s Dante.

Getting my morning started here in Center City, Philadelphia. Just making some photographs with the Ricoh GR IIIx. Sounds like there’s a subway running underneath me.

I’m just following my curiosity, photographing everything as I typically do.

Check out this nice little exit sign.

Making photos of whatever I find.

Look at this nice little loop, this knot that’s formed. Go to macro mode, photograph the shape. It’s kind of beautiful, you know — these simple abstract shapes that you can make.

Photograph Everything, Don’t Take Yourself So Seriously

I think that when you’re practicing street photography, the most liberating way to do this kind of thing is to not really take yourself so seriously and to photograph everything.

Find yourself lost in your hometown. Just wandering.

When I’m photographing, I look at all the details — the trash, the textures, the buildings up above. I’m just kind of curious about how life will look photographed.

The Somatic Experience of Being in the Street

When you’re open and receptive, when you’re in the moment, responding to the sights, the sounds, the smells of the street — embracing the somatic bodily experience of life openly — your intuition kicks in.

You enter this Zen zone of just noticing.

Noticing all of life’s complexities.

All the different things around me become infinitely fascinating once I uplift them in a photograph.

Abstracting Reality Into New Worlds

I’m extracting from the world and abstracting it — creating new worlds from nothing.

But the something that I have in my frame isn’t necessarily what I see.

A lot of the time, what I see in my photograph when I get the result back is surprising.

What you see isn’t what you get.

What you get is what you didn’t see.

Looking Beyond the Veil

High contrast.
Black and white.
Cranked to the max.
Underexposing.
Using the exposure compensation dial.

It feels like I’m looking beyond the veil.

The interesting path for me going forward lies in the mundane nature of reality.

But I don’t think reality is necessarily what it seems when you photograph things.

Life becomes a dream.

Childlike Curiosity & Rebirth

That idea flows through me when I’m on the street.

Everything I see and witness is fueled by that inner childlike curiosity — like a child stumbling through the world.

Everything becomes fascinating again.
Everything feels fresh again.

Each morning feels like I’m reborn.

There’s a vitality that flows through me that provides clarity when I’m on the street.

Responding to the Body, Not the Mind

I just want to feel deeply.

I respond to the gut.
I respond to instinct.

That bodily, somatic experience of being in the street — being receptive, being open — is what guides me.

I’ll blow around in the wind like a trash bag, like those pigeons flying overhead.

I photograph aimlessly.

Not trying to say anything.

Just allowing whatever comes my way to be what’s on display in the photographs I make.

Control, Letting Go, and Walking

The beauty of photography lies in spontaneity.

You go outside.
You walk.
You see your town.
You make photographs.

The only thing you’re really in control of is being out there.

You’re not in control of coming home with an interesting photo.
You’re not in control of seeing anything exciting.

What is in your control is moving your physical body through the world.

Being open.
Being receptive.
Feeling.

Through the stream of photographing throughout the day, you’ll find what you want it to say.

You don’t need to go out there trying to say anything.

Jump Into the Portal

Look at the puddles.

Jump into the portal.

Life becomes a dream when you walk around in the street photographing everything.

You just gotta slow down.

Oops.

Turn this off.

The Only Goal You Need in 2026

What’s poppin’, people? It’s Dante.

Currently in the woods here on this beautiful Monday, just photographing with the Ricoh GR IIIX.

Thinking today about goals — you know, setting goals in 2026.

I think the goals that we set should be internal, not necessarily seeking an external goal, but thinking more critically about how we can cultivate curiosity.

Wow, look at these geese flying by.
I’m about to get this photo.
Crop mode. 71 millimeters.
The geese.

Oh yeah.
Oh yeah — look at those geese, baby.

And so yeah, this is what it’s all about, right?
Waking up in the morning with enthusiasm for the day.

When you look at the word enthusiasm, it basically means to be possessed by God.
I want to wake up possessed by God each day — simply curious and grateful for another day.

I use photography this way:
as me saying yes to life,
affirming life,
and just saying thank you for the day.

My ultimate aim — my ultimate goal of 2026 — is to increase my curiosity by 1% each day.

By cultivating curiosity, it feels like there’s just endless possibility.

Detached from the outcome of making something “strong.”
Detached from the outcome of seeking fame, money, or any sort of reputation with photography.

Instead, really honing in on that internal goal of curiosity —
and waking up eager for the day.

That’s my simple way forward with this approach to everyday life and photography.

The goal is curiosity.

Thoughts on abstraction as a solution in street photography

So for the past three years, I’ve been leaning towards abstraction in my Street photography.

I currently live in Philadelphia, my hometown, and I’m blessed to have a big city with lots of people and things to photograph. However, there’s not necessarily interesting moments or scenes to photograph most of the time. It’s a very mundane, every day, city.

And so because of that, the solution to this problem became abstraction for me.

I simply use abstraction as away for me to remain curious. Away for me to photograph the mundane, but still find new ways to articulate things.

And so I think abstraction is a great solution to this problem of the Monday nature of life in Street photography.

And so abstraction becomes something that I can carry with me wherever I may be, no matter if I’m in a bustling marker city, or on the outskirts in a forest.

I use abstraction, not only as a way for me to create a new world and evoke an emotional quality or a mood within the frames, because of course this is my interest, but in a very fundamental practical level, it is a solution to the problem being, how to walk the same mundane lane every single day, but still find something new to photograph, something new to say…