Askesis (Greek: ἄσκησις) means exercise, training, or discipline. It originally referred to the physical training of athletes but later evolved to describe spiritual or philosophical discipline—a practice of self-control and inner cultivation.
In the context of Stoicism, Cynicism, and Christian asceticism, askesis refers to the intentional practice of self-denial, simplicity, and mental fortitude aimed at achieving moral or spiritual excellence.
Think of it as:
Askesis = voluntary hardship for the sake of inner strength.
Examples:
A Stoic waking up at dawn to journal and reflect.
A monk fasting to purify the soul.
A philosopher walking barefoot to toughen his body and detach from luxury.
It’s training not for the body alone—but for the soul.
A decade of photographs. 11 full contact sheets from shoots in Baltimore, Jericho, Zambia, and more — paired with real stories and lessons on intuition, composition, courage, and storytelling.
“Don’t leave the scene until the scene leaves you.”
Depth, Presence, and the Visual Puzzle 📥 Download PDF
This guide breaks down layering as both a visual technique and a way of being present in the world. Featuring real-world examples, behind-the-scenes GoPro POVs, and field philosophy.
Camera setup. Snap focus. Tourist technique. Composition on the fly. Workflow from camera to blog. Everything you need to master the Ricoh GR as a street weapon — no editing required.
Today we’re going to be discussing the Ricoh GR IV Monochrome’s red filter.
We’ll talk about:
what the red filter does
how it works mechanically
why it matters for black and white photography
and look at some before and after examples to see how impactful it really is.
The Ricoh GR IV Monochrome has a physical red filter built into the lens that darkens blue light, increases contrast, and interacts directly with the monochrome sensor to produce stronger black and white tones straight out of camera.
You can see me turning it on here. I actually have the video button on the side of the camera set so that when I hold it down, it toggles the red filter on and off.
Honestly, this is extremely clutch and really innovative.
The Immediate Impact
When I’m out on the street using it, the first thing I notice is how dark the sky becomes.
With the monochrome sensor and the built-in red filter, blue skies suddenly turn deep black. The contrast becomes dramatic, and it changes the entire feel of the photograph.
The red filter is blocking blue light and allowing red light to pass.
That means it’s changing the tonal relationships in black and white photography.
And the effect is honestly insane.
Look at the result of this photo — the dark blue sky and the dark water with the reflection popping from the brighter areas. This is something I wasn’t really able to achieve with the Ricoh GR III or Ricoh GR IIIx.
Before, I would try to get results like this by underexposing and playing with exposure. But that never gave the same effect.
Now the red filter naturally produces those deep black skies.
Stronger Contrast and Tonal Separation
What the red filter is doing is increasing overall contrast and separating tones more aggressively.
Bright objects stay bright.
Cool-toned areas — especially blues — become much darker.
That’s huge.
Because one of the problems I had when shooting black and white on the Ricoh GR III was that when I underexposed to create drama, everything became darker, including the highlights.
But with the red filter, the contrast separation becomes much more pronounced.
The images become more:
graphic
dramatic
abstract
And honestly, it just looks beautiful.
Dramatic Skies and Abstract Landscapes
One of the most exciting parts about using the red filter is the sky.
The sky becomes this rich deep black, while the clouds pop bright and defined.
It creates this surreal, almost dreamlike look.
And that’s been keeping me curious.
Because suddenly I can take a completely ordinary scene — a house next to the river, some buildings, a simple skyline — and transform it into something much more dramatic just by toggling the filter.
The red filter can turn a mundane situation into something visually powerful.
The Exposure Effect
The red filter cuts roughly two stops of light.
That means:
exposure drops slightly
contrast increases
tones deepen
When you compare before and after images, you can clearly see that the sky and water become much darker while highlights remain visible.
This is where the contrast really starts to shine.
What It Does to Skin Tones
The effect on skin tones is actually really interesting.
I made a self-portrait with the red filter, and what happens is that warm tones become lighter.
Skin appears smoother.
Freckles and blemishes are reduced.
There’s almost this soft glow on the skin, which I found really beautiful in the image.
One thing I love about black and white photography is separating the subject from the background.
With the red filter, the background can become crushed in black, while the face stays soft and luminous in the light.
It creates a really strong visual separation.
Darkening Blue Objects
Anything blue becomes darker.
That includes:
sky
water
distant atmosphere
You can see it clearly in scenes with the river — the water and sky become nearly black while reflections from brighter surfaces still pop through.
That creates a very graphic, high-contrast look.
And the abstraction you can get from that is extremely intriguing.
A Physical Filter, Not Digital
This is important.
The red filter on the Ricoh GR IV Monochrome is not a digital effect.
It’s a physical filter that shapes the light before it reaches the sensor.
That means the tonal effect is baked into the image during capture.
The ND filter from previous GR models is replaced with this red filter.
But Ricoh compensated for that by adding a faster electronic shutter up to 1/16,000th of a second, so you can still shoot in bright light.
Interestingly, the red filter also behaves a little bit like a mini ND filter because it reduces exposure by about two stops.
Why It Works So Well with a Monochrome Sensor
The Ricoh GR IV Monochrome sensor has no color filter array.
Every pixel records pure luminance information.
Because of that, color filters behave more like they did in black and white film photography.
So the red filter is literally shaping the luminance relationships in the scene before the image is recorded.
This isn’t something you’re recreating later in software.
It’s happening optically.
Why I Love It for My Workflow
This is especially amazing for me because I shoot JPEG.
So the image comes straight out of camera with this tonal structure already baked in.
No editing needed.
Just shoot.
When I Use the Red Filter
Lately I’ve been using the red filter mostly when I see:
blue skies
buildings and architecture
rivers and landscapes
It’s perfect for those walks along the river where the sky and water can create strong contrast.
I haven’t used it as much for classic street photography yet, but I can definitely see it becoming part of that workflow too.
Final Thoughts on the Ricoh GR IV Monochrome
This camera is honestly one of the most interesting photographic tools I’ve ever used.
Think about the history of photography.
Niepce experimenting with chemistry.
Eugène Atget carrying around a huge wooden camera with a bellows and tripod.
And now we have a camera that:
turns on in half a second
has image stabilization
can shoot 1/16,000th of a second
and has a mechanical red filter built into the lens
It’s kind of insane when you think about it.
You can pretty much be a human tripod.
I’m not the biggest tech guy, honestly.
I just wanted to experiment with this feature and share my thoughts.
Today we’re starting something new on the channel — a little behind-the-scenes look into my photography process.
This is officially Street Photography Diary Entry #1, where I’m sharing my visual diary with the Ricoh GR4 Monochrome. I’m going through some photos from a recent walk and talking about what I’m discovering with this camera.
The very first photograph from this walk in my hometown, Philadelphia, was made using the red filter.
And honestly — the red filter is insane.
I’m starting to realize that if you’re a monochrome shooter, this upgrade is absolutely worth it. Having a monochrome sensor paired with a red filter changes the game drastically.
Even just seeing the results on the camera screen has me extremely excited.
The Red Filter Changes Everything
When I shoot with the Ricoh GR4 Monochrome, I typically use multi-segment metering mode.
In scenes like this, I’ll usually use the EV to slightly underexpose, especially when using the red filter. That helps preserve highlights and also boosts contrast.
In the past, when I was shooting with the GR III, I would try to replicate this look using my JPEG recipe:
High contrast
Small JPEG files
Underexposing slightly
But even doing that, I could never achieve this result.
The way the bridge pops out from that black background here is completely nuanced in a way that surprised me. I personally had never used a red filter before, and now I’m seeing completely new results.
My Simple Monochrome Workflow
I shoot small JPEG files, which makes my workflow extremely simple.
My process is straightforward:
Import photos directly to my iPad
Publish immediately to my website
Back everything up with Lightroom CC cloud
Move on
That’s it.
It’s a very streamlined way of working, and it keeps photography feeling light and fluid.
Why I Photograph in Monochrome
For me, shooting monochrome is not an aesthetic decision.
It’s actually a solution to a problem.
Photography asks the question:
How can we articulate the mundane nature of everyday life in new ways?
And for me, the answer is simple:
Follow the light.
By stripping away color and photographing in black and white, I find infinite ways to keep returning to photography every day.
The Light Is the Subject
These days, I’m not trying to photograph interesting things.
I’m not searching for moments.
I’m simply looking at the light.
When you think about the medium of photography, it’s really just drawing with light.
So when I’m walking the streets, light itself becomes the subject.
I’m not looking for impactful photographs. I’m not looking for anything specific.
I’m simply following the light.
Walking the Schuylkill River Trail
On this particular walk, I was along the Schuylkill River Trail here in Philadelphia.
There’s a beautiful new suspension bridge that connects the boardwalk to the Grey’s Ferry area.
I walk this trail almost every day, especially when the weather is nice.
And on the surface, these walks are completely mundane.
It’s the same path every day. A narrow trail. You can’t really veer off.
Just the road ahead.
But once you embrace monochrome photography, these spaces become infinitely interesting.
Because now I’m not dependent on:
an interesting character
a dramatic moment
a clever juxtaposition
Instead, I’m simply letting light elevate the mundane.
Surprise Is the Fuel
At the end of the day, I’m curious about how light renders onto my monochrome sensor.
Using the red filter:
the sky crushes into deep blacks
subjects pop with high contrast
scenes become completely transformed
And I allow myself to be surprised.
That surprise is actually what keeps me awake when I return home and start reviewing the photos.
I’m excited to see:
How did life render on the sensor today?
Making Frames in the Light
When I see something interesting, I’ll raise the camera and make lots of frames.
For example, I was photographing a pool of light with these sticks coming up from the ground.
I moved around while shooting, trying to see how the light beams interacted with the scene.
These small moments bring me a lot of joy.
And when I get home and review the photos, the novelty that light provides keeps me endlessly curious.
Photographing My Backyard
Because of this, I no longer feel the need to travel somewhere new to photograph.
My backyard here along the river trail is more than enough.
By simplifying everything and working with monochrome, the world opens up again.
The Red Filter Surprises
I also noticed something interesting while shooting toward the light with the red filter.
Sometimes these strange flares appear.
There’s likely another surface between the filter and lens that causes these reflections.
I was photographing a climber on the suspension bridge and noticed these unexpected flares appearing in the frame.
Once again — the surprise keeps me curious.
Small Glimmers of Light
Even the smallest things catch my attention now.
A reflection in a window. A glimmer of light on the ground.
That’s enough.
I’m just trying to stay sensitive on the street and photograph everything — while primarily following the light.
Playing Double Dutch on Chestnut Street
Later that day I walked down Chestnut Street.
The weather was beautiful. The sun was out and people were everywhere.
I came across a group of girls playing double dutch.
Immediately I jumped into the scene.
I asked them:
“Can I get in?”
So I started playing double dutch.
Now listen — I do not know how to play double dutch.
They were spinning the rope ridiculously fast.
They were definitely trying to mess me up.
But the beauty of the Ricoh GR is that I don’t appear as a photographer.
I’m just a guy walking down the street.
So I start playing. Then I pull the camera up.
Suddenly I’m inside the scene, making photographs.
Photography Is About Life
The photographer’s duty is simply to be present.
To engage with humanity.
Because photography actually has nothing to do with photography.
It has everything to do with how you experience life.
The real traits of a photographer are things like:
curiosity
courage
intuition
Composition, timing, and lighting are easy.
Those things come with repetition.
But curiosity and courage — those are the real skills.
Don’t Take Photography So Seriously
My philosophy is simple:
Play.
Let the chips fall where they may.
The more you play, the more you develop your authentic way of seeing.
I don’t go out pretending to be some serious visual storyteller trying to make impactful photographs.
I’m just living my life.
The camera comes along for the ride.
And I photograph what I find.
Philadelphia Photo Club
At the end of the day I stopped by a local photo club at the Philadelphia Library.
If you’re from Philly, check out the art section where the photo books are.
This was my first time joining the club.
I met some interesting people and presented some new work.
Flux Volume 1 — Tokyo
I showed my new book:
Flux Volume 1
This is my work from Tokyo — 13 days of photographing.
The photographs turned out beautifully in the small 5×8 trade book from Blurb.
I feel like after a decade of photographing, my vision finally came together on this trip.
I pushed myself in:
Shibuya Crossing
the alleyways of Shinjuku
pools of light across the city
And I became fascinated with faces as the central subject.
For 13 days straight I was completely obsessed with photographing Tokyo.
A New Series on the Channel
This street photography diary will become a new series on the channel.
I’ll share the photographs I’m making as I go out and shoot every day.
Work in progress. The process. The evolution.
Because photography is a constant state of becoming.
A state of flux.
Every day is simply another opportunity to make new frames.
The idea of the Overman (Übermensch) comes from Friedrich Nietzsche. The Overman is a human who creates his own values instead of following the herd. He lives creatively, courageously, and playfully — transforming life into art.
If we imagine that mindset applied to street photography, the approach becomes something very different from ordinary photography.
1. The Overman Rejects the Herd
Most photographers copy trends: Leica aesthetic, Instagram edits, safe compositions.
The Overman would not care.
He would create his own visual language.
He walks the street like a conqueror of perception.
Not asking:
“What will people like?”
“Is this trendy?”
“Will this get likes?”
But asking:
What do I see?
What vision wants to emerge through me?
Street photography becomes an act of self-creation.
2. The Overman Treats the Street as a Stage
For the Overman, the city is not chaos.
It is a living theater.
Every passerby becomes a character. Every shadow becomes a symbol. Every moment is mythic.
The photographer becomes a myth-maker of the everyday.
A man stepping off a curb is no longer a pedestrian.
He is Achilles crossing the battlefield of asphalt.
3. The Overman Embraces Risk
Most photographers hesitate.
The Overman steps forward.
He gets close. He trusts instinct. He shoots boldly.
Because hesitation is a form of weakness.
The Overman believes:
Better a bold photograph that fails than a safe photograph that never lived.
4. The Overman Creates Meaning
The herd photographs events.
The Overman photographs symbols.
He sees:
irony
tension
humor
contradiction
power
He sees the spirit of the age in a single gesture.
Street photography becomes philosophy in visual form.
5. The Overman is Playful
Nietzsche said the highest stage of the spirit is the child.
Playful. Creative. Free.
So the Overman photographer moves through the street like a cosmic trickster.
Light. Fast. Curious.
6. “A Gay Giant Flying on Mercury’s Wings”
This image actually captures something very true.
In mythology, Mercury (Hermes) had winged sandals, symbolizing speed and fluidity.
The Overman photographer would move through the street like this:
quick
joyful
mischievous
impossible to pin down
Not heavy.
Not anxious.
But light and airborne.
A photographer dancing through reality.
The Overman Street Photographer
He walks the city like a god among men.
Not arrogant — but fully alive.
He sees what others miss.
He acts when others hesitate.
And when the shutter clicks, it is not just a photograph.
It is a declaration of life.
Honestly Dante, this actually aligns a lot with your own Flux philosophy — the idea that life is in motion and that the photographer enters the stream of reality and responds instinctively.
What’s poppin’, people? It’s Dante, currently along the Schuylkill River here in Philadelphia, thinking today about why I choose the Ricoh GR IV Monochrome for my street photography.
So I’m no stranger to Ricoh. In 2015, I picked up the GR II and made some of my earliest and best photos with that camera. Fast forward seven years, I picked up the GR III and started photographing in high contrast black and white with small JPEG files.
Now in 2026, picking up the Ricoh GR IV Monochrome and really pushing myself forward with this commitment, with this mindset shift in my practice — adopting a monochrome sensor, adopting a streamlined workflow, stripping away color, stripping away decision generally, removing friction from my life as a photographer.
It seems that the more I go forward on this journey as a photographer, the more I’m looking to subtract from the practice.
I’m trying to strip away everything from photography and return to the essence of the medium.
Commitment Changes How You See
I’m not going to sit here and tell you about the technical details of the camera system — how it renders life on the sensor or what the files look like.
But I will tell you that the way your mind shifts when committing to a practice — when committing to black and white photography — is unlike anything.
For me as a photographer, my goal is to continue photographing.
So I decided to remove friction. Remove choice from my life.
Whether or not I shoot color or black and white. Go left or right. Use this camera or that lens.
I strip it down to this simple black box with a shutter button that allows me to cultivate instinct.
I don’t want to think when I’m on the street.
When I photograph things, I’m just curious about how life will look like photographed.
I’m not hunting for photographs.
I simply throw the camera in my pocket, live my life, and photograph what I find.
Infinite Novelty in the Mundane
No matter where I am — whether I’m in the bustling city or on the side of the river here in the outskirts where I usually dwell — I find infinite ways to play this game of photography.
By adopting a black and white workflow, I’ve found new ways to articulate the mundane.
And I find infinite novelty all around me as a photographer.
By stripping away color and returning to the essence of the medium — light itself — I become more curious.
I become more joyous.
Because life really is glorious.
Life isn’t necessarily what it seems.
When I photograph things, I’m not saying that this is a fact. I’m not looking at life as this or that.
I’m wondering.
What You Get Back Is What You Didn’t See
When I make a photograph and commit to monochrome with everything baked into the high-contrast file — contrast settings cranked to the max — you could argue that what you see is what you get.
You can’t go back and post-process.
But what’s interesting is:
What I get back in the photograph is what I didn’t see.
Photography with monochrome becomes a natural abstraction of life.
And once you go monochrome, it’s almost like you can’t go back.
You can’t unsee the infinite novelty that’s all around you.
Light provides endless ways to return to photography.
A Streamlined Practice
My goal is simple:
Wake up and pick the camera.
Walk more. Photograph more. Do more.
When I streamline the practice into the most simplified workflow possible — small JPEG files around five megabytes, processing baked in, nothing to tweak — I cultivate instinct.
I cultivate a practice where:
I shoot → I go home → I publish.
Shoot. Go home. Publish.
And I exist in this perpetual stream of becoming, evolving every day, making new frames while walking the same lane that I walk every single day.
Following the Light
That’s why I choose the Ricoh GR for monochrome.
It reshapes your mind.
It changes the way you look and experience life.
From that state of curiosity, you can infinitely return to photography because of the way light provides the novelty.
It’s everywhere.
Right now I’m looking at the sky — the blue sky above, the tree in the foreground, the white popping from that sky.
I throw on a red filter and photograph the patterns of nature.
And what I get back in the photograph isn’t what I was looking at.
When I go home and review the photos, I smile.
I’m eager for the next day to wake up and photograph more.
Because there are infinite ways to find new things inside the photographs you make.
The World Is Always in Flux
With a red filter, I can photograph the same scene twice and get two completely different results.
I could stand on the same street and photograph the same scene every single day for the rest of my life.
But I will never make the same photograph twice.
The light is always changing.
The world is always in flux.
And so are you.
Your cells replenish. You grow older. You evolve as an artist.
There’s beauty in stripping away the superfluous technical aspects of photography and returning to pure instinct.
Stop thinking. Start shooting.
Just live and respond intuitively from the gut.
Over time, you cultivate your authentic expression.
Your style emerges — not because you chose black and white — but because you removed friction and lived your life with a camera.
Photography Is a Way of Living
Photography has nothing to do with photography.
Photography has everything to do with:
How you engage with humanity
How you live your everyday life
If you’re curious about life and you’re following the light, it’s inevitable that you will find your authentic expression.
Right now I’m hearing the cars passing by.
The railroad track.
The wind moving through the leaves.
The rocks beneath my feet.
Walking barefoot.
Feeling the sunlight on my skin.
Photography isn’t about the medium or even the content inside the frame.
It’s about how it reorients the way you see and feel life.
Slip the Camera in Your Pocket
So the more you walk, the more you see.
And the more you practice your photography.
I’m trying to make it inevitable that I practice.
So I slip the Ricoh in my pocket.
I live my life.
And I photograph what I find.
And sometimes I just watch the geese pass by and smile.
That’s really why I choose Ricoh.
A Quick Note: Flux Volume 1
Also check out the first edition of Flux Volume 1, a small publication of my photographs from Tokyo.
It’s 13 days in Tokyo, all photographed with the Ricoh GR III and Ricoh GR IIIx in high-contrast black and white.
I put together a little trade book through Blurb with a collage cover I designed.
That trip to Tokyo honestly felt like the moment when my vision really came together.
Photographing in the pools of light at Shibuya Crossing and the gritty alleyways of Shinjuku at night — something clicked in my practice.
So I compiled those 13 days into this small book.
If you’re curious, you can check it out through the link in the description.
The Joy of Looking
Anyway, those are my thoughts for today.
I’m excited to see what kind of new photos I can make with the Ricoh GR IV Monochrome.
Look at this birdhouse right here with the sun glowing behind it.
That is beautiful.
When you look at the LCD screen of a monochrome camera, it almost feels like looking beyond the veil.
