My message of the day with photography is this: the more you take it seriously, the less enjoyable it becomes. But the more you let the chips fall as they may — embracing the spirit of play — the more the keepers will come.
When you’re out there trying, hunting, searching, forcing… nothing actually occurs.
But when you let go and detach, you enter that flow. That state of being where photography is effortless — and the flow state becomes inevitable.
Photography has nothing to do with photography. Photography has everything to do with how you engage with humanity.
Out here. In the open world. On the front lines of life.
Curiosity, Courage, and Enthusiasm
The goal of you as the photographer is to cultivate curiosity and courage. Your enthusiasm for life — that’s what’s on display.
It’s easy to synthesize content with form. It’s easy to make a composition that’s impactful in a frame.
What’s difficult is waking up eager for the day.
And I believe that enthusiastic state is what’s ultimately reflected in the things we make. The way you feel about life. The way you engage with the world — generally.
Stop trying and start being.
Just live your everyday life. Bring your camera along for the ride. And put four corners around what you find.
Today I’m looking at a random collection of photographs from my archive, shooting high-contrast black and white with the Ricoh GR III, and talking about street photography — my approach, the practice, and where I find meaning in the process itself.
With the idea of making pictures, we often get caught up in the outcome. But what I’m really interested in with photography is discovering, asking questions, and remaining curious about life in general.
When I’m making photographs, I’m not trying to make a great photograph. I’m trying to explore, experiment, tinker — to find something new in the frame. That happens through mistakes, through recognizing gestures and relationships, and through responding to instinct. I try to let the chips fall where they may and see what manifests.
I’m not really controlling anything.
In street photography, we’re only in control of so much. We’re in control of how often we go out, how often we move our physical body, how much we see, and how often we photograph. We’re not in control of whether we come home with a great photograph or whether something interesting reveals itself.
What is in our control is responding. Responding to instinct and intuition. Synthesizing the foreground and background. Feeling the relationships in the frame and pressing the shutter.
Photography requires consistency. Repetition. Discipline. Putting in the reps.
Street photography is a numbers game.
The best street photographers aren’t the ones who know every compositional trick or who’ve read every book. They’re the ones who walk every single day with a camera in hand. They show up.
When you put the work in, results eventually come out of the practice. But that only happens when you’re immersed in the moment — not attached to the outcome.
When the outcome becomes the goal, it inhibits your ability to enter the flow state.
When you’re fully immersed in the practice, the outcome becomes secondary.
Meaning, for me, is found in presence. In being aware. In responding to instinct through photography. That’s where the richness is — the embodied experience of making photos.
That’s why I practice street photography.
The photographs I come home with are just a record of the day. A reminder of how I live my life. I don’t separate good from bad. I see everything as a stream.
I follow intuition.
I don’t use guidelines. I don’t use themes. I don’t use checklists. Those things inhibit me. I want to walk with an open mind and photograph whatever I find, without attachment to what it means or what it represents.
Responding to instinct is the fastest way to cultivate authentic expression.
Instinct is primal. Sometimes it’s light. Sometimes gesture. Sometimes a symbol — like a cross on gravel. I respond quickly. I’m not thinking. I’m doing.
Presence and noticing matter more than composition.
Composition is secondary. Easy.
The real work is being out there — embodied — engaging with humanity at the forefront. When you throw yourself onto the front lines of life with a camera in hand, entering the flow state becomes inevitable.
Always have the camera with you. Live your life. Bring the camera along for the ride. Respond to what catches your eye — but more importantly, what resonates in your body.
Through mistakes, whims, and intuition, your expression begins to emerge.
Street photography comes down to presence, consistency, and movement. You’re not in control of what you see. You’re not in control of coming home with something great.
You are in control of walking.
Photography is a physical, embodied practice. To make great street photographs, you must be consistent.
That’s my thought for the day.
The goal of this channel is simple: share photos, share ideas, openly and candidly look at photographs, and hopefully inspire you to go out and practice.
Find joy in the process of becoming.
We’re always evolving. Transforming. Growing.
Never hitting a peak.
Just photographing endlessly, with longevity.
By cultivating an amateur mindset — loose, fluid, integrated into everyday life — you’ll find more meaning and more joy in your practice as a street photographer.
Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite is a mysterious Christian theologian and mystic writing in the late 5th or early 6th century. He deliberately adopts the name Dionysius the Areopagite, the Athenian convert of St. Paul mentioned in Acts 17, in order to give apostolic authority to his writings.
His works synthesize Christian theology, Neoplatonic metaphysics, and mystical experience into one of the most influential spiritual systems in Western Christianity.
He profoundly shaped:
Medieval theology
Mysticism
Angelology
Negative (apophatic) theology
Figures like Maximus the Confessor, Aquinas, Eckhart, Bonaventure, and the Cloud of Unknowing tradition
Core Vision
At the heart of Pseudo-Dionysius’ thought is this paradox:
God is utterly transcendent and unknowable — yet present in all things.
Human language, concepts, images, and even theology ultimately fail to grasp God’s essence. True union with God occurs beyond thought, in silence, darkness, and unknowing.
The Major Works
1. The Divine Names
This text explores how we can speak meaningfully about God without reducing God to human categories.
Key Ideas
God is beyond all names, yet we must use names to approach Him.
Scriptural names (Good, Being, Light, Love, Wisdom) are true but limited.
Each name reveals something real about God’s activity, not His essence.
Important Distinction
Essence (ousia): What God is — unknowable.
Energies/Processions: How God acts — knowable.
God is called Good not because goodness defines Him, but because all goodness flows from Him.
2. Mystical Theology
This is the shortest but most radical work.
Central Teaching
True knowledge of God comes through unknowing.
We must negate all affirmations about God.
We move from light → cloud → darkness.
Union with God occurs beyond intellect, beyond language, beyond images.
Famous Concept
The Divine Darkness
God is not darkness because He lacks light, but because His light is too intense for human perception.
God is known by unknowing.
This text deeply influenced later Christian mystics, especially Meister Eckhart and the apophatic tradition.
3. The Celestial Hierarchy
This work lays out the famous nine orders of angels, arranged in three triads.
Angelic Orders
First Triad (closest to God)
Seraphim — burning love
Cherubim — fullness of knowledge
Thrones — divine stability
Second Triad
Dominions
Virtues
Powers
Third Triad (closest to humanity)
Principalities
Archangels
Angels
Angels are not merely beings but symbols of divine order, mediation, and illumination.
4. The Ecclesiastical Hierarchy
This is the earthly mirror of the celestial hierarchy.
Core Idea
Just as angels mediate divine light in heaven, sacraments, clergy, and rituals mediate divine life on earth.
Baptism
Eucharist
Ordination
Burial rites
Each rite is both symbolic and transformative, guiding the soul upward toward God.
The Church is understood as a ladder of ascent, not merely an institution.
5. The Letters
The letters clarify and defend Dionysius’ theology.
They emphasize:
Humility in theology
The danger of over-defining God
The necessity of symbols for beginners
Silence for the spiritually mature
The Threefold Spiritual Path
Pseudo-Dionysius outlines a classic mystical progression:
1. Purification (Catharsis)
Detachment from passions
Moral discipline
Preparation of the soul
2. Illumination (Photismos)
Symbolic understanding
Participation in divine light
Sacramental life
3. Union (Henosis)
Beyond thought
Beyond images
Beyond self
Direct participation in God
This structure becomes foundational for Christian mysticism.
Apophatic vs. Cataphatic Theology
Cataphatic (Affirmative)
God is Good
God is Love
God is Being
Apophatic (Negative)
God is not good (as humans define good)
God is not being
God is not knowable
Both are necessary — but apophatic theology is higher.
Why Pseudo-Dionysius Matters
He bridges Christianity and Greek philosophy without collapsing either.
He legitimizes mystical experience within orthodox theology.
He provides a metaphysical framework for silence, humility, and awe.
He profoundly influenced medieval, monastic, and contemplative Christianity.
His thought insists that:
The closer you get to God, the less you speak.
In One Sentence
Pseudo-Dionysius teaches that God is best approached not by knowing more, but by surrendering knowledge itself, ascending through symbols into silence, darkness, and divine union.
The Chosen is a multi-season historical drama about the life of Jesus of Nazareth, told primarily through the eyes of the people who meet him—his disciples, followers, skeptics, and enemies.
Here’s the clean, no-fluff breakdown 👇
What makes
The Chosen
different
1.
It’s character-first, not sermon-first
Instead of jumping straight into miracles and divinity, the show slows way down:
Peter is impulsive, broke, and stressed
Matthew is socially awkward and isolated
Mary Magdalene carries deep trauma You meet them as humans before you meet them as saints.
That’s the hook.
2.
Jesus feels approachable
Played by Jonathan Roumie, this Jesus:
laughs
jokes
teases his friends
gets tired
listens more than he lectures
He’s reverent without being distant. Sacred, but not untouchable.
3.
Biblical, but not wooden
The show sticks closely to Scripture in spirit, but:
fills in gaps imaginatively
builds plausible backstories
adds everyday dialogue Scripture doesn’t record
Important: it doesn’t rewrite theology—it dramatizes context.
4.
Crowd-funded and independent
This is huge.
The Chosen wasn’t made by a big Hollywood studio. It was crowd-funded and distributed freely through its own app at first. That independence gives it a very different tone—less glossy, more earnest.
