tokyo street photography 2012 tumblr reblogs transcends in 2026 drain gang exclusive you heard it here first

Ricoh GR Hip Shooting Technique (Stealth Street Photography Tip)

A very stealthy way to shoot

What’s popping, people? It’s Dante.

Today I have a very stealthy street photography tip with the Ricoh GR.

I’ve been shooting by basically holding the camera at my hip — just letting my arm hang naturally by my side, with the camera sitting near my thigh. And from there, I’m shooting vertically without really bringing the camera up to my eye.

It’s simple. You’re just walking, and when something happens, you turn your body slightly into the scene and click.

Shooting blindly — but not really

You’re not fully blind.

You develop this intuitive sense of when to press the shutter.

Like if I’m walking past a pole, I know exactly when my body aligns with it. I don’t need to look — I just feel it and click at that moment.

You start to understand timing through your body, not your eyes.

Sometimes I’ll glance quickly at the LCD just to get a rough sense, but it’s fast. It’s instinctive.

Physical position is the composition

Photography isn’t just about framing and rules.

It’s about where you stand. Where your body is in space.

Your position determines everything.

You’re not thinking about leading lines or rules of thirds in the moment — you’re responding physically.

The composition comes from your body’s relationship to the scene.

Using the Ricoh as an extension of your body

The Ricoh GR makes this super easy.

You can treat it like an extension of your arm, your eye, your movement.

You can shoot:

• From the hip
• From above your head
• From low angles

There’s so much freedom in just throwing the camera around and experimenting.

A real example

I shot a guy walking past me — full stride, perfectly framed — without even really looking.

Feet visible, head visible, everything aligned.

That didn’t come from thinking.

It came from instinct + positioning.

Why this is so liberating

This way of shooting removes friction.

You’re not overthinking.

You’re not hesitating.

You’re just moving, reacting, shooting.

It turns photography into something physical and intuitive.

And that’s where it becomes fun again.

Frictionless photography system

I actually built an entire system around this idea.

“Living with the Ricoh GR” is a 30-day approach to shooting daily, building a visual diary, and removing all the friction from photography.

It’s:

• Black & white focused
• Simple and repeatable
• Designed to get you out shooting every day

The goal is to make photography effortless so you can actually do the thing.

Because all the overthinking — gear, settings, decisions — just gets in the way.

Final thought

Try this.

Hold your camera at your hip. Walk. Feel the moment.

Click without overthinking.

See what happens.

I’ll see you on the streets of Philadelphia.

Was spending two years working in a garden, laboring, creating zen gardens, reading, studying. thinking, writing, photographing, and spending all my days in solitude in nature surrounding by gods most divine pure creations.

Honestly it’s shit like this that I’m gonna look back at years from now and realize how genius this was for me to do

Once you’re fully awake and full of vitality and unconditional love… nothing will break your spirit or your love for life

The ultimate secret to becoming a more interesting artist is to be both the producer and the consumer. For instance, I love carrying my new flux books around with me everywhere I go, and flipping through my own work. And also, listening to my old videos and old thoughts, from two years ago, one year ago, four months ago when I was in Tokyo, and just listening to my stream of consciousness and the way that I think about things, or even just watching funny ass random videos that I’ve made and just genuinely enjoying the shit that I create.

Create your own world.

Let’s Redefine What Success Looks Like

Who decided that making money is the ultimate metric of success? Honestly, having a physical body that is able to move, walk, talk, photograph, and do the things that you want to do with your day is the ultimate luxury. Health is true wealth—the ultimate sign of success, and the only thing worth considering.

Time is also interesting. We always use the notion of “spending time.” But what if we reframe this idea and start investing our time? Investing in walks, creating art for the simple sake of it—where the outcome and the goal do not need monetary gain or fame.

The outcome we seek and strive for is simply to be awake. To be receptive. To have senses that allow us to feel deeply and see clearly.

When you wake up with this insatiable love for life and enthusiasm for the day, when you’re full of an abundance of curiosity and gratitude for the simplest pleasures in life—like the sun on your skin, or the crisp, cool breeze by the riverside, or water in your cup—you begin to realize that this is what ultimate looks like.

Ricoh GR Monochrome Glitch (Real User Experience After 17,000 Shots)

What’s poppin’, people? It’s Dante.

Today I want to share with you this glitch that’s been occurring on my Ricoh GR for monochrome.

So unfortunately, I was in New York City recently, and I was trying to challenge myself to produce a full book in 12 hours. I was pounding the pavement — walked 18 miles, photographed from sunrise to sunset — and my camera started to glitch.

The Issue

I started to get this weird glitch where the lens would lock up.

The aperture doesn’t really open properly — it kind of opens halfway, gets stuck, and then locks.

At that point, I have to:

• Take the battery out
• Restart the camera
• Go through this whole rigmarole

And it’s becoming unreliable.

“I really do practice. I shoot every single day from the moment I wake up until I go to sleep.”

Real Usage (Not a Gear Review)

I want to be clear — I’m not sponsored by Ricoh.

This is just my real-world experience as someone who actually uses their camera.

Over the past 3.5 years:

• ~400,000 photos on GR III and IIIx
• ~17,000–18,000 frames on the GR Monochrome in about a month or two

I don’t baby my cameras.

• Never dropped it
• No physical damage
• Still — hardware issue

So yeah… something’s wrong.

Why This Matters

This isn’t just about a glitch.

It’s about reliability.

When you’re out every day shooting, you need a camera that works. Period.

And right now?

“I don’t feel like I can trust it to go back out and do the kind of photography that I do.”

So I’m sending it in for repair.

Still Shooting (No Excuses)

But here’s the thing — I’m not stopping.

I’ve got my GR III and GR IIIx.

I was already back out the next day shooting.

Because at the end of the day:

“I’m a practitioner. I’m not a gear guy.”

The Work Continues

Even with the glitch, I still:

• Shot the full video
• Made a full photo book in 12 hours
• Kept pushing through

And honestly, the workflow is still unmatched.

“This is the fastest, most streamlined workflow I’ve ever had.”

Gear Breaks — It Happens

This isn’t new for me.

• Fujifilm X-Pro3 broke after a month
• Leica M3 has issues sitting on the shelf

Because I actually use my cameras.

Hard.

“I click the shutter tens of thousands of times in a week or two.”

So yeah — things break.

Back to the GR IIIx (And New Curiosity)

This situation actually pushed me back toward the GR IIIx.

Specifically:

• 40mm focal length
• 71mm crop mode

Something I was exploring in Tokyo.

And honestly?

I’m excited about it again.

What I’m Chasing Now

There’s something I’m curious about:

• Light wrapping around faces
• Shooting close with snap focus (1 meter)
• That subtle tension in portraits

One photo I made yesterday…

There’s something strange about it.

“It feels like a portal into another world.”

That’s what I’m chasing.

Why Ricoh Still Wins (For Me)

Despite everything…

I still believe this is the best camera for street photography.

Because of:

• Size
• Speed
• Discretion
• Workflow

You can move like a tourist.

Like a kid.

Just wandering, observing, reacting.

“There really isn’t another match for the kind of work that I do.”

Final Thoughts

Yeah — the camera failed.

Yeah — it’s frustrating.

But this is part of the practice.

“These are the hiccups that occur when you actually go out and shoot.”

So we keep going.

We adapt.

We pivot.

And we stay out there.

Shooting.

---

On the Shortness of Life

There’s something really profound about finding yourself thriving in the mundane. Like just genuinely looking at a leaf or something that is extremely overlooked generally, but finding infinite joy within that very simple and mundane object, location, or daily walk.

For instance, I’ve gotten to this point now where I can basically walk the same way every single day, literally repeating the same day on loop infinitely, but still feel this abundance of joy and energy and vitality for life despite that fact.

And so I think that this is the superpower of photography. It’s all about the way that it increases your genuine curiosity. That childlike curiosity is ultimately what puts me there in this state of being, kind of like Nirvana or bliss or paradise or whatever you want to call it, that kind of just effortlessly flows through me when I have my camera and I’m just noticing things.

And so this way of operating on a day-to-day basis, just waking up, grabbing the camera, and walking, is the ultimate way to experience life. I feel like when I’m outside and I’m walking and I’m moving and I’m feeling and I’m looking and I’m photographing, I simply exist outside of the passage of time.

And so despite the fact that life may be short, each day feels like an eternity. And that feeling of eternity in each day derives from play, from not taking things seriously, from not being attached to the outcomes of the things that I’m doing, but just being so radically hyper-present through life-affirming acts of noticing, through photography, that it puts me in this perpetual enthusiastic state of eagerness to wake up each day.

It’s like each night before I go to sleep, I’m yearning for the next day, with this insanely optimistic spirit that’s just ready to wake up again.

And so with this, I find that time and the shortness of life no longer disturb me. Because when you find yourself in the present moment, you discover eternity.

Follow Your Inner Child

What’s poppin’, people? It’s Dante.

Today I’m riding my bike along the Schuylkill River Trail headed to the Wissahickon Forest with my Ricoh GR3x to do some photography.

I actually grew up playing in this forest as a young boy. It was essentially my backyard.

And my whole approach to photography is all about tapping into my childlike curiosity and basically just following my inner child.

So it’s calling me to go to the forest and to do some photography.

So follow me along for my POV.

Back to Where It Started

Check it out — this is the exact spot that I used to play when I was a little kid here in the Wissahickon Forest.

When I was a boy, my friends and I would come out here with rocks, line them up, and create a bridge to cross the stream.

This exact stream.

And being here again…

It reminds me of this idea:

Follow Your Inner Child

When you’re practicing photography, I believe it has nothing to do with photography.

Your ability to compose.
Your understanding of light.
Your technical skills.

That’s base level.

What I seek is something deeper.

To evoke an emotional quality.
To go beyond reality.
To create a new world through my own subjective interpretation.

And that world comes from something very simple:

Your inner child.

---

Photography Is How You Engage With Life

Photography is about:

• How you engage with humanity
• How you feel about life
• Your curiosity
• Your courage

That inner energy.

That thumos.

That spirit that makes you want to:

• Climb trees
• Explore the unknown
• Build bridges with stones
• Ride your bike into the forest

That’s the thing you need to follow.

---

Stop Trying to Make Great Photos

In modern street photography, there’s a lot of:

• Contests
• Perfect frames
• Chasing “great images”

But I say:

Stop trying.

Just follow your curiosity.

Disregard:

• What’s trending
• What’s been done before
• What others think photography should be

And tap into your own subjective way of seeing.

---

The Spirit of Play

The peak experience as a photographer?

It’s when you stop thinking.

When you stop rationalizing.

When you just move.

Like a kid with a camera.

You see a scene — you shoot it.

You see something small — you get low.

You explore.

You dig.

---

Look Closer

You can photograph the big vista.

Or…

You can get on your knees.

Look beneath the weeds.
Pick through the details.
Find the patterns.

That’s where the gold is.

That’s where the secrets are.

---

Closer to the Ground

We spend so much time trying to go higher:

• Skyscrapers
• Space travel
• Chasing the stars

But for me…

Peace is closer to the ground.

In the dirt.
In the leaves.
In the rocks.

That’s where I find God.

---

A Visual Diary

I don’t take photography too seriously.

I’m just:

• On my knees
• Bound by gravity
• Stumbling through the world

With a camera.

Capturing fragments.

That’s it.

You can’t live forever.
But you can make a photograph.

And maybe…

That’s enough.

---

Final Thought

Treat photography like a personal diary.

Be open.
Be instinctive.
Be curious.

And most importantly—

Follow your inner child.

---

That’s my thought of the day.

I’m gonna keep exploring the forest and continue on my journey.

Thought of the Day

Check it out, this is the exact spot that I used to play when I was a little kid here in the Wissahickon Forest. When I was a boy, my friends and I would come out here with some rocks and we line them up and create a bridge and cross this exact stream. So you could actually cross the stream when you place rocks down and go over to that other rock there and the formations over there.

So this is like the exact spot that I used to play as when I was a little kid.

---

And it’s reminding me of this idea of following your inner child, right?

When you’re practicing your photography, I believe that, you know, photography has nothing to do with photography, you know, your ability to create a strong photograph, you know, your ability to synthesize the content with the formalities of composition, you know, your ability to understand lighting and timing and all the superfluous technical aspects of photography, I believe are very base level.

But what I seek to achieve through my imagery is to hopefully evoke an emotional quality through the photography, you know, to go beyond reality through my own subjective personal interpretation of the world, where I seek to create a new world through, through photography.

---

And so that world I believe we can achieve through tapping into our inner child, that childlike state of being that derives from our spiritedness.

So I believe that Photography has more so to do with how you engage with humanity, how you feel about life. You know, it’s that kind of quality that carries me out onto the street. It’s the curiosity, the courage, right? The thumos within me, that sort of inner child that wants to come back out into the forest, climbing the trees, exploring the unknown, building bridges with stones, you know, sharpening spears, attempting to hunt deer, riding my bike.

---

You know, I think that there is something powerful about the childlike spirit within us as artists that we should really tap into in order to achieve our own authentic expression in photography.

And so treating photography as a visual diary, I believe, is a radical approach forward in this modern contemporary street photography scene where you see lots of contests, you see lots of photographs and imagery that’s essentially just seeking to make great frames and to make great photography.

---

But I say stop trying, you know, stop trying to make great photography.

Just embrace your inner childlike curiosity and allow that to guide you on the street. I let that to guide you into the world and disregard anything that’s being done in contemporary photography, what’s been done in the history, and really just tap into your own personal subjective approach to the world through photography.

---

And I believe that we can achieve our own authentic way of photographing through tapping into the inner child, that inner spiritedness that carries you into the world.

It goes beyond our basic abilities as photographers with compositional decisions, with our ability to tell a story. But I believe that almost to cultivate the instinct, to cultivate that state of being as a photographer where you’re simply following your curiosity without thinking, without really rationalizing anything— to me, that’s the peak experience as a photographer, is to almost just let the chips fall as they may, kind of just embracing that spirit of play as a big kid with a camera and, you know, just kind of recognizing the infinite possibilities in life and in the world through the medium.

---

You know, as much as I can look at this landscape and click the button and say, wow, this scene, this is a beautiful vista, this is a beautiful view, you know, I can also get really close and down on my knees and find myself photographing different details and things.

And looking at all these different intricacies and patterns and qualities, you know, reminds me of when I was a kid, you know, picking up the stones, you know, looking underneath them, like inspecting things down low.

---

As much as I can look up high and look at the clouds in the sky, you know, I can also look low beneath the weeds, you know.

And when you look beneath the weeds and you pick between these different things, you know, you can find some nuggets in there, you can find some secrets in there, you can find the gold, you can find that sort of thing you were looking for, maybe.

You know, I think you gotta kind of dig.

---

And you know, that digging kind of just reminds me of like human nature.

You know, we as humans seek to, you know, build tall skyscrapers, to go higher, to travel to Mars with spaceships, and to touch the stars.

But I find that actually when I’m closest to the ground, when I’m surrounded by nature, when I’m picking up the rocks and the leaves and all these natural things, you know, this to me is where I feel like I’m at peace.

---

This to me is where I feel like I seek to be.

It’s actually closer to the ground, reminding myself that I am bound by gravity, that I am just this flesh thing, that I am actually just a big child in this world.

That I find God.

---

And I find that to be the most beautiful way to spend my day, is in the spirit of play with my camera, not taking my life so seriously, not taking my photography so seriously, but almost just finding myself on my knees, kind of just bound by gravity, because I ultimately, I don’t really know anything.

I’m just stumbling my way through the world with my camera and photographing the fragments that I find.

---

And I think that to me is what it means to treat photography as a personal diary.

It’s recognizing that you can’t live forever, but at least you can make a photograph.

And while you’re here in this moment, in this world, maybe this is the best way to approach things, is to just express ourselves authentically and openly from our pure instinct through photography.

---

And so that’s my thought of the day.

Gonna get back to my little exploration here in the forest and continue on my journey. 

The medium is too slow for my output.