With anything in life or any creative pursuit such as photography, limitations are critical to consider. When you set limitations, it actually prompts *more* productivity and creativity.
Some simple suggestions include:
- Use one camera and one lens
- Sticking to either black and white or color
- Strictly shooting JPEG files or film
I find that stripping down to simple light and shadow to be a very beneficial limitation for my street photography. Whether it’s black and white VS color, 28mm VS 35mm, setting limitations is a great thing to consider when it comes to creativity and street photography.
Why does this matter?
Perhaps when you have too many options, this reduces your potential to creatively thrive. By limiting myself, and focusing on making simplistic and minimalist photographs in black and white, I’m becoming much more engaged with photography than ever before. My ultimate goal is to create more photographs and remain as curious as possible. This limitation is consistently proving that there are infinite possibilities in photography.
Everything has *NOT* been done before.
Creative breakthrough
In the past, I would consistently try to up the ante by increasing the complexity of my frames. This was something that helped me increase my skill at the time, but at this point, it’s time to simplify, and refine my process. I don’t want to rely on the subject or life itself being interesting anymore. I want to push forward by embracing the mundane nature of life and the roots of the medium, street photography.
An important question to consider-
Could you photograph in the same place for the rest of your life and still remain engaged with your photography?