limitless

In my video production class this week, we talked about limitations. Filmmakers all the time have to work within certain limits, like budget or stunts or where they can put the camera, or weather or equipment or actors. There's tons. In our latest project, our "limitation" was that we couldn't use any dialogue or background music. My teacher brought up an interesting point: sometimes we work better with limitations-they give us sort of a window to work in. If there are no limitations, it's almost like there is too much to work with. This is true, right? If a teacher tells you to write a paper, 3 pages, on chapter 17, without summarizing, using 2 quotes...it sounds challenging (it may be), but it's like a puzzle. All you have to do in this instance is fill in the requirements-find the quotes, pick a thesis, and fill 3 pages. Simple. Now, if your teacher says, write a paper on anything we've read this year...your brain might as well explode. Now you've got to narrow it down-write about what? how many quotes? how many pages? what is my thesis? creative essay or persuasive? to name a few questions. (I actually have a paper like this due on Wednesday)...

All this is to say-when we are limited, it often times forces us to be more creative, to think of ways to do things while still coloring inside the lines.

I've realized this just now with my photography. I know, I know, "the camera doesn't make the photographer"...but has it, for me? When I started out, I had a little 11MP DSLR with a kit lens (photographers reading probably sympathize...this is hardly suitable for a 'real' photographer). I was 17, I didn't have any money, and this was a gift...and I didn't ever think twice about it. Here, I had this beautiful camera, and it was mine, and I could shoot whatever I wanted. So I did, all the time (I even started an failed at a 365 project for about 100 days). And here are a few photos from my beginning months as a photographer (taken with a Canon Rebel XTi, and an 18-55mm lens)...

I used to marvel at the idea of SOOC (straight out of the camera). But today, I rarely post a photo without a basic touch up. Honestly, I think since my lens and then camera body upgrade, my work has diminished. I would go out (when I first started), I would crawl around my house, my yard, on the ground, looking for something worth photographing-watter bubbling from the rain gutter (a personal favorite), a flower petal stuck in the grass, occasionally my own face (covered in paint?). What happened? I used to do near anything for the sake of a photo, and now I barely work for it. 

I think what happened was this-when I got my 50mm lens, and then my 60D, I thought, hey, I don't really need to work as hard for this. I've got a great setup, and I can do this in my sleep. I had no limitations. I have no limitations. 

This isn't to say that having better, newer, nicer equipment is a bad thing, but the mentality that came with it for me has potentially ruined my ability to search, to see the potential photo in everything as I used to. 

All this to say-limit yourself. Challenge yourself. Everything is too easy these days. 

That which is worth having requires working for. Here's to a new mindset. Here's to working hard, for the payoff of a photo I can be proud of.

-K