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Earlier this year I was able to spend a day in Victoria, British Columbia where I visited the Butchart Gardens. I brought my camera along but instead of walking around with my camera bag filled with all of my gear I decided to only use a Lensbaby for my excursion in the gardens. I ended up with some really beautiful, unique flower photos because I was forced to work within specific limitations.

Restricting yourself actually encourages creativity, rather than discourages it. Because you are bound to work within a strict set of rules your mind has to invent new ways of approaching a subject; having unlimited resources can sometimes create laziness and repetitive images. Ways of doing this could be using a lens that usually sits in your camera bag collecting dust, or using an old point-and-shoot instead of your SLR. It could also mean limiting yourself to a certain type of style, like only shooting “dutch angle” or always getting in close and photographing macro images.

When you force yourself to work with limitations you open up your creative vision and will see things in ways that you normally would not have seen.

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