Making do with less

The secret of happiness, you see, is not found in seeking more, but in developing the capacity to enjoy less. – Socrates

At the beginning of this year, I made a resolution aiming to limit the amount of lens I brought along on photography outings. During Christmas last year, I awarded myself a 110mm F2 lens hoping I would find more opportunities to do portraiture, or even self-portraits during 2022. Instead of waiting for those opportunities, I have been using the 110mm exclusively since January. For experimentation purposes, I went a step further. I have been limiting myself to using the widest aperture at F2 for whatever subjects I choose to photograph on most occasions, just to see what results I get.

I must say I have got a lot of pleasant surprises from the experiment so far. Instead of seeing the limitation as a detriment to my creativity, I find it liberating to have been given no options. To my great surprise, I have been able to create quality work even with genres I don’t expect to work with a lens that is well known for portraiture. I have been using the 110mm focal length for landscape photography, I don’t find it inhabiting to not have the wider field of view I used to favor in years past. Instead of making the deep depth of field grand landscape compositions, I make more intimate portraits of landscape that I came to love doing during the last two years.

I notice when I don’t have to confront myself with several lens sitting in my camera bag, I will find ways to work with that focal length without sacrificing my compositions. After a few weeks with working this one focal length, I am accustomed to knowing what subjects at what distance will work well with the lens, while at the same time taking advantage at its widest aperture. I get to know the lens so well; I know how far I can push it to achieve the aesthetics I envision.

I am a person who loves to minimize options for most of the decisions I make in life. If I like a pair of pants, I just buy five of them, so I don’t have to spend time pondering among different options. Instead of wasting my energy on making needless decisions, I choose to focus my effort on endeavors that deserve my most attention. The same applies to creative freedom. While it may sound like a dream to have all the time and resources I could ever want, I sometimes find all the freedom overwhelming, instead of choosing one option and move forward with one idea, I am dancing around with all the ideas in the world without committing to the first move.

My experience of working with one fixed prime lens with most of my photos taken at one aperture is yes, on surface it does restrict my options when it comes to composition, but I do not find myself being held back. I find the restraint a catalyst for creativity. I see a glimpse of my work developing a certain style because of the very shallow depth of view I choose to use. I also learn to move my feet to adapt to that longer focal length, exploring angles and viewpoints that I used to overlook when I used primarily wide-angle lens for most of my work – landscape photography. What I learn is there is no one way to do landscape photography, I can express my point of view with alternative takes.

Narrowing our focus and taking on new challenges with clearly defined parameters is a great way to stretch our creative muscles and grow as a photographer. Who would have thought working with one prime lens will give me such a spark to my photography?