Quote of the day: “…the imagination is unleashed by constraints. You break out of the box by stepping into shackles.”
― Jonah Lehrer, Imagine: How Creativity Works

Pure silliness

Finding Inspiration in Constraints

On the tenth day of my 40-day photography challenge (make at least 25 photos each day in my house), I hit the wall! What the heck am I going to photograph today?

Lacking inspiration, I decided to draw a card from my Vision Quest Photo Assignment Cards.  I drew the card and looked at it.

Dang!  What do I have around here that’s red? How do I capture the essence of red? How in the heck do I photograph red? I pondered these questions as I delayed starting by cleaning the kitchen.

As I was cleaning I noticed a red bandana on the counter. It brought back memories of when Jon and I hiked the Grand Canyon on our honeymoon.  Hiking down the dusty steep switchbacks in the canyon, we each wore a red bandana over our nose and mouth to filter out the dust kicked up by the passing mule trains.

It was a dusty, bone-jarring hike down the trail, followed by two nights of sleeping on the hard ground in the campground and a tiring hike back up and out of the canyon.

Despite growing up on a farm, I was never big on outdoor adventure or anything that was hot and uncomfortable. But I still remember the bats flying in the night air, sleeping with nothing but the stars above me, and the heat of the night air in the canyon. It’s a sweet memory.

Memories, stories and red bandanas.

Where do interesting photos come from? Memories, stories, and red bandanas…

I decided to put on a bandana and play with my iPhone camera. Have I raved about my iPhone camera lately? I continue to be amazed and entertained by the new apps that I find.

Memories of Hiking the Grand Canyon

And still more silliness and iPhone Camera App Magic

Some of the free (or very cheap-99 cent) apps that I use and love are:

• SmugMug Camera!
• FotoTimerLE
• Camera360
• HDR FX
• iDarkroom
• TimerCam
• PhotoCurves Free
• PhotoStudio
• LongExpoFree
• Slow Shutter+
• Instagram
• Blender
• Dramatic B&W
• DistressedFX
• Simply HDR

OK! Back from my iPhone detour to the power of constraints.

The truest things I know always seem to contain a paradox. And the power of constraint is one of those paradoxes.

Limits and Constraints Increase Freedom to Create

Quick. What’s your first thought when you think about the instruction to “Photograph the color red?”

My first thought was “Dang!” quickly followed by “This is hard.” Then I let go and did something else (cleaning the kitchen) which led to discovering the red bandana.

First the constraint—then the breakthrough

Exploring the color red

A Simple Chain of Events

But Without the Constraint, they wouldn’t have happened!

Recent psychology studies have shown that when we are given too many choices we are less happy (and able to make good decisions) than when we are given a limited number of choices.

Too much freedom, too much stuff, too many ideas lead to indecision or sloppiness or just plain laziness—at least that’s what happens for me.

Limits create structure

Structure gives us support to learn and grow as artists

Constraints give us something to push against, to lean into, to break through!

Before creativity and originality can ripen into art, practice and discipline are needed to develop and hone skills. And constraints give us the necessary lift to fly.

More explorations with the color red

Shades of red