Creativity through limitations

Alex and I were discussing creativity the other day and discussing if limitiations (self-imposed or otherwise) enhanced creativity or not. We decided that it could do. We weren't specifically talking about photography, but that is how I've chosen to apply it.

Today as I was walking the dog I spotted this hat on a post and thought it would make a great photo. I had 3 photo taking tools with me - a Pentax PC-33, an Olympus AM-100 and my iPhone. I decided to use the iPhone and to visualise what I wanted from the photo before deciding which application to use. I knew that I wanted to emphasize the colour of the hat, and I wanted to draw the green on the hat into the green of the field. I took 2 photos using the standard iPhone camera (one of them was later used to produce this black and white version which looks poor in comparison to this one) and then decided to use hipstamatic. I'm still getting to grips with this application and haven't completely got it clear in my head about which lens and film combinations give the look I'm after, and the process of changing lenses and films in the application slows down the process quite a bit which gives time to consider and compose (a practice that normal digital photography has taken away from me a bit). I did remember though that earlier in the week the John S lens had given some really vibrant colours and a great vignette. This came pretty close to what I was aiming for, and what I saw in my minds eye.

I'm currently trying to think of a couple of personal photography projects to work on, and I think one of them may be to do with composition, and getting more photos to match the picture that I visualise.