Less is More

Back in college, even though I wasn't a creative writing major I took every poetry writing class that was offered because I loved the challenge.  Also, I knew I would never write a word unless I paid a professor to force it out of me.

While I'm sure I wasn't writing anything particularly impressive, I was having fun. However, the fun didn't come easily.  I  never had any ideas of what to write, so in order to draw inspiration I would place limits on myself.  For example, while literally every other student in my classes was writing free verse, I would try writing in the rhyme and meter of a sonnet, but in the form of a paragraph.  Or I would ask myself, "What if every syllable of a line rhymed with its corresponding syllable in the preceding line."  Or, "Can I write 30 lines all ending in the same rhyme sound?"

Essentially, by severely limiting my choices, I was forcing myself to use the few pieces that were left to their absolute highest capacity, and I was able to be much more creative than if I'd had the entire English language from which to draw.  Hense the adage of writing teachers everywhere, "It's better to say a lot about a little, than a little about a lot."

Wedding photography is the same.  I have to make great photographs within the limits of time, weather, location, and the needs of all the other people involved in the day.  Expectations are high (as they should be), but often the situation is more limiting than people realize.

And I love that.

In fact, I often limit myself even more.  While I'll bring an arsenal of lenses to a wedding, and I'll use them all when they are needed, for most of the day I'm shooting with one or two lenses.  With fewer choices in front of me, I use what the day gives me to its absolute capacity.  I attempt to do a lot with a little.

In other words, less is my secret to delivering more.