David duChemin on Constraints
“We need constraints. They force our hands creatively, and while many advocate embracing constraints, I suggest we go one better and create them.”
Exactly. Our brains are set up to avoid the pain of creativity and embrace simple, painless and bland solutions. Your brain will always try to rationalize it’s way out of the pain, which is why you can’t allow it.
David doesn’t always use gear as his constraint, though. That’s a good point. As long as you reach some kind of “pain point,” at which the gears in your brain start turning more rapidly, it doesn’t really matter how you get there.
I’d go back to a DSLR tomorrow, if I thought I could rely on my brain to consistently deliver better ideas with automated equipment. That just isn’t the way my brain works. If given the chance to be lazy, it will. It’ll tell me to use the equipment to produce the same kinds of images I’ve seen in all the books. I suspect that’s true of most people.