Choice is the enemy of creativity. Too many options — focal lengths, locations, subjects, styles — and the photographer becomes a browser rather than a photographer. You look at everything. You commit to nothing.

Self-imposed limitations fix this by removing the browsing problem. When you have only one lens, you are not deciding between focal lengths. When you are restricted to one street, you are not deciding where to go next. The decision has been made. Now you can concentrate on the work.

Useful limitations to try:

One lens. Pick your least-used focal length. Shoot it all day. This is more valuable than a week of comfortable variety.

One block. Stay on a single stretch of 50–100 metres for the entire session. Learn every angle of it. Wait.

One subject type. Only photograph dogs. Or only shoes. Or only hands. Or only people looking at phones. The specificity forces observation.

No zoom on the phone. If you are shooting on your phone, tap the screen once and leave the focal length where it lands. Do not pinch to zoom.

One hour, 12 frames. Give yourself only 12 shots in an hour. Make every one count.

The limitation is not the point. The limitation is the tool. What it produces is attention — the kind of close, uncomfortable attention to a single thing that reveals details you would otherwise miss.

The point: working within constraints is not a compromise. It is a method. The photographers you admire made most of their best work with one camera and one lens for years.