This downtown Roswell attraction is where I might go to celebrate finishing my healthy weight correction strategy...and I go into maintenance mode.

This might be a good time to explain one of my thought processes and creative exercises.

I used a 43mm prime on and APS-C body for most of my walk through of Roswell this weekend. This gives me about a 63mm equivalent, or mild telephoto, lens. I used this one lens for 90% of my shooting that day.

Why shoot with one lens? Why leave the standard zoom behind? The answer is to enhance my creativity. I know this sounds contrarian, but it works when I have the mission to be creative.

If you put a prime on, you are forced into looking at the world from a fixed focal length. You give up the versatility of a zoom, but you normally get a stronger optic at one focal length. The way you change the photo becomes limited to aperture, shutter speed, ISO and foot powered perspective change. Ok there are other things but you get the point...focal length is fixed. So you have to contemplate image creation with a limitation, but hopefully a stronger optic at that specific focal length than a zoom would provide.

It is this limitation that ignites my imagination. It forces me to examine options I would probably miss by taking an easier route with a zoom.

Look around the world and I think you will find this is no different than the rest of life. It is also rather important when creating spiritual growth. Many of the best retreats take away something we are used to, external worldwide communications. This separation from the rest of the world removes the noise which often prevents us from contemplating what keeps us apart from God.

As we prepare for the wall of family, commercial marketing, and noise of this season figure out how best to put some focus on giving thanksgiving to him who gave us all things.

-ehw