I’ve been stuck in a photographic rut, and my solution has been to shoot photos in a way that sharply limits my ability to manipulate. The idea is that I can spark some creativity by imposing limits on what I can do. It’s why, for the last few weeks, I’ve only been shooting with an Instax Wide camera. I like the large photos—more than twice the size of Instax Mini—and the camera itself has just a few settings. I can focus on something close or something distant, I can lighten or darken the image, and there’s a close-up attachment. That’s it.

I’ve been having fun, and I think the results have been pretty decent. To make this feel more like real photography, I’ve also been scanning the photos and doing some light editing: removing borders, bumping up exposure, and deepening the blacks to create a little more contrast. I thought about removing dust from the photos, but I think it gives them a certain character.

Anyway, here’s what I have from this week, mostly taken in my new neighborhood. The black and white exposures were taken with actual black and white instant film, and then adjusted to remove the color cast that comes from scanning. Let me know what you think.