Do You Force Yourself?

I don't see the point of forcing yourself to be restricted to one lens if you have others available. If you have others with you why not use em to get alternative shots?

Of course if you want to travel light then pack what you think you'll need.

You spent the money on different lenses...? Why not use em????

There are times when I will force myself to use my 50mm prime, and get more exercise by having to walk to compose the image I want

If I wanted to be limited I'd get a Kodak disposable with fixed focus/fixed focal length.

Yes. Frequently.
I often leave the house or leave the camera bag in the car, taking just the camera and one lens mounted, carrying a spare CF or two, a spare battery and possibly an ND or a polarizer filter in my pocket.

I often find that I get more creative this way. I don't waste a lot of time thinking about which other lens might be better suited to this particular shot. Insted, I move around more, exploring more viewpoints and angles with the lens I have.

Of course, there are the times I have hiked a mile or two back to the car just to get my 70-200, because I needed that reach, or to grab my 14mm w/a because I had to have it to fit a scene in. I try to avoid doing this, and to use these walkabouts to force my creativity.

I recently shot this set at a cemetary around midnight, the restrictions I set to myself was to handhold the 50/1.4 w/o flash (camera was 5D). Note that during the summer nights it's not that dark this far North (Finland), but that night was a bit darker because of the clouds. I shot RAW and some of the photos are slightly pushed afterwards, all were shot at ISO1600 and f1.4 (not much choice there). Comments are welcome.

I find that forcing some restrictions on me will make me think more creatively - how to take good photos given the restrictions? How to turn the shallow DoF into an advantage (in the case above)? It's easy to take any number of "safe" (but probably dull) pictures if you have tripod or enough light and a bag full of zoom lenses. It's also not as much fun.

Sure. I did an outdoor glamour shoot with a model the other day, and all I took with my was a 135 f2 L. I needed to refresh my perspective (no pun intended) on the use of the lens and it's characteristic properties. I do this ocassionally when I haven't used a particular lens in a while.

Mark

The answer is Yes, I find it useful to concentrate in a single focus while taking photos on a daily basis (say for lunch, I drive downtown and spend 30-35 mins snapping away at nothing in particular, or everything). Having one lens, helps me find its sweet spots, weaknesses, strengths, and reinforce the composition.

The very first time I did this, was with a Wide Angle (19-35). My mentor, a photojournalist with over 30 years under his belt, saw all my 70-200 photos way zoomed in, and called it Zoom Syndrome. So he asked me to go around with the 19-35 and shoot exclusively with that. Do you want a bigger subject? GET CLOSER, he said.

A month later, I was shooting almost exclusively with the Wide Angle, and knew its ins and outs.

Now I carry 5 lenses with me to any assignment, but the moment I get off my car, I know exactly what the 19-35 (for example) will do, what it will not do, and whether I should even bother taking it out of the bag.

As a theoretical experiment, it is my belief that anyone with little experience, can go and buy a 1D, Canon Flash Unit, 100-400 L glass, polarizer, and when things do not work out the way they wanted, they will never be able to troubleshoot their rig.

Playing with your flash unit alone, or the TC, or a single lens, provides you with that specific experience. You become a specialist at your own lens. That is invaluable on the field, where the levee is breaking, everyone is evacuating, and five lenses stare at you saying "Pick me!, Pick me !!"... True story.

On occasion. Some days I force myself to use only one lens or even 1 focal length as an exercise in composition and in order to figureout how to get the most from a lens. Even though I usually carry others with me I rarely break my restriction.
For the past month I have pretty much been restricted to my 100mm f2 as my rebel has serious focus issues, I have poor vision, and it is the one with less of a double image in the viewfinder. Otherwise, it is almost impossible to figure out which image on which to manual focus under my particular limitations.

~wu

I am the opposite. I FORCE myself to use all my lenses, just to see if I get different captures. It's hard and sometimes I forget, but I try.

Only if I'm 'learning' a particular piece of new hardware or the situation demands it. I do walk around a lot with a particular lens to train myself to use it effectively.

As situations go, at events, I don't have time to breathe, much less change lenses. The standard zoom is therefore the most heavily used lens.