Sometimes being satisfied with what you have is the smart way to be. However, if you are not entirely satisfied, think about the source of that dissatisfaction.

Is it your photographic results? Is it your artistic vision and creativity that are lacking? Or is your photography being held back by the gear you are using?

As long as you can accomplish your photographic goals with what you have, with the quality you desire, then being satisfied with your current gear is good. But if you have begun to feel the need for some way to improve the quality, then an upgrade might be just what you need! Sometimes it is not a new camera, but a new lens, or a specific type of filter, etc. Or a new, better computer.

The D7000 was my first DSLR, purchased in 2012, and I still have it and use it. But the more I learned about photography, and the more progress I made in being able to get the desired results, it soon became clear that an upgrade was in my future. That was when I started trading in my DX lenses for FX lenses. I also bought a selected few filters and some other accessories that would be useful, but only when I recognized that these items would be a benefit. I was looking for better resolution in my images, and a FF camera was what I chose to fulfill that requirement. But no precipitous GAS attack - planning over time and preparation for me, so I only had to buy the camera when ready. Just got the D810 last fall when Nikon had some nice price reductions around the holidays. Love it!

Part of my "upgrade plan" was the computer, because shooting in RAW means editing to achieve the desired final result. So I also acquired a new desktop computer, tower was custom-built, with a 27" monitor. It is like a jig-saw puzzle - the pieces have to be put together in a certain way to produce the final picture!

Is there a card you can hold between your teeth and read the contents to the left side of your brain? No, but you can do things to bump your creativity.

There are exercises, such as those put up each week by DPS to take the assignment and find a creative way to express their subject. This week, for instance the subject is "hiking". Think it through, create an image in your mind, and only then grab your camera and go try and shoot that image that exists in your mind.

Take your pictures in your mind! Rather than going out and shooting a thousand frames and then seeing if you happened to get a good shot, create a shot in your mind, then go out without your camera and find that image, frame it from this viewpoint and that viewpoint, study the way the light falls on your subject at morning, in mid day, and evening, on sunny days, and cloudy days. I spent the 80s and 90s shooting the South Haven Light, morning evening, summer, winter, - do you know you have to change positions by over a half mile to set the sun behind the lighthouse between solstices?

Know everything about that subject? now go shoot a few shots, study what you got for a picture compared to the vision you created in your mind. Figure out what you must do to merge your vision into that photograph - take another few shots, review. Eventually, you will get that perfect shot, or, quite possibly, you may so enjoy the art of nature or the art of urbanity, or the art of technology so much that you lose the need to express it with film.

Slowly, over the course of a lifetime, you will gain that creativity upgrade you are seeking.

Photography is about seeing and using technology to show your fellow man the vision that has captured and held prisoner your mind.