Rhombus and Rectangle

Minimalism as Simple Geometry

Photo By © Prakash Ghai
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Black and White Minimalism with Simple Geometric Shapes, is what I have a personal bias for. Such images just hit the head. 

Geometry per say, communicates something at a subconscious level. I simply cannot put that into words. 

What I found interesting here, was the Rhombus or Diamond like shape appearing on the white pillar and a subsequent Rectangle being formed on the floor, extreme left.

This kind of placement of the two geometric shapes, balanced the frame nicely. 

Also I knew, this would look better in Black and White, so I simply de-saturated the image in post processing.

Photo Highlights

• The photograph falls under the Minimalism as Simple Geometry category of Minimalism.  
• Light and Shadow Play by Nature, always makes the photo stand out. The reason being, when nature is in action, it always paints a pretty picture.
• The dark scratches on the wall adds extra zing to the image. 
• Location: Jawahar Kala Kendra Jaipur
• Lens: Canon 50mm F/1.4 prime 
• Shot Handheld

The Tring-Tring Era

Minimalism as Parts of the Whole

Minimalist Photogrpahy By © Prakash Ghai
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If you carefully observe the shadow of the bicycle, you would find a small circular "cycle bell" with a lever on its side. This, acts as a horn and comes very handy on a busy day on the streets. These traditional Indian bicycles, still run on Indian roads, but now you can spot only a handful of them, thanks to the tremendous growth India as a country has witnessed in the last couple of decades. The "cycle bell" makes a really pleasant "Tring-Tring" sound, when the lever is pulled. 

When I was a kid, streets of Jaipur used to be flooded with such bicycles and this was the most common mode of transportation. Very few people had the luxury of owning cars or a two-wheeler. Those were the golden days. So less traffic, very little air and noise pollution. Less of buildings, more of farms and empty pieces of land, spread out over thousands of acres. Everything was slow, calm and peaceful. Indeed "less is more" or "being happy with less" was the default mantra then. I am talking about life that existed about 25 years ago.

No Television sets, no cellphones, no Air conditioners, only transistors to listen to FM radio. People used to visit their neighbors for recreation/chats, cooking food together. We trusted people so easily, also lent money to them without fear. If someone had an accident, we never used to think before we act, unlike today, for our default setting was helping others, being kind and generous. The doctors we like gods, so humble, so polite, so helpful.

The teachers were Gurus. Also food, milk and sweets, were mostly unadulterated, for people in that era were mostly honest, ethical and full of virtues. The most popular evening hangout, I remember, used to be, walks in public parks. Gardening/watering the plants, was also one of the preferred passtime. 

Now, things are completely different. The world has changed so much. Sadly, it has changed for the worse. I miss those days and wonder, if we could somehow, return to that "Tring-Tring Era". 

Wouldn't that be fascinating? Returning back to an era, when even "Mondays were beautiful".

This photo is Minimalism as Parts of the whole. Here the photographer shows only a cropped part of the central subject in the photo, and makes the viewer imagine, how the subject would have looked in entirety, if it hadn't been cropped. As you can see, a semi-circle has been carefully carved out from the front tyre of the bicycle to achieve such a purpose. The crop has been placed on the extreme right, following the rules of thirds. The shadow of the bicycle on the wall acts like a hint given, in a quiz contest.

Also note, that the triangle made with the crop of the floor, on bottom right, is also on purpose. Our minds sub-consciously reacts in a more favorable manner to geometry. The photo becomes more powerful, with the semi-circle and triangle in conjunction.

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Whenever it rains

Minimalism as Low Detail

Minimalist Photography by © Prakash Ghai

Whenever It Rains: Night Rain Reflection Minimalist Photography

This is one of those minimalist photography shots that took patience and timing to get right. A rainy night, a wet road, two traffic lights, and the kind of water reflection photography moment that only reveals itself if you are willing to wait and get your knees dirty.

Rains generally make everyone smile, uplift people's mood and bring in a sense of love and romance. The feeling is indeed very special.

But, for people who have had a fight with their loved one or for some reason or the other are away from the one whom they really care for, rains remind them of their loneliness. It reminds them that, neither they are "able to express their love" nor "they are able to get back any in return".

It is even worse for people who are single, not because they did not get any proposals of friendships but because "they could never find anyone who could ever understand them". They are still waiting for the companionship of that special someone with whom they can walk hand-in-hand and get drenched.

On the contrary, the lucky ones get to celebrate this gift of mother nature. They go out on long drives, eat out, party. Well plenty of options for them. 

A Few Words on the Low Detail Minimalist Composition

This is a water reflection photography shot taken during a rainy night in Jaipur. I was out on a photowalk with a good old friend of mine and while on my way back when I had given up all hopes of taking some good shots due to the heavy shower, I spotted this.

Two traffic lights next to each other. The yellow one was continuously blinking and I had to wait for the other to turn green. The red you see next to the green comes from the brake lights of the cars passing by and the big patch of yellow on the top left are the bright yellow overhead lights meant to illuminate the crossing. The wet road turned all of it into a colorful minimalist photography composition I was not expecting.

The composition and the Minimalism Type: Low Detail is self-explanatory.  

PS: For me this is a rare shot as I had to bend on my knees and I am very lazy but I am always up for it if it is a water reflection shot.

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• Types of Minimalism

• What is Minimalist Photography?

Infant to Adult and Thereafter

Minimalism as Simple Geometry (lines)

Minimalist Photography by © Prakash Ghai
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If you carefully see the picture. It is divided in to three rows. I call them the three stages of mind development. 

Stage 1: 0-10 years (Infant Stage)

Stage 2: 11-60 years (Adult Stage)

Stage 3: 61 to "n" years (Deterioration Stage)

I am no psychologist nor I have read much about it. The inference that I have drawn is purely from my own experience and what I have observed, read or felt. There is no first hand experiment or research conducted and since I am an artist I like drawing conclusions from photos. 

Well, in the first stage or the Infant stage, the mind is relatively less developed, rather its flat and stable and that here is represented by the small vertical line created by the light and shadow differential on bottom left in the first row.

The second stage is the Adult Stage or 11-60 years and it is the longest. Here the mind keeps learning new things by each passing day and this goes on relentlessly until the age of roughly 60 years. I have used the diagonal line which starts from the intersection point of the first and second row on the left and moves one way to the right until it kisses the third row on top without any blips to represent the adult phase. This is the phase where the mind learns the most.

When diagonal line hits the third row or the "Stage of Deterioration" of the mind, it starts moving in the opposite direction signalling that the mind has now lost its power to learn new things. It has started to unlearn and become forgetful. 

Composition

To compose this I just had to focus on my neighbor's wall at about 3 pm in the afternoon and then punch in the right exposure and aperture settings. I love shooting yellow and to give my picture that extra yellow boost I used the "Daylight" setting as the White Balance on my camera.  To add to the image and make it pop I darkened the shadows in an editing software. Placement of  my core subject i.e the lines created by the light and shadow combination was a little tricky. Also the rule of thirds was hard to apply. I cannot explain how I applied it but it is quite evident from the Minimalist Picture. 

I hope you enjoyed the shot and the fictional psychology. Art is all about interpretations and I love going crazy with that sometimes. Today is one such day. Do leave your feedback and questions if any. Thank you. I wish you all a great Day/Evening. 

If Tomorrow Never Comes

Minimalism as Less Elements

Minimalist Photography By © Prakash Ghai
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Each day I sit next to the window thinking about you, dreaming that one day we will be together. I tell myself to be patient and let nature do its job. But sometimes I am very fearful. I know that we are destined to be together, but what if "If Tomorrow never comes?.

Last Sunday, I was sitting idle at home relaxing and thinking where to go for a photo-walk. I ran out of options and was very reluctant to go the places I had been before. It is 15th June 2015 as I write, and on 3rd of June "Jaipur Metro", the new Public Transport service via Train was inaugurated in Jaipur. The train station is a mere 100 feet away from my house, so I thought it would be a nice idea to go there and shoot the new building and its creative architecture.

I had planned to shoot that very popular "Still man, moving train" street photography shot which I had been longing for. I entered the placed and asked the security guard if photography was allowed. I was expecting a positive answer from him, but he replied that "photography is only allowed for those who have official written permission from the operations head". I was very disappointed. None of the public places in Jaipur allow photography (apart from the heritage tourist places) and I happen to miss a lot of quality street shots for that reason.

I have seen many of my international photographer friends on Facebook post very good street shots taken at public places. I thought why not try taking permission, so I went to the inquiry counter and asked for the operations head, but he was not at his desk, I told myself, "forget it". And I decided to leave the train station.

While I was on may way out I saw a staircase which was under construction. I took that staircase and that lead me to this dark big hall with only a window letting in some light. I felt a little better as I knew I had my Minimalist frame right in front of my eyes. To compose, I placed the window on the right and the slanting rays of light running across, just under it. During editing, I enhanced the highlights and darkened the shadows.

Rectangles and Shadows

Minimalism as Less Elements

Photo By © Prakash Ghai
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A  Minimalist Photo of the Side Wall of a building under construction, containing rectangles formed by deep shadows.

Black and White Minimalist Photography is usually more appealing to the eye and today I decided to post one such photo from my collection. I generally write mini-tutorials with my photos but in this post I shall explain a bit more. Minimalist / Simple photos are generally good to look at but very hard to compose. To click a photo like the one I have posted, here is a quick step-by-step how-to instruction.

Pick up a good zoom lens and head straight into an area where there is construction of buildings going on. Then find out that side of the building which is well lit by the slanting rays of the evening sun. Zoom-in and look for some elongated shadows (to add the art effect) supported by some simple geometry.

Next, add some negative space between the subjects and make it look like a long distance relationship. Then log into a photo editing software, press the de-saturate button, add some sharpness, adjust some levels and you are done. It is always better to have clear and well defined geometry in your Minimalist shots. Here, I have used rectangles and you may use squares or lines or maybe circles. if you are lucky enough you will find them.

All the very best

Happy Clicking! 

Twisted Geometry

Minimalism as Simple Geometry

Minimalist Photography By © Prakash Ghai
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This photo falls under the Minimalism as Simple Geometry category. The intent here is to show Lines. There are various ways one can show lines in a photograph and this is one way. To begin with, pick a corner of a geometric structure well lit with sunlight. Then, twist and turn the camera and try multiple placements of the subject using the in-camera 3x3 grid lines.

Pick one such placement that appeals to your mind and its done. Later, in editing you can add a bit of sharpness and grains. Grains look really nice on some photos, they are added on purpose here. There are two ways of adding them a) Use a high ISO setting of about 800-1600 on a crop-sensor camera or slightly higher on a full-frame camera or b) by Simply adding them using a photo editing software.

You can also brighten the photograph a little or adjust the hues and saturation, if you aren't satisfied with the original photo. Please make sure that you don't over do the editing part.

Lines Vs Square

Minimalism as Simple Geometry

Minimalist Photography By © Prakash Ghai
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Lets get back to Simple Geometry today. 

We all love geometry, don't we? As soon as I spotted these lines created by the Sun, my eyes opened as wide as they could. And for a few minutes I kept admiring their beauty. I was thanking my stars for what I had stumbled upon, but there was a problem. Shooting only the lines was a shot too simple and mundane. So, I shifted my eyes left, where there was a big window.

To add a bit of spice to the shot, I thought it would be a great idea to carve out a square from the window and show its interaction with the lines. Therefore, I titled this Minimalist Shot as Lines Vs Square.

I took multiple shots and it took me a while to bring the two visible sides of the square to approximately equal lengths . Later, I adjusted the levels in a photo editing software to make the shadows appear darker.

Hope you enjoyed the shot. Wish you all a great day/evening.

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