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

Photo 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.

More Bicycle Photographs:

• Bicycle Bench Lines 

   

• Bicycle Tyre versus the Rectangle 

   

• Option A versus B 

   

• The Get-together

Whenever it rains

Minimalism as Low Detail

Photo by © Prakash Ghai

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. 

Composition

I was out on a photo-walk 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 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.

The Half-way mark

Minimalism as Less Elements

Photo by © Prakash Ghai
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One may have any kind of goal or objective in his/her life but it all begins with the first few steps. Generally goals, (I am not talking about dreams here as they are usually vague) are set high and one starts working on them on the premise of hope, optimism and hard-work combined. But what happens with most people is that they work way too hard right at the start and get tired or exhausted by the time they are supposed to reach the "Half Way Mark". 

They end up concluding that the path they chose was wrong and they should try something else. My point here is that one should be patient enough and work at a steady pace until one reaches the Half Way Mark. Because after reaching this point, the goal (depicted by the red square) becomes clearly visible and what needs to be done or how many more stairs to climb to get there becomes clearly visible too (depicted by the number of stairs left to be taken). 

So what we learn here is that we should never take a call on something before we reach the half way mark. 

Getting back to the Mini-tutorial part of the photo. This is Minimalism as Less Elements. Some of you may argue that the geometry is spread out evenly and the shot is a little too detailed. But here I have inferred the Staircase in totality as one elements and the red square as a supporting side element. This might also fall under the category  Minimalism as Simple Geometry as there are a lot of lines and basic geometric shapes in the shot. Shooting this fully sharp from front to back required a high aperture and I shot it around F 8.0. Remember to keep your focus point roughly at 1/3rd of the total distance/depth of the frame to get everything mostly in focus. I kept the focus point on the left, between the 2nd and 3rd zigzag. Hope you enjoyed the shot and I send you all seasons greetings all the way from Jaipur- India. 

PS: Don;t forget to check out my new venture on Instagram the "Learn Minimalism" and the hashtag that I started there  #LearnMinimalism

By using the hashtag you too can take part in the Minimalist Photography Contest. The page has more than 43,000 followers and about 2,30,000 photos in the hashtag and growing. A lot of effort has been put in to promote and spread Minimalism in Photography on a global level. This lesser known genre deserves to be spread and "I am doing my bit for it."

Infant to Adult and Thereafter

Minimalism as Simple Geometry (lines)

Photo 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

Photo 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.

Conditional Love

Minimalism as Simple Geometry

Photo by © Prakash Ghai
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What is Love? I am "Not" too sure about that, but are you? People talk of love as a feeling which they get into unknowingly. It starts-off as an initial attraction and later turns into extreme concern and care for that special person. When in love, you do not tend to acquire or gain something from the other person, rather you become selfless and try to be as giving as possible. And of course, that person hardly ever leaves your mind, whether in sleep or when you are awake, in happiness or in sadness. OK, but with all of this the real question is,

Is Love really love? and well especially now-a-days? People see and learn all of this from movies and of course through real-life experiences. As soon as something similar happens with them, they jump right to the conclusion that it is "Love". Well, they don't just stop there, rather they move a step further and claim that it is "TRUE Love". How true are their claims can only be found out during testing times. In most cases they take a step backwards and re-classify their feelings as mere "Infatuation". Why? because their loved one is in trouble, or is in testing times, in bad circumstances. Rather than supporting his/her partner they just turn away from them in search of someone else who is free of all the negativity and full of optimism, carries a smile, etc etc. No one wants to accept the reality that there are ups and downs in everyone's life, and measuring, loving and judging people based on their circumstances, is being a very shallow individual yourself. I wanted to show the same scenario with the picture above where two yellow circles or two people were in a close relationship to begin with. Buy as soon as one of them ie the circle on the right started facing testing times (depicted by the triangle created by the dark shadow or problems.), the other one distanced himself from him. There are similar cases in real life and in most cases "Conditional Love" or rather "No Love At All", is being misunderstood for "True Love". In the past, I have had many friends face similar issues in their relationships. What is your take on it? Why is it that people are so shallow now-a-days? Some are even afraid to fall in love. Share your thoughts below. I would be happy to read your insights.

Composition

The shot falls under Minimalism as Simple Geometry category. I tried to use negative space a little differently this time, I placed it between the two circles. Getting the Triangle created by the shadow right, was a little tricky, as a) I was in the middle of a busy street loaded with traffic and b) Shadows change very very fast and If I had taken more time to shoot, the shadow might have engulfed the entire circle and that kind of a shot would have had less visual appeal. 

Behind the Door of Jealousy

Minimalism as Less Elements

Photo By © Prakash Ghai
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Last Sunday I was out with a few of my friends to Gaurav Towers, a big shopping complex in Jaipur to roam around and have some food. I was there a little early. I parked my bike and hung the camera on my neck. I spotted some big posters on the walls and my eyes just lit up. I thought, today was the day to try that "connecting expressions in posters or text written on posters to people on the street" kind of photography. I walked around and found that the posters that were available were either too high or they did not have anything interesting written them. My excitement just nosedived and I put the lens cap back on my camera.

Suddenly a food truck arrived. It was painted with bright orange and green colors. The colors were so vibrant that I could not stop myself from clicking a few Minimalist shots. This knob was placed right at the center of the big green exit door at the back of the food truck. The shot was simple, I just placed the metal knob on the left and left a lot of negative to the right and at the bottom. I captured this using the 50mm 1.8 prime lens. Prime lenses retain a lot of color and are usually sharp. The message what I want to convey through this picture is that "Behind the Door of Jealousy lies Truth & Opportunity". Yes, I really mean "Truth". What happens is that when you are jealous, you tend to stay away from or ignore the person you are jealous with. Not wanting to find out how he/she really is, and what is your real reason for jealousy. Are you only imagining things? Have you made any effort to find out the truth? And why I mean "Opportunity", is that when you are jealous of someone rich and more successful, rather than ignoring that person, one should talk to him/her and try of find out and learn from them as to how they achieved their success.

The Introvert

Minimalism as Less Elements

Photo By © Prakash Ghai
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There are two kinds of people according to Carl Jung's personality theory.

a) Introverts

 

b) Extroverts. 

Introverts are more concerned about their inner world of ideas and thoughts. They generally tend to avoid social gatherings and are at ease even when alone or in silence. On the other hand, Extroverts take gratification from what is outside the "self". They are at their most energized state when they have others around them. The "shadow" of the plant above can be interpreted as an Introvert as it does not wants to expose itself to the outside world and therefore prefers being in the shadow state. An introvert actually enjoys his time alone, deep in his thoughts while his family members are away at the club for a party.

But, there is a huge misconception about them. People treat all introverts with a negative bias and call them pessimists, losers, or simply think that they are depressed. Well, that is not the case and that is the message I want to convey with this photo. Although the plant is hidden from the outside world being a shadow but it is as beautiful as any other real plant or an extrovert. It is only a matter of time when the plant chooses to be out in the open and that day the Extroverts will come to know how balanced, calm and composed introverts really are.

I shot this at the Worldwide Instameet or #wwim11 which was organized by Instagramers Jaipur at Smriti Van on 22nd March 2015, headed by Amit Ginani and Taruna Chanchlani.
Their efforts are noteworthy. The theme was "Nature Hunt" and although I did not shoot subjects from the checklist they had provided but I got lucky enough to capture this beautiful shadow created by nature. I simply followed Sunlight and that lead me to this textured Indian wall.

To make the composition interesting I added a shadow line on the left which could have otherwise avoided. I moved in closer to the subject and used the shaded black portion at the bottom of the frame to balance the overall Minimalist Composition.