Future Plans

Minimalism as Less Less Elements

Photo By © Prakash Ghai
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There is a popular theory doing the rounds these days. "Living in the Now". 

It says, that one should neither think of (or be in) the past nor he/she should ponder or bother too much about the future. One should just live in the present moment. Like for example, while I am writing this post, my focus should entirely be on the post and nowhere else. One should stay with a single thought at a time or a single activity. I did try this approach out and it helped me bring down my stress levels. 

But, there is a problem with this approach. What about the future? I mean, is it still possible to plan for a future and work towards the achievement of that goal despite "living in the now"? A plan is something via which, you try and force an outcome sometime in the future. The results, may or may not be as expected. Expectations, generally cause insecurity and therefore produce way too many thoughts in the mind. 

My question is this, if one chooses to live moment to moment or in the now, can he still plan for the future? If yes, the then how does this theory integrate the planning/goal setting aspect?.

Lets get back to the photo. It reminds me of the conversation I had with my uncle from US, on future plans. He asked me this, "Where do you see yourself 5 years from now. What is your plan?" and my answer to him was a question in return, "Can you say for sure, that you will wake up tomorrow morning, forget about the future.?" He was surprised by my answer and I further added in response, "I can only work hard, and that is all. I have not seen the future, nor it is under my control. If I start believing, that I have some control over it, that is as good as having an illusion. The unexpected always happens and that's what life is all about. If, it can be predicted or steered the way you want to, it cant be termed Life." 
Note: to some extent you do play a part in affecting your life, but that is very minuscule. 

So these posters are like those future plans, that mostly never work out and therefore are torn.
The shot as you see, has been composed from a side angle, that I usually prefer. The blue back of the green poster made me choose this poster from the many available, as it gave me an interesting color palette. Also, everything is kept pretty sharp in the frame. It is very tempting to use a shallow depth of field on such angles but in Minimalist Photography, keeping everything sharp is most ideal. And next time, I will try and choose a neutral language on the poster( like English) rather than a regional one.


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I sell my photos via the Pixels.com USA tie-up. Photos are printed in the US and they ship worldwide. 

Radiate Love

Minimalism as Simple Geometry

Minimalist Photography By © Prakash Ghai
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Radiate Love, to find it back. Yes and No. Yes, because that's the rule of nature and No, because when you do such a thing solely  for the purpose of getting love back in return, then it is more like a business transaction. The moment there is want or greed in your mind, what returns to you, is  usually "nothing".  

Why I mention this, is a) it took me some time to get this thing in my head, right.  Now, that I know about it, I am happy to share this with you all. And b) A lot of people today say, that the world is bad and abundant with selfish people.

Well, there is a reason for that. Most people want to do a transaction, rather than loving others purely. And because in return they usually get  "nothing" they, themselves have become selfish, and have labelled others as unloving and mean.  What I want to say is, that love purely, love completely, look for nothing in return. 

People say, I love her, she is mine or I love him, he is mine. Well, nothing is yours. Nothing was yours to begin with too, and nor shall anything be ever yours. You are living in an illusion, if you believe so. Tell me, what is it that you can actually call your own? Tell me, give me one example. I bet you can't, as there is nothing.

So, let's decide, that for whatever little time, we are in this world, lets love each other, without conditions, without expectations. Love heals. Let us heal the world together and for good.  

Note: I actually related this picture to love as "white as a color represents purity, and purity is something usually related to love." 
Also Note: Radiate pure love, make it your default setting. 

Back to the composition, this is Minimalism as Simple Geometry. What we have here is, one vertical rectangle on the left and its shadow casted on the right.

The composition is fairly simple as it should be. White Minimalism, is always more appealing as well as pleasing to look at.  The tough part here is not the composition, rather, the challenge in such photos is to be able to find these kind of white walls.

They have become so uncommon these days. I remember when I was a kid, usually on the Diwali Festival, my parents used to get my entire house white-washed or painted in white. But, later even that changed to "just any new paint" not necessarily white, it usually off-white now. 

At least, in the city where I live in i.e Jaipur, it is extremely difficult to spot such walls. The most usual wall color is, either yellow or orange(pink-ish orange).

The Other World

Minimalism as Less Elements 

Photo By © Prakash Ghai
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What if there are other worlds that co-exists along with ours right here on planet Earth. Maybe there are other objects or people/aliens who are not visible to us as we can only see objects or people that lie in our dimension. For Example we can only see things that are in a) 3D b) 2D c) 1D but not 4D, But those who live in the 4th Dimension or 4D can see all 4 dimensions including theirs but not sneak peak into the 5th Dimension or 5D and the chain goes on upto infinite Dimensions. They all talk of aliens/Ufo's or other beings visiting our planet or have visited our planet in the past. Maybe they all live here but some have the know-how or technology to do "Dimension Travel". Whenever I see shadows or reflections I completely get into a different state of mind and begin to ponder if there was a way by which I could visit the worlds of shadows or reflections at least.

Back to the Composition

This is Minimalism as Less Elements where my primary subject is the small bird sitting on the wire accompanied by its supporting subject or the co-actor in the movie ie the tree. To find such a shot one has to either go out post rain or find a place where there is water seepage. Its relatively easy to find such places In India as some of the local shopkeepers water the road right outside their shop and use cleanliness as a tactic to attract customers. I took this shot right in front of a cigarette selling shop in Jaipur.  The shopkeeper cleaned the area right outside his shop alright but he left the place next to his shop untidy with spare water having nowhere to go. One of the key challenges in reflection photography is to get the exposure right and be lucky enough to have clear water for visible reflections. Water puddles with a lot of mud should be avoided. I would suggest shooting in the RAW file format so that such tricky photos could be well edited. Also, it is a usual practice to flip water reflection photos to add in the extra magic but here at least in this shot, the flip wasn't looking nice so I kept it the way it is. Mind you, the bird is not as sharp as the tree, I mean that is your choice as to where you keep the focus point at but that did not change my subject and it is still the bird. 

The Inflection Point

Minimalism as Less Elements

Photo By © Prakash Ghai
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Each loop of the Rusted iron chain here represents "An unsuccessful attempt to succeed in life." Some people do not have much luck by their side. They keep failing in whatever they do. If you carefully observe there are 11 loops or 11 attempts or 11 new ventures an individual tried, starting from the top all of which are in focus. But, the vision blurs out from the 12th one signifying that unlucky person is now tired and completely exhausted from a series of failures. He has reached The Inflection Point, from where everything has started to look blurry. There is loss of hope, lack of self belief and complete loss of faith in god. What should such a broken person do ? Give up? or still Carry on? Isn't there a limit to anything ? How strong could one be or rather act?

Composition 

This is an extreme low angle close-up shot with my 50 mm Canon 1.4 prime lens that I recently bought. Results of this lens are way better than my previous 50 mm 1.8 Canon prime lens. While composing I kept my aperture at F/7 and the focus point around the beginning 1/3rd of the frame to try and get most things sharp. Following rule of thirds was a little tricky and I don't like center splits, so I placed the diagonal line formed by the rusted chain a little off-center and biased towards left.