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."

Namaste Auntie

Minimalism as Less Elements 

Photo By © Prakash Ghai
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It is generally observed that people who are blessed with good looks lack maturity and those who are mature tend to lack good looks, of course there are exceptions. When you are young and smart in your early stage of life, you tend to make a lot of mistakes. And when maturity starts hitting you, you tend to lose your cosmetically perfect looks. It sounds more like a zero-sum game. As we can see above, the handle of the terrace entrance door has the courage and maturity to face the harsh sunlight only after losing his good looks to rust. He now comes across as a strong character. 

I found this shot on a visit to a friends place. I was climbing up the stairs to get access to the terrace and on my way up I met my friends mother, who was combing her daughter's hair. I greeted her with the regular "Namaste Auntie" greeting and then she moved to one side to make way for me. While I was about to reach the terrace I spotted this beautiful rusted door handle. I instantly told my friends mom "Thank you auntie for not getting this painted, you just made my day." and she started laughing. She probably thought I would have asked her as to why she did not get this painted. Well, I smiled back at her and calmly took the shot. I placed the handle on the left but kept room for the shadow. In such shots don't get confused by the shadow. Place the subject's shadow on the rule of thirds alignment rather than the actual subject to get the Minimalist Composition right.

Husband and Wife

Minimalism as Simple Geometry

Photo By © Prakash Ghai
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A Minimalist Photograph of Spinning Tops on the street, used by children to play. 

This Minimalist Photograph was captured yesterday, post the Diwali festival. Me and my friend Manav went to the old walled city (Johari Bazaar) in Jaipur to take a few night shots. I was officially out for Street Photography and was walking past two middle aged men sitting on the side of the street selling this beautifully lit "Spinning Tops".

I could recall that in childhood I used to play with one of these. At First, I thought let me not take a shot but later I asked myself, Why not?

These are Circles and I therefore used them as a Minimalist subject under the Minimalist Photography category: "Minimalism as Simple Geometry".

I always try to click newer shots and not repeat my Minimalist Subjects to keep things fresh. The Tops were spinning very fast, and initially I tried to use a faster shutter speed to capture them but I was not able to create an Artsy Minimalist Shot.

Therefore,  I switched over to a shutter speed of about 1/30 roughly and an f stop of 1.8 on my 50mm prime lens, which resulted in these smoothed even out spirals or lets say Circles within Circles.

Since these Spinning Tops i.e Circles were in a pair and spinning in close proximity, so I thought why not keep the title of the post Husband and Wife. 

I have kept the subjects on Diagonal Ends and tried to leave Empty/Negative space between them this way.

Hope you enjoyed the shot. Stay tuned for newer Minimalist Photographs.

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Thank You.