The Lucky Shirt

Minimalism as Less Elements

Photo By © Prakash Ghai
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Anil was a small construction contractor working in Jaipur and he had about 20 day laborers working under him. This green shirt was his favorite and it was not just for its color. Whenever he used to go out on field for negotiating a new construction contract wearing this shirt, he used to bag that contract.  Yes, he was very superstitious and this became his "Lucky Shirt". This kept on going for about 15 years. He had just turned 44 and on his birthday he got a call for a very big contract. It was about 20 times the size of the regular contracts he used to receive. This was his make or break moment. He promised his wife and two children that after successful completion of this contract he shall buy a new house for the family and also a nice new four-wheeler. As usual, he got dressed in his Lucky Green Shirt and headed for work. On his way, something terrible happened. Anil met with a very serious accident. A stranger rushed him to the hospital. He had suffered from serious head injuries. By the time the doctors started the treatment, Anil had already passed away. That stranger who brought him to the hospital completely broke down and with his shivering hands he took out Anil's cell phone from his pants. It was time to pass on the bad news. He made a call to the last dialed number on the list and it turned out to be Anil's wife Sunita. She could not believe her ears, she was certain that such a thing could not happen with Anil as he was wearing his lucky green shirt. She rushed to the hospital, but to her vain all that she found after reaching the hospital was her husband's dead body.
Was Anil's shirt really lucky or were these merely a series of coincidences? Do we learn anything from the story or Whatever happens just happens? To be or not to be "Superstitious" that is the question.
 (PS: this is a fictional story)

Composition

I spotted this shirt drying on the footpath next to a busy street, where some nomads lived. They only had a plastic tent to cover their heads. I loved the color palette and therefore decided to go as close as possible to the subject and carve out a frame. I loved the partially un-dry nature of the shirt with water accumulating down its sleeve, forming a nice light to dark gradation of greens. I let the metal clothesline run diagonally across the frame beginning from top left, and let everything else fall in place.  Negative space was not an issue and I also did not want too much of it, as I wanted the shirt to have more attention. The texture of the wall particularly interested me and that is the key highlight here. And there you have it. A Minimalist Photo of a Green Shirt. :)

Other Minimalist Photos using Clothesline as a Subject:

 

• Middle Class

• Knot in a Relationship

• Loose Ends

• Together Yet Apart

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

Photo 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.