The bird that wished she never had wings

Minimalism as Less Elements

Minimalist Photography By © Prakash Ghai
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Minimalist Photography of a Bird Silhouette on a Wire Fence at Jal Mahal Jaipur

She was leading a simple life. It used to be fun to fly to unexplored places every morning and be back by the evening to rest in the nest. The nest that she had rebuilt with a lot of effort. When she was young a vulture had killed all her family and destroyed their nest. She was the sole survivor. 

As time passed she became very strong and everything was good for quite a while. Then one fine morning she decided to fly very far, to a place where she had never been. There she made friends with a bird and soon fell in love with him. Suddenly her life changed and it was all so very beautiful. She made up her mind and decided to fly back to him, confess everything and be together with him for the rest of her life.

That day was special indeed, everything was perfect until a storm hit and soon there was rain. They both decided to protect themselves and therefore flew to a nearby tree which had a hole in it. They both were lost in love and therefore they could not sense the danger that is always imminent from other predatory birds. There was an attack and it was a vulture again. She managed to save her life but the love of her life was lost. She was devastated and broken.

The fence she is sitting at is near the tree where the attack took place. Three days have passed but she hasn't moved an inch. She regrets flying to this place. This would have never happened if she never had wings is what she concluded. So she gave up on flying forever and decided that she will be at the fence, till she loses her consciousness. 

A few words on composition of the Minimalist Photograph of the bird.

The photo was taken at 7.17 am. As you can see the sun was pretty bright so to cut down the light I used an aperture value of f/11 on my camera. I was on my 50mm 1.4 canon prime lens. I was pretty close to the bird and therefore I dint want to go beyond f/11. To cut down the light further I set the shutter to 1/4000 sec. The ISO speed was 400. Since

I was shooting in the Full Manual Mode like I always do, I had to move my fingers very fast or else the bird would have flown away before I was at the right camera settings. In hindsight, I could have done better with an ISO speed of 100 and adjusting the shutter accordingly, If the subject wasn't a bird I would have delivered on that, just a slight miss but there is always a next time. 

Composition is Minimalism as Less Elements Here we have two or lets say three elements including the fence. Frame is simplistic with two thirds negative space on the top.

Must Read:

• Types of Minimalism
  
  
• What is Minimalist Photography?
  
  
• 5 Minimalist Photos that Depict Less is More

Train Your Eyes for Minimalist Photography

Let's say you have decided to give Minimalist Photography a try and you are keen on clicking all Types of Minimalism in minimalist photography.

The question then is where to begin? To begin, you need to train your eyes to see everything in terms of shapes.

Minimalist Photography by © Prakash Ghai

Last Updated: March 2026

You need to Change your "Perspective" i.e. the way you look at things. Shapes/lines/ geometry is everywhere. 

They are a part of our everyday lives, but we often forget to notice them.

For example:

• What shape is a birthday cake? Isn't it mostly a square or a circle?

• Even when you cut your birthday cake with a knife, what shape do you cut out? Don't you cut out triangles ?

• Geometry is everywhere. OK, how about a wrist watch? The most common dial shapes are circular, square, or rectangular.

• How about the plates we use to eat our food in? again circular or square. (the common ones)

• How about  doors and windows? Mostly all doors are rectangular (rather rectangles) and most common window shapes are improvised squares or rectangles. Rectangles, are used the most in everyday life, they are just about everywhere.

• Also, how about the electricity wires you see on the road attached to the poles. Well, those are not electricity wires, for a minimalist those are Lines.

This is the kind of perspective change you need to bring in, in order to compose Minimalist frames.

Let's take a few examples of Minimalist Photographs to better understand how a normal person views objects and how a Minimalist Photographer views them. 

Minimalist Photo: 1

Minimalist Photography by © Prakash Ghai
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a) How a regular photographer views it?

Two holes in a rusty metal sheet.

b) How a minimalist photographer views it?

Two circles separated by a line.

or minimalism as simple geometry

  

Minimalist Photo: 2 

Minimalist Photography by © Prakash Ghai
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a) How a regular photographer views it?

A yellow wall with an opening.

b) How a minimalist photographer views it?

A red rectangle within a square, which is again within a larger square.

or minimalism as simple geometry

Minimalist Photo: 3

Minimalist Photography by © Prakash Ghai
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a) How a regular photographer views it?

Snippet of a ladder.

b) How a minimalist photographer views it?

Five vertical lines cut by a diagonal one.

or minimalism as simple geometry

Minimalist Photo: 4

Minimalist Photography by © Prakash Ghai
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a) How a regular photographer views it?

Six windows.

b) How a minimalist photographer views it?

Squares in repetition, lines and curves.

or minimalism as repeating shapes

Minimalist Photo: 5

Minimalist Photography by © Prakash Ghai
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a) How a regular photographer views it?

A bicycle parked by the wall.

b) How a minimalist photographer views it?

A semi-circle, lines and a cropped rectangle.

or minimalism as parts of the whole

Minimalist Photo: 6

Minimalist Photography by © Prakash Ghai
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a) How a regular photographer views it?

A staircase.

b) How a minimalist photographer views it?

A right angled triangle on the left, A diagonal line and other straight lines.

or minimalism as simple geometry

This minimalist photograph is a good example of minimalist architecture photography where subject isolation and leading lines do all the work.

5 Practical Exercises to help you see shapes better.

(1) The Geometry Hunt

Pick any room. Now, without touching your camera find 2 rectangles, 1 circles and 1 triangle in it. Look at doors, plates, windows, light switches. Once you start counting shapes, you literally cannot stop.

(2) Lines Only

Go outside for 10 minutes. Shoot nothing but lines. Wires, railings, wall edges. No faces, no street scenes, just lines.

(3) Convert Objects Into Geometry

Pick any object near you right now. Describe it in terms of geometry not its name. A chair becomes four vertical rectangles holding up one horizontal one. Do this for three objects. 

(4) Find a Shape Inside a Shape

Look at Photo 2 in this article. What is it really? A red rectangle inside a square, inside a larger square. Now look around you. A window pane is a rectangle inside a rectangle. A clock is a circle inside a circle. 

(5) Find One Shape Everywhere

Pick one shape. Let's say a square. Now find it in 10 different places. A window, a floor tile or a wall switch. Shapes reside everywhere, all you have to do is notice and pay attention.

I hope the above examples help you to see objects in a terms of geometric shapes and you can capture better minimalist photos going forward.

You can also take some cues from my curated minimalist photography portfolio.

Must Read:

• 55 Photography Tips Every Photographer Must Read Once
• Types of Minimalism

• Phases of Life and Photography: & where "Minimalism" fits in.

• Exploring Suppressed Inner Creativity via Minimalist Photography.

• The World Doesn’t Need More Photographs. It Needs Better Ones.