Light Shadow Lines Architecture

Minimalism as Simple Geometry

Minimalist Photography By © Prakash Ghai
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Light Shadow Lines Architecture, is not a Minimalist Title, I agree :)

But, the photo definitely is. I chose such a title, so that it becomes easier for the blog followers to immediately comprehend the elements within the Minimalist Photograph.

The Photograph falls under the Minimalism as Simple Geometry category. The subject being, primarily just the Lines of a Staircase at Jawahar Kala Kendra. That's the Simple Geometry here: Lines.

Lines are one of the most reliable subjects in minimalist photography and even better in minimalist architecture photography. They are already simple. You don't need to simplify them further.

This photograph was taken at Jawahar Kala Kendra, Jaipur. I shot this looking straight up with my 100mm Canon Prime Macro L lens.

Jawahar Kala Kendra has been one of my most visited locations for minimalist photography over the years. The building was designed by Charles Correa and the geometry is intentional throughout. A paradise for minimalist photographers.

Note: this photograph is available as a fine art wall print. Buy it here

Thank you !

Also Check: 

• Exhibitions

Must Read:

• Types of Minimalism

• What is Minimalist Photography?

The Missing Window Pane

Minimalism as in Repeating Shapes

Photo  By © Prakash Ghai

Though I have titled this photo as The Missing Window Pane, I also have another interpretation of it.

I looked for a meaning for this photograph within my Sub-conscious mind. When I did, I realized this relates to my real life story. 

I had a girl friend back in 2003, with whom I were to get married. But since she was elder to me by a couple of years and was already working, things did not work out the way I had thought. Her parents wanted her to get married asap but I had plan to fly to Bangalore for my MBA Degree. 

I was left with a tough choice, whether to fly to Bangalore for higher education or Simply Marry her. I chose to get a Degree, based on the assumption that its true love and she would happily wait. 

But, since I moved to a far off location from my city, our relationship turned into a long distance one. 

Soon, there were misunderstandings and many a times I flew back home to clarify. But one day it all ended abruptly. We had a big misunderstanding, which I could not sort out. Along with that, her ego got hurt. I kept asking her to give me One Last Chance to Clarify and Explain, but She refused. 

The Missing Window Pane above is that Missing Last Chance, she never gave me. If she had, life would have been different.  

That said, I would like to thank her as well, as This art i.e. Minimalist Photography, that I do today, is because of her.

OK, Long emotional story ! NO 

I have long forgotten her for good :) I have learned to move-on. 

Move-on, just reminded me to move-on quickly to the Composition.

Composition Highlights 

The Shot above Falls under the Minimalism as in Repeating Shapes Category of Minimalist Photography. What made me click this shot, was the one Missing Window Pane. 

It broke the repetition very beautifully.

Also the Reflections in the window creates nice visual abstraction. It somewhat sparks a feeling of nostalgia. 

Another way to look at the picture is In Terms of Shapes. These are 4 Vertical Rectangles in Repetition.

The One Curve made my the Electrical Wire coming out from the 3rd Missing Window Pane, also breaks nicely the visual symmetry.

So, Those were the Photo Highlights. Hope that you enjoyed the Shot. 

See you around next time ! Comments and Feedback Welcomed !

PS: ...by the way this photograph deserves a poem (well..more than a haiku).  If I was a poet, I would have written one.

Related Posts:

• Broken Window Pane
• Two Window Panes

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

Distant Brown Chair

Minimalism as in Small Objects

Photo By © Prakash Ghai
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I met a blogger at an Instameet recently and we discussed a few blogging basics that day. While on my way back from that technical meeting, I stopped at Cafe Coffee Day - Civil Lines, Jaipur, which is very near to my house. 

I thought it would be a good Idea to have a chilled glass of my favorite Tropical Iceberg Coffee.

So I ordered one for me, along with a Chicken Sandwich. To sit, I chose the window seat right next to the  billing counter. 

While I was waiting for my order to arrive, I noticed some reflections in the big wall to wall glass window adjacent to my seat. 

I thought maybe, there was a Minimalist Shot in those reflections. After composing a few frames roughly through my eyes, I decided to stop trying as the clutter was way too much. 

Meanwhile, my order arrived. 

The famous tagline of Cafe Coffee Day goes "A lot can happen over Coffee". 

Well, it played out quite well for me.

After, about 4-5 gulps of Tropical Iceberg Coffee, I noticed this Distant Brown Chair, through the glass window next to me. The Chair was placed inside the small room of the Security guard of the building.

Although it was night and the light wasn't much, thankfully the security guard's room had this bright white illuminating light falling on the Distant Brown Chair. This presented me with a great opportunity to capture a decent Minimalist Photograph.

I was on my 100mm Canon f2.8 Macro Lens (affiliate link). I set the lens to "Manual Focus" and punched in the following settings to take the shot:

Camera Settings: 

 

• ISO speed: ISO-400

• Exposure time: 1/20 sec

• F-stop: f/2.8

Well, in the end I was satisfied with the composition and now I can safely say that at least for me "A lot did happen over Coffee".

More on the Minimalist Composition

a) Minimalism Category: Minimalism as in Small Objects, the small object being the Distant Brown Chair

b) The Rule of thirds* is not applied here. The brown chair is placed almost in the center. 

I broke the rule. :)

*I always mention that one should never place subjects in the center of the frame. But here, I did place the subject in the center and the reason is: the Vertical White Rectangular box, within which the Distant Brown Chair is placed, makes the chair appear Off-Center visually. I hope you understand what I mean with "appear off-center visually, despite being in the center.

Also, both ends of the frame, i.e left and right are dark and blurred, that further justifying the lack of rule of third requirement rule.

With that "Off-center and Rule of Thirds MESS", its a wrap for the day !

I send you all warm greetings from India once again, its really cold thanks to unexpected winter rain :)

Low Hanging Twig Of A Plant Against A Red Wall

Minimalism as Less Elements

Photo By © Prakash Ghai
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A  Minimalist Photograph of a Low Hanging Twig Of a Plant against a Red Wall.

Today, I would like to keep the write-up very Minimal. 

This Minimalist Photograph of "The Low hanging dry twig of a plant against the textured red Indian wall", narrates a story/poem on its own. Much has been experienced by the Dry Twig and words lose strength in front of such Photographs. The life and struggles are self-explanatory here.

To capture such a photograph, I first searched for a Red Wall. Then I looked for objects that I could contrast against it.

Green plants/leaves act as very good subjects for such kind of a backdrop but today I chose a Dry Twig

This Shot was taken at Geejgarh Vihar colony, Jaipur on 19th June 2016 with Canon 600D via Canon 50mm 1.4 prime lens. Time: approximately 5.00 pm

If you liked the Style of the Minimalism, please up-vote this Photograph by sharing it on one of your social media accounts.

Thank You - Have a Nice Day / Evening

Other Minimalist Photos with Red as a primary color:

- Open Door and Water Outlet on a Red Wall

- Love Story

- Challenging Circumstances

Hanging Iron Chain On A Rusty Textured Background

Minimalism as Less Elements

Photo By © Prakash Ghai
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Sometimes, you are in a phase of life, where you feel very low on self esteem and confidence. Also you begin to think that, all is very gloomy and life is kind of over. You draw conclusions way too early and talk of completely giving up without realizing, that this is just a phase of life. I have met many people who talk or assume the same, most of them in their mid-thirties. I would say such phases of life come and go. Life overall, is a combination of ups and downs and in the long run everyone experiences roughly the same joys and sorrow, only the form of in which they occur or are experienced might be different and therefore people do not realize it. When some people face difficult times, they tend to forget about their strong and positive points. There is a saying which goes "This too shall pass" and trust me it eventually does, all that one need to do is to have patience and some hope to sail through.

The photo above depicts a similar sort of a phase, where the un-rusted iron chain (which believes it too has got rusted) or that mid-thirties person, has forgotten that he is capable enough to sail through bad times. The rust in the background or the negative circumstances has overwhelmed him.

Well, lets get back with the composition now. It is fairly easy to comprehend that this is Minimalism as Less Elements with just two main elements in the frame. One being the chain and the other, the textured rusty metal background. For the ones interested in the technicals, here is the EXIF data.

• Camera Make: Canon 
• Camera Model: Canon EOS 600D
• ISO speed: ISO-100
• F-stop: f/4.5
• Exposure Time: 1/125 sec
• Exposure bias: 0 step

Hope you enjoyed the photo. 

Feel free to share this via one of the social media sharing buttons on the left. 

Thank you.

Grainy Minimalism Arcs within Arcs

Minimalism as Less Elements

Minimalist Photography By © Prakash Ghai
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A Minimalist Photo of Arcs within Arcs shot at Amber Fort, Jaipur

With this Grainy Minimalist Photo I want to make a point. But first, let me Ask you a Question.

Tell me, Why any Artist who paints or draws anything is acceptable art?

Whereas, If a Photographer experiments too much and crosses certain technical boundaries, then his work becomes unacceptable and it is quickly disregarded by people? 

Why the bias?  Isn't Photography Art too? Isn't the Man/Woman behind the camera, an artist as well?

An artist can doodle, make a collage, scribble, produce abstract artworks or do what ever he or she likes, But a Photographer has to follow certain rules or else people start saying things like "This is not Photography."

Most leading magazines, Photography competitions, stock photography websites, mostly do not accept photos that have grain, blur and other technical errors in them, whether on purpose or not on purpose. 

My question is, why not? 

Sometimes with grains and blur the photos look brilliant but since they do not fall under the technical bracket of "right photography", either such photos get mostly rejected by the Top Photographers/Editors etc. or the photographer himself deletes them, and later never produce newer ones.

What most Top Magazine Editors/Stock Photography site/Photography Jury/Mentors always select and promote is the same old Landscape pictures that include waterfalls, sunsets etc. 

HOW BORING is that? where is the variety? There isn't any.

(Note: In the art fraternity grainy and blurry photos are appreciated to some extent but it still needs a wider audience. On the other hand, in commercial photography, it is almost a complete NO.)

So, The Million Dollar Question is:

"Why is Photography mostly judged on the technical aspects rather than the artistic aspects?"

For example, In photography it is generally recommended that one should almost never take a shot above the ISO setting range of 400-800 in a Crop Sensor camera. If there is low light and if you don't have an expensive camera that gives less grain on high ISO setting, then you lose the shot. Photographers miss many great compositions because of this. They know even if they take the shot at a high ISO setting to capture the composition, everyone's first reaction would be "No, the ISO is too high. so many grains in the photo, forget about the composition, the shot is over."

Then to follow up, they end up recommending you a high priced full-frame camera which might eat up an entire year of your savings.

My problem is with their reaction. Their ideal reaction should be "Wow, what a lovely composition. Forget about the grains. Composition rules, you have a great vision. Well done."

But, this never happens. So what I have personally noticed is that the photographers who can afford the expensive cameras, always tend to suppress the creative photographers who can compose good shots but do not have the resources to upgrade to better cameras. The de-motivation eventually pushes the creative photographer out and that is the reason we keep seeing sunset, sunrises, mountains, waterfall photos over and over and over again.

Anyways, this could go on and on but by now, I am sure you understood the point I wanted to make. 

Back to the Minimalist Photograph 

The shot falls under the Minimalism as Less Elements category of Minimalist Photography. The only subject here is the White Arcs in Repetition. 

The grains add the artistic touch to the photo and that is the highlight of the shot. Without the grains, the photo loses most of its appeal. I had this shot in my PC for over 1 and a half years, but I never posted it on my website/blog because it had grains, I too was not sure of it initially. I kept the shot saved because I believed the composition was decent. Now, when I looked at it today, I felt like posting this and making a point.  

To concluded I would say "Art is art, the medium can be anything and people should value the photographers expression and vision."

Grains are Good - Happy Clicking !

Note: If you have captured some Grainy Minimalist Photographs or any grainy Photographs, post them in the comments section. IF you can't post them maybe share a link or two. I would be happy to take a look at your creativity. 

Must Read:

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

6 Arcs

Minimalism as Less Elements

Photo By © Prakash Ghai 
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Apart from Jawahar Kala Kendra, that I keep mentioning in my posts, this place "Jantar Mantar" is my second favorite in Jaipur. The reason is simple. The place is full of colorful, geometric astronomical instruments. The primary colors that one would find there are, yellow, red, brown and whites. That makes for a really nice color palette. And of course if you choose to add the blue sky, like how I did above, then its even better. Well, as you can see, I have categorized this picture under "Minimalism as in Repeating Shapes", rather than "Minimalism as Less Elements". The reason is, that the 6 arcs in repetition (part of the yellow wall) is my primary subject in the photo and everything else around it has been used to redirect the viewers eye to it. For examples, the curve coming in from the right, points nicely to it. Also, the two rectangular frames around the arcs, gives them core attention. There are these other types of "Minimalism as in Repeating Shapes" where the shapes in repetition, encompass the entire frame and thereby does away with the distracting elements. Thus, reflecting core simplicity. One such example on it from one of my previous posts is "Surrounded by Greed". 

So, those shots are also valid along with these kind of "Newer" Minimal of Repetition shots. Of course these are more interesting. But mind you, a very very clear redirection of the viewers eyes to the core subject is required, so you have to hit the bulls eye every-time. Such compositions, I call advanced Minimalist Visual Art. Because, here you try and challenge the definition and types of minimalism, by bending the rules, by being more creative and explorative. And at the same time, you still managed to stay within the rules. That is this thing about art. We have to keep experimenting, otherwise we shall always remain within a shell.

A Flower For Every Petal

Minimalism as Less Elements

Minimalist Photography by © Prakash Ghai
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Have faith in yourself and the universe, you are not just a petal. You hold the potential to be a blossoming flower. Many a times people think that their life is over and all their efforts have gone to vain. 

Later, their state of mind deteriorates and they start missing any opportunities that come their way. They either don't believe in them or think that they are just a trap to make them meet failure once again. But, NO. Do not commit such a mistake. Your job in life is to keep trying till you die, or until you get old. Someday you will click and be successful. You hold the potential, yes you do. One day surely you will shine and stand upright like a flower blossoming in the sun.

Nature rewards those who keep working hard. If it does not reward you for your hard work, mind you it shall be messing up with its own rules. Success will be yours eventually. Only those who give up half-way shall not be rewarded. Believe in yourself and your abilities. And not to forget, most importantly "Believe in Nature". For once trust it. It shall not disappoint you, ever.

Composition

Shot during broad daylight at about 10 in the morning with my Canon 50mm 1.4 prime lens. This is Minimalism as Less Elements.The abstract flower sort of a feel the structure was giving me caught my attention. The light and shadow combination instantly reminded me of the leaves of a lotus flower (inverted). 

I kept it really simple and avoided center placement of the subject. Yes that was the trap here. Converting to monochrome was an active choice as some areas were blown out due to excessive light and because I was bored of the regular yellow that's spread all across my city, Jaipur.