Omnipresent Geometry

Minimalism as Simple Geometry

Photo By © Prakash Ghai
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Opposite to the Jharkhand Mahadev Temple in Vaishali Nagar, there are a few bright colored houses. These houses are inhabited by the workers working in the temple. There is an area right opposite the front gate of the temple, where pigeons are fed. Usually, one would find at least 200-300 pigeons there. The visual arrangement that you see in the picture below, is right above that pigeon area. I visually connected the front wall, added the metal diagonal coming in from the right and placed the pink house in the background, along with its unfinished brick wall neighbor. It is a very tricky composition and I had to crop out a lot from the original photo. Like for example on the bottom right, there was face of a girl painted in black, that was a spoiler and hence I removed it. All that you now see in the frame with focus is Simple Geometry. It is everywhere. So many lines and simple geometric shapes. I also wanted to keep the colors to a minimum and I think the photo would even looked better without the vertical blue line, right under the metal diagonal coming in from the right. 

What do you think? Should the blue line be there?

Bicycle Bench Lines

Minimalism as Parts of the Whole 

Photo By © Prakash Ghai
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As you can see, the photo contains three elements but here I am not trying to show Minimalism as Less Elements as a type here. The elements, although are decent enough for a minimalist photo but they are too zoomed-in, too big in size and give more of a maximal feel. The photo is still minimal though. 

Simple geometry(four vertical lines) as a Type of Minimalism in Photography has been used (partially) along with the type "Minimalism as Parts of the Whole". So you can say its more of a fusion of two types of Minimalism in Photography. 

Well, Parts of the Whole Minimalism is when a part of the subject is clipped on purpose and the viewer is made to imagine as to how the complete object would have looked like if there was no clipping/cropping done. Now, lets get into more detail, If I had taken this shot last year, I would have used only the four vertical lines in the frame along with the partial tyre of the bicycle restricting the elements to a total of two. But since I have grown over time and have taken a lot of those shots earlier, this time I decided to include the bench as well and clipped that too so that the mind of the viewer is led into deeper imagination. If we look at the bench with a view to see shapes then it is a rectangle and the same way the tyre of the bicycle is an arc.

More Bicycle Photographs:

• Bicycle Tyre versus the Rectangle 

   

• The Tring-Tring Era 

   

• Option A versus B 

   

• The Get-together

T Point

Minimalism as Simple Geometry 

Photo By © Prakash Ghai
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At times in life we are faced with tricky situations or lets say some T-points where we are left with only two choices to a problem at hand. We have to choose one from them and it gets really confusing. I encountered one such T-point at age 22. I had a girlfriend whom I loved a lot and had plans to marry her. I had also been selected for my Post Graduation MBA (masters in business administration) by an MBA college in Bangalore and had the call letter with me. I had to choose one among-st "Higher Education" or "Marriage". I chose the former. And so my relationship turned into a long distance relationship and the girl just could not wait for me. Initially I thought that I made the wrong choice but later I realized if she truly loved me she would have waited. Anyways that was in 2003 but thank god (if he exists) I am still single because you get a lot of spare time for yourself, which you don't get after marriage. I am happy to be utilizing it for my art and photography. Of course I am looking forward to getting married but I don't think so I can do all this with ease and freedom later, like writing blog posts, taking photographs, buy expensive camera equipments, running multiple social media accounts, hang around with friends, come back home late nights. I do realize that once married I would only be able to give 1/4th of the total time I am giving to my photography right now, so I am making the best use of it.

OK, back to the Composition

This was shot at Jaipur Literature Festival 2016 which is held every year in January. I attend such events primarily to practice shooting celebrities and authors(although that's not my genre, I do it for the fun of it). I attended a few of their talk sessions as well and got a fair idea of what it takes to be there on the stage. I also look forward to the decorations at the venue i.e. Diggi Palace, which I already admire a lot for its heritage beauty. The colorful decorations along with some light and shadow throws up unique visuals that are a treat for Minimalist Photographers. For the shot, I first followed the patch of sunlight and then looked for some color. The blue tent was shortlisted. I knew now that my backdrop was ready and that now I only had to look for an interesting foreground object. A black ladder was lying right in front of the tent and was looking fabulous against the blue. I bent down on my knees and placed one of the T-points of the ladder's step on the top left double rule of thirds corner and my job was done. Editing the shot was extremely tricky as the blue wasn't coming out proper. Since I always shoot RAW+JPEG I switched over to the RAW file for better editing and that took me about 1 hour out of which 45 minutes just to get the blue right.

Back to Heaven

Minimalism as Simple Geometry

Photo By © Prakash Ghai
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I am doing this post after a long time. I had been busy all this while promoting Minimalist Photography via my Instagram Page LearnMinimalism. I have been working very hard over it for the last few months and now the base work has been completed. Therefore, I have some spare time again to do blog posts. Well, Last week I was out for a photo-walk and I wanted to do a post then but I happen to jam my camera's shutter and had submitted my camera to the service center for repairs. Its only today that I got my camera back with the shutter replaced by a new one. Thankfully I had a few days of warranty left or else I would have had to pay roughly about $100. On my way back from the service center I stopped at a local coffee shop for some test shots. This is one among-st them. The cafe is really beautiful. Its a garden cafe with gravel laid down on the floor, green plants everywhere and some fascinating colors and architecture. Loved their sense of aesthetics. This staircase I spotted at the back of the cafe and what was striking was the two little yellow arcs on the right. In fact there were three of them but I took two for my composition. I titled this "Back to Heaven" as I got that feel the moment I looked at it. Of course, whether I go to Heaven or Hell depends on my Karma but I am so far happy and confident of it, hence the assumption. 

There were many different ways this could be shot but I choose an aperture of about F/8 and focused right on the center pillar of the staircase rail. I wanted the pillar and it edges sharp and the two arcs on the right properly exposed and in focus. I was standing a little to the right of the staircase I was OK to have the steps fall in focus on their own with that aperture setting. I had my 50mm 1.4 pricey prime lens on. I could have also shot this at F/11 is what I realized later. Anyways do let me know your feedback about the shot. Have a nice day.

The Only One

Minimalism as in Repeating Shapes

Photo by © Prakash Ghai
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Some people are so different and unique that others just cannot understand them. Others think that he is the odd one out. While on the other hand, that unique person feels that he is being over powered and cornered for no valid reason. Life of such a person is usually very tough and therefore the sole purpose of his life becomes finding that one right person who would understand him. If he does not find such a person, life becomes a living hell for him.

I have used a water bottle to represent such a person who is stuck amongst people who never understood him or the bricks in repetition. The composition is relatively simple. The photo falls under Minimalism as Repeating shapes category. The only thing here is "not to center" the water bottle. I placed it on the right using the rule of thirds. The position of the bottle is a little near the center line of the 3x3 grid but you can place it even on top right or at bottom right of the grid.

Challenging Circumstances

Minimalism as Less Elements

Photo by © Prakash Ghai
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A Colorful Minimalist Photograph of an isolated green plant against a red wall at Jawahar Kala Kendra, Jaipur.

Despite Challenging Circumstances, represented here by the big Red wall, the plant or life is still able to grow and prosper.

That is signified by the Green color of the plant hinting at prosperity. If you notice carefully I have used two Rules of Photography here,
a) rule of thirds and
b) negative space

The former is the most important rule of photography and the latter is one of the most important rules of Minimalist photography. Photos with such a combination of rules are generally successful in impressing the viewer. Please Note: when using negative space it is always preferable to leave it either on the right hand side of the frame or on top and your subject should never be dead center.

More Minimalist Photos with Red as a Primary Color:

- Love Story

- Low Hanging Twig of a Plant Against a Red Wall

- Open Door and Water Outlet on a Red Wall

Predatory Feet

Minimalism as Low Detail

Photo by © Prakash Ghai
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A black and white Minimalist Photograph of the feet of a predatory bird with sharp nails sitting on a wall.

This is a special Minimalist shot as this was taken when I used to shoot during moving traffic on the streets. I used to hang the camera around my neck, riding my scooter going place to place, in search of Minimalist Photo subjects.

The moment I used to spot something interesting, I would stop right there, in the middle of  traffic. I would just turn my head towards the subject and point the camera at it and shoot, while still sitting on my scooter. 

I spotted these Predatory Feet of a bird sitting on a wall close to the main road that leads to the Vishvakarma Industrial Area in Jaipur. The bird stood still and did not even move an inch. Since I was zoomed in, I did not interfere with its privacy. 

The lens that I was on, was a Canon 55-250 mm . This took about 3 hours of post processing as I had to take out most of details from the shot. 

Although it was time consuming but the result was this Low Detail Minimalist Photograph, which was very satisfying to look at and to produce.

Tell me, if you enjoyed the photo. - Feedback awaited.

Drainage Pipe

Minimalism as in Small Objects

Photo by © Prakash Ghai
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A Minimalist Photo of a cylindrical drainage pipe and its shadow. Accompanied by green algae on the wall.

This is Minimalism as in Small Objects, where my main subject is the Drainage Pipe.

In order to achieve the desired result and to show the pipe as small, I took this shot from a fair amount of distance. Shooting from a distance also helped me add the green algae under the pipe, as a supporting subject and also made the Drainage Pipe look more Minimalist.

You cannot find such shadows, like that of the pipe, on cloudy days or early mornings, so be prepared to go out on a sunny day. Carrying some water along is advisable or else you may well get dehydrated.

Hope you enjoyed the shot. Stay tuned for more.