Light Shadow Lines Architecture

Minimalism as Simple Geometry

Photo 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. That's the Simple Geometry here.

And again this a Look-up Minimal Shot here, taken from my 100mm Canon Prime Macro L Lens.

I'd keep it short today, as I have other thoughts to ponder on after this. 

Hope you liked the Minimalist Explanation :)

Have a great day ahead.

A Gentle Reminder: There is a "Buy Photo" option under each photograph posted on this blog. Alternatively, you can visit this link "Buy Minimalist Photos" 

If you like the photograph above, please recommend this or any other from the blog/gallery, to a probable buyer. 

I have put in a lot of effort here. A little support from you, would be most cherished :) 

Thank you !

Reflection Of Street Lamp In A Water Puddle

Minimalism as Less Elements 

 

Photo By © Prakash Ghai
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This shot was taken Post-rain, outside "Jal Dhara" recreation park at JLN Marg Jaipur. 

Finding Water Puddles otherwise is very tough, unless of course there is a pipeline leakage or cleaning going on somewhere. Once you spot a water puddle, judge it by the clarity of the reflection and the amount of light it is offering. A water puddle that is both muddy and reflects less light, is of no use. Choose one wisely, before you decide to put in your effort.

Once you've chosen a puddle, go down on your knees and try to find out, what is being reflected in the puddle. If you do not see anything worthwhile, change your position and look again. I would recommend you to do a full 360 degree review. That increases the chances of finding a good subject drastically. Once you spot something worthwhile, I suggest shooting RAW or using Exposure Bracketing on your camera. 

Getting the exposure right in such shots it a little tough. Post-processing definitely offers helps here. I am also sharing the EXIF Data of the photo below. Hope that helps too.

EXIF Data

• Camera Maker: Canon
• Camera Model: Canon 600D
• Lens: Canon 50mm f 1.4
• Camera Mode: Manual
• ISO speed: ISO-100
• F-stop: f/4
• Exposure time: 1/160 sec
• Exposure bias: 0 step

A word on the Composition:

This photo is Minimalism as Less Elements, where the only element in the frame is the Reflection of Street Lamp in the water puddle. The Subject is placed on top right, leaving negative space on the left. The footpath has been used in a way so as to form a diagonal line on the left. The line adds to the overall composition and balances the frame.

Let me also caution you a little. Shooting water puddles on streets with traffic is risky. One tends to get lost in the shot and forgets completely about the vehicles around. I would advise, not to take any undue risks. If it is risky to take a shot, then simple find another shot or subject. Subjects for Minimalist Photos are everywhere, observe closely and you will find many.

Remember: Safety first, photos later.

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

Photo 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. 

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.

Geometry in the Sky

Minimalism as Simple Geometry

Photo By © Prakash Ghai
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While I was standing near this heritage structure at Jaleb Chowk Jaipur, a local policeman approached me and asked me what was I clicking? He looked very confused as I was pointing the camera at strange places in the sky and at blank walls. He looked at me with suspicion and I quickly read his name written on the small piece of name plate clipped to his shirt. It read "Ram Kumar Yadav". I told him Yadav ji, don't worry I am not from the media. I told him so, as I thought that his fear was that I am probably from the media and I would make a report as to how dirty the place was with garbage lying here and there. To my surprise his reply was "Even if you were from the media, you could do nothing, as we are policemen." I realized, this man was not in the right mood and it was time to lighten up the discussion and move ahead. So, I changed the topic to tourism and asked him what is the government's plan for the upcoming Night Tourism in the city. While talking, I cracked a little joke in between and moved on. I narrated this incident because, as a photographer you should know how to handle little incidents like this, you should know how to lighten up things. If you get into an argument with someone on the street, you shall not remain in a good mood anymore to click. Especially if you are minimalist, you will quickly lose the connect with your sub-conscious mind and wont be able to spot Minimalist Subjects.

Coming back to the Composition, I wanted to show lines here, using just two colors i.e yellow and blue in the frame. The challenge was to keep everything in focus. I used an f stop of F/11 and focused on the black triangle on the left, thereby leaving everything behind also be in focus. The wall on the right wasn't that sharp and to do away with that little blur I added some bit of sharpness to it using a photo editing software.

The Overreaction

Minimalism as Less Elements

Photo By © Prakash Ghai
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Some problems or issues are simple & relatively small just like the straight blue line here. But many a times we tend to overreact & over-complicate petty issues and make them big. We blow things out of proportion. The thick curved shadow of the pipe depicts our unwanted overreaction. On the other hand, when we are faced with a big complex problem we all act sensibly and sort it out well. Human behavior is complex, isn't it?

Composition

The photo falls under Minimalism as Less Elements category. To Compose, I made sure that I placed the curved shadow of the blue pipe in the center of the frame to give it maximum attention.(one of the rare occasions where I center placed the subject). The shadow is not my primary subject. My primary subject is the blue pipe, which I first placed on the top of the frame following the rule of thirds. Later, I made adjustments to my physical position as well as the other elements in the frame. I mostly add extra sharpness in my shots but that is a matter of personal preference, you may or may not choose to add it.

Tip: Practice spotting long shadows whenever you are out in the sun, with or without the camera.

Refrigerator of the poor

Minimalism as Less Elements

Photo By © Prakash Ghai
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This is Minimal of Less Elements because only a Single Element is used here as a subject i.e. the Earthen Clay Water Pots / Refrigerator of the Poor

These pots are generally used by traditional Indian households and villagers to store drinking water. They help in keeping the water at under the room temperature or even lower. They are very effective in the summer season and therefore are also known as the Refrigerator of the Poor,

The poor cannot afford expensive white goods or electric refrigerators. Sometimes, people wrap these earthen clay pots with a wet cloth and that further insulates the water from external heat and enhances  cooling. Yes, it works. I had them in my house too when I was a kid.

Now back to the Minimalistic Composition. 

When you encounter such a large arrangement of pots or anything, it is very difficult. Sp, First compose in the mind and then point the camera at the subject. I would suggest you to look through the camera continuously via the LDC Screen and move it in all possible directions. Stop where you think you've got the composition you were looking for, then switch over to the Viewfinder and Snap the photo.

Hope you enjoyed the shot. I wish you all a great day/evening. !