The Half-way mark

Minimalism as Less Elements

Minimalist Photography by © Prakash Ghai
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One may have any kind of goal or objective in his/her life but it all begins with the first few steps. Generally goals, (I am not talking about dreams here as they are usually vague) are set high and one starts working on them on the premise of hope, optimism and hard-work combined. But what happens with most people is that they work way too hard right at the start and get tired or exhausted by the time they are supposed to reach the "Half Way Mark". 

They end up concluding that the path they chose was wrong and they should try something else. My point here is that one should be patient enough and work at a steady pace until one reaches the Half Way Mark. Because after reaching this point, the goal (depicted by the red square) becomes clearly visible and what needs to be done or how many more stairs to climb to get there becomes clearly visible too (depicted by the number of stairs left to be taken). 

So what we learn here is that we should never take a call on something before we reach the half way mark. 

Getting back to the Mini-tutorial part of the photo. This is Minimalism as Less Elements. Some of you may argue that the geometry is spread out evenly and the shot is a little too detailed. But here I have inferred the Staircase in totality as one elements and the red square as a supporting side element. This might also fall under the category  Minimalism as Simple Geometry as there are a lot of lines and basic geometric shapes in the shot. Shooting this fully sharp from front to back required a high aperture and I shot it around F 8.0. Remember to keep your focus point roughly at 1/3rd of the total distance/depth of the frame to get everything mostly in focus. I kept the focus point on the left, between the 2nd and 3rd zigzag. Hope you enjoyed the shot and I send you all seasons greetings all the way from Jaipur- India. 

PS: Don;t forget to check out my new venture on Instagram the "Learn Minimalism" and the hashtag that I started there  #LearnMinimalism

By using the hashtag you too can take part in the Minimalist Photography Contest. The page has more than 43,000 followers and about 2,30,000 photos in the hashtag and growing. A lot of effort has been put in to promote and spread Minimalism in Photography on a global level. This lesser known genre deserves to be spread and "I am doing my bit for it."

Infant to Adult and Thereafter

Minimalism as Simple Geometry (lines)

Minimalist Photography by © Prakash Ghai
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If you carefully see the picture. It is divided in to three rows. I call them the three stages of mind development. 

Stage 1: 0-10 years (Infant Stage)

Stage 2: 11-60 years (Adult Stage)

Stage 3: 61 to "n" years (Deterioration Stage)

I am no psychologist nor I have read much about it. The inference that I have drawn is purely from my own experience and what I have observed, read or felt. There is no first hand experiment or research conducted and since I am an artist I like drawing conclusions from photos. 

Well, in the first stage or the Infant stage, the mind is relatively less developed, rather its flat and stable and that here is represented by the small vertical line created by the light and shadow differential on bottom left in the first row.

The second stage is the Adult Stage or 11-60 years and it is the longest. Here the mind keeps learning new things by each passing day and this goes on relentlessly until the age of roughly 60 years. I have used the diagonal line which starts from the intersection point of the first and second row on the left and moves one way to the right until it kisses the third row on top without any blips to represent the adult phase. This is the phase where the mind learns the most.

When diagonal line hits the third row or the "Stage of Deterioration" of the mind, it starts moving in the opposite direction signalling that the mind has now lost its power to learn new things. It has started to unlearn and become forgetful. 

Composition

To compose this I just had to focus on my neighbor's wall at about 3 pm in the afternoon and then punch in the right exposure and aperture settings. I love shooting yellow and to give my picture that extra yellow boost I used the "Daylight" setting as the White Balance on my camera.  To add to the image and make it pop I darkened the shadows in an editing software. Placement of  my core subject i.e the lines created by the light and shadow combination was a little tricky. Also the rule of thirds was hard to apply. I cannot explain how I applied it but it is quite evident from the Minimalist Picture. 

I hope you enjoyed the shot and the fictional psychology. Art is all about interpretations and I love going crazy with that sometimes. Today is one such day. Do leave your feedback and questions if any. Thank you. I wish you all a great Day/Evening. 

Different Therefore Cornered

Minimalism as Less Elements

Minimalist Photography by © Prakash Ghai
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Minimalist Photography of a Red Leaf on a Brick Wall in Jaipur

Take a different stand or opinion and you shall be cornered quickly. Now-a-days there are very few people who respect "difference of opinion" or the uniqueness of people. Suppose you choose a career that is not very popular like, enrolling for a fine art course or sculpting rather than business management or finance or science, people start viewing you differently. Some may even stop hanging out with you.

Behind your back they will tell to others that something is seriously wrong with you, and that you are not a normal person. Well, I fail to understand how does if matter that you choose what. Even for me, whether I choose to do Minimalist photography knowing the fact of it being non-mainstream and I wont be able to make premium dollars for it, or I do wedding or product photography its completely my choice. 

Why do people get bothered?. People are diseased with "crowd-behavior" and they want others to do the same. Why do they forget that at some point even the most popular genres of work were not so popular and it took a group of few individuals who believed in these genres and made them popular.

Few words on the composition of Nature Minimalist Photography

Coming back to the shot, I found this beautiful red leaf at Smriti Van Jaipur. The photo-walk was organized by the local Instagramers Jaipur team and me being a power user decided to attend it. Quite a few of my work is listed on Instagram and you can follow me there via my Id: @prakashghai

I have taken many leaf photos earlier but this one was special as the leaf was red in color. How could I not make a minimal composition with that, is what I told myself. I wanted the focus purely on the leaf and therefore I placed the leaf on extreme top right, making the shot fall under the Minimalism Category: Minimalism as Less Elements.

I chopped off most part of the distracting blue fence. It was spoiling the color palette and was making my shot look more maximally minimal in nature rather than minimally minimal. I used leading lines in reverse this time, beginning from the left of the frame and broadening as they approached the leaf and hence pointing at the subject.

Must Read:

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

The Lucky Shirt

Minimalism as Less Elements

Minimalist Photography By © Prakash Ghai
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Green shirt hanging on a clothesline against a weathered orange wall in Jaipur, minimalist color photography by Prakash Ghai

I was walking along a busy street in Jaipur with my camera when I spotted this shirt drying on a clothesline on the footpath. A group of nomads lived right there, just a plastic tent over their heads and life on the busy street rushing past them. I almost walked past the subejct at first but then the color palette was too good to ignore. The green against that orange wall was a perfect minimalist frame and palette that would add some novelty to my portfolio.

I have been shooting minimalist photos for years and these accidental stops are still the ones I remember the most. The planned walks to Jawahar Kala Kendra or Jantar Mantar, those hit different than these unplanned ones.

I moved in a bit closer to the green shirt and got rid of everything else around it. Fewer elements in the frame means more weight on the primary subject. That is the core logic of minimalism and which is why it works every single time.

How I Composed This Minimalist Photo

The weathered orange wall behind the shirt was doing half the work already. I did not need to manufacture a striking background for contrast. The texture was already there, along with the warmth. I let the metal clothesline enter the frame diagonally from the top left and allowed the shirt to take place on the right side. 

The shirt was still partially wet and that made the color from a darker green at the top of the sleeve to a lighter shade toward its bottom. That gradation gave the frame depth without adding extra elements. Less is more, even in the way a fabric dries.

I kept the shirt as the sole isolated subject with the wall filling everything behind it. Negative space was not the main goal here, I wanted to highligh the shirt. Sometimes in minimalist photography you fill the frame and still keep it minimal. This time I did it by being close to the subject but not too close.

Other Minimalist Photos using Clothesline as a Subject: 

• Middle Class

• Knot in a Relationship

• Loose Ends

• Together Yet Apart

If Tomorrow Never Comes

Minimalism as Less Elements

Minimalist Photography By © Prakash Ghai
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Each day I sit next to the window thinking about you, dreaming that one day we will be together. I tell myself to be patient and let nature do its job. But sometimes I am very fearful. I know that we are destined to be together, but what if "If Tomorrow never comes?.

Last Sunday, I was sitting idle at home relaxing and thinking where to go for a photo-walk. I ran out of options and was very reluctant to go the places I had been before. It is 15th June 2015 as I write, and on 3rd of June "Jaipur Metro", the new Public Transport service via Train was inaugurated in Jaipur. The train station is a mere 100 feet away from my house, so I thought it would be a nice idea to go there and shoot the new building and its creative architecture.

I had planned to shoot that very popular "Still man, moving train" street photography shot which I had been longing for. I entered the placed and asked the security guard if photography was allowed. I was expecting a positive answer from him, but he replied that "photography is only allowed for those who have official written permission from the operations head". I was very disappointed. None of the public places in Jaipur allow photography (apart from the heritage tourist places) and I happen to miss a lot of quality street shots for that reason.

I have seen many of my international photographer friends on Facebook post very good street shots taken at public places. I thought why not try taking permission, so I went to the inquiry counter and asked for the operations head, but he was not at his desk, I told myself, "forget it". And I decided to leave the train station.

While I was on may way out I saw a staircase which was under construction. I took that staircase and that lead me to this dark big hall with only a window letting in some light. I felt a little better as I knew I had my Minimalist frame right in front of my eyes. To compose, I placed the window on the right and the slanting rays of light running across, just under it. During editing, I enhanced the highlights and darkened the shadows.