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| When I saw these grasses isolated from others, I couldn't help but capture them. There was just something about the design that I viewed as not-quite perfect but perfect enough. |
One year ago, I sold my 1600-sq-ft Miami home and moved into a
32-ft RV parked most of the time on a 150-acre island. I have stripped down my life to its basics by removing all non-essentials, including space.
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| Down to the basics, a few delicate lines and subtle tones. What more is needed? |
This lifestyle is sometimes described as minimalism. Here is one definition that rings true - "
At its core, minimalism is the intentional promotion of the things we most value and the removal of everything that distracts us from it." as written by
Joshua Becker. And that is exactly what I did, removed the stuff that distracted me from what I really value.
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| These grasses and their reflection are about as perfect as you can get as far as placement relative to each other. And that their are three stems instead of two or four makes it more compelling in composition. Nature's art. |
Incidentally, the term minimalism was founded in an art movement. Here is a Wikipedia description - "
Minimalism describes movements in various forms of art and design, especially visual art and music, where the work is set out to expose the essence, essentials of identity or a subject through eliminating all non-essential forms, features or concepts."
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| When I first started capturing these scenes, I created ripples that would travel into the frame. |
Minimalism is appealing to me as a form of art as well as a way of life. And before I ever contemplated the concept of minimalism or art for that matter, I gravitated to it immediately after picking up a camera. The fact is, I spend a great amount of time in low land and ocean environments with wide open spaces where the horizon meets the sky at a very distant point. Basically, I am surrounded by scenery with lots of negative space. It is by spending my
time alone in these open spaces where I have become a student of nature's art. And it is also from my experience in wide open spaces that I have become attuned with the concept of minimalism.
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| I no longer create ripples, instead, I try to capture nature's handmade ripples. |
Consequently, I began to examine some of my images and tried to figure out why I was compelled to create them. In a particular location where I paddle my canoe, I am surrounded by marsh water where small mangrove trees grow among the grasses. Often times the water is flat calm with only a little disturbance from tiny fish or the wind. It is here where I can view water as negative space. It is also where I can frame a scene using delicate grasses or small mangrove seedlings as primary subjects. I paddle slowly through the marsh and am easily drawn into the wide scope of it, especially when the sky awakens with clouds. That is when I love to take out the wide angle lens and try to capture the marsh scene in its entirety.
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| The scene at large. |
But having spent endless hours in this area, I have trained myself to take out the long lens and zoom in, which I now understand to be an attempt to expose the 'essentials of identity' through elimination of all non-essential features. Often, these images do not have much going for them; there is little, if any depth of field or tonal contrast, sometimes the light is flat and there is a significant amount of negative space to accompany a small subject. This has led me to do some research to find the answer to the question "Why did I take that shot in the first place?" Within the huge topics of art and design, I try to sift through the narratives and descriptions in order to crack the code of nature's art.
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| This is an unusual image and is so contrary to all the other images. But, the cloud reflection was seductive so I tried to compose a scene with the confusing display of lines. It took me a couple years before I decided I liked it. |
It finally occurred to me that these images have the same basic element - lines. And the images that are most appealing to me are those with the most negative space (less is more). I believe what I have done is stripped down the landscape to its most basic element or 'essentials of identity'. Indeed, each image by itself falls out of context and does little to offer the viewer a sense of place. But that would not be the point. Instead, I have presented the essential components of this place by removing the non-essentials. What is left to discover are the expressive lines created by the grasses and the mangrove roots.
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| I thought the subtle cloud reflections and water ripples added nicely without overpowering the gentleness of the grasses. |
At its barest, nature presents itself in various subtle ways; shapes, forms, lines, textures, patterns. Where ever that place may be, its essence will become obvious only after you spend quality time observing. You begin to find what really attracts you to that place; it could be the ripple patterns on a beach, the form of a flower, the shapes created by tree branches, the texture of rocks, and so on. Nature revealed means that you are in tune with its essentials and can ignore the non-essentials. And then from there, you can capture those essentials in a way that is unique to your observations. It may not be obvious to the outsider, but it is to you. At the end of the day, it is your connection to what you value most that allows you to remove the non essentials from your art and your life.
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| This scene stood out to me despite its lack of tonal contrast, depth of field and strong lighting. It was all about the expressive lines and how they seemed to work together. The ripples from a small animal was a bonus. |
If you enjoyed this blog, please check out some of my previous blogs, including this one titled "
The Simplicity of Wilderness".
Workshops available.
