Minimalism — Taking Part In 2022 Photo Competition; Part 2

4th March, 2022

February has passed and it can only mean one thing — the second instalment of the 2022 Photo Competition has finished. At least finished to the level where I have submitted my two photos and rated other participants photos. If you want and need more context about this photo competition then I urge you to read the first part of this saga.

Theme for the second month was "Minimalism". I'm not someone who photographs very minimalist photos much. If we're looking at the gear size then I'm definitely not in the minimalist category. Far from it. That being said, I don't tend to stuff my photos with too much detail and I like looking at minimalist photos. This is why I like this theme more than first months theme of "City, Village In Winter".

Last month I struggled finding time to go out and take photos. And the little time that was scraped from the bottom of the time capsule was filled with boring weather. This month was much better in both aspects. I can't say that I had a lot of time but I definitely went out more to take photos. To get ahead of the "game" I went out the first day of February with the intent to shoot some minimalist photos. And I did succeed! One of the photos taken that day I considered to be good enough for a submission.

With one photo out of the way, I didn't have any pressure to take only minimalist photos for the rest of the month. When I went out to shoot I just went out to shoot. I didn't try to seek out minimalist compositions and themes. If they presented I tried to capture them but nothing else. I tend to take better photos when not under pressure and that turned out true here as well. Many of the photos I took weren't minimalist but I took quite a few photos that I liked thus breaking a few month streak of bad photos.

All that said it's not like this competition went without any issues. My main issue for this month was trying to decide whether a photo I took could be considered under "Minimalism" theme or not. In particular I had one photo that I liked a lot but couldn't decide whether it was minimalist enough. I don't know anything about photography art theory but I have a rough understanding of what a minimalist photo could be. To me it's a photo that focuses more on simple shapes and is void of much detail. But how much detail is too much detail. I'm sure that there isn't a well defined answer and you can be very fluid in your interpretation. It's definitely something I struggled with. In the end I didn't pick the photo I liked the most.

The photo I took on the first day of February was definitely minimalist in my book. The second photo I chose was a bit iffy but it seemed minimalist enough. It had a weird composition and lots of texture. Last month my both submissions were taken with analog cameras. This month both are digital photos. One was taken with Fujifilm X-Pro1 and Canon 135mm f3.5 LTM lens. And second was taken with Sigma Merrill DP3. The DP3 is a very recent acquisition that I am in love with. A review will come some time in the future but for now you can read my review of Sigma Merrill DP2.

Having seen the photos from other participants I can tell that some have a more liberal view on what minimalism is. This month I struggled to come up with a good Top 10 list for my part of the ratings. There were some great photos but not 10. The photo I placed at the top was very good though and if it doesn't win I will be very surprised. That being said, I won't be too surprised if I'm not surprised. The photos I rated the best last month didn't come close to winning. Nor did my photos. Nevertheless it's fun to just try and take two photos for a specific theme each month.

As I stated last month, I will publish my photos for each month at the end of the year. Instead here are some photos that didn't make the cut for one reason or another. Next month's theme was supposed to be about night but due to the horrific things the russian government is doing to Ukraine, the theme has been changed to "Blue And Yellow".

Photo of green grass rolls in the snow. — First photo I took on the first day I was allowed to take a photo for this theme. And it's already a decent photo. Not a competition worthy photo but nice nonetheless.
The next few photos will be from the same photo walk.

Photo of a gray metal building with a white door and a blue door. — I like this photo and for me it definitely fits in the theme but I fear that it could be too simple. I can definitely find some use for this photo in some other project.

Photo of a chimney in the snow. — My wife liked this photo a lot and whilst I don't hate it, it doesn't speak to me much. Definitely not enough to use for a competition.

Photo of cut down trees in the snow. — I like this photo but for me there is too much going on in the background. Also the main subject of the fallen trees is consisting of too many individual parts. For those reasons it was rejected as being not minimalist enough.

Photo of trees in the snow. — I considered this photo as a submission but at the end it didn't feel strong enough and I would want to clone out many of the darker parts showing in the snow. And I'm too lazy to do that.

Photo of a man walking in the distance. — This would've been a good photo for last months contest. Adding it here purely for that reason.

Photo of a lonely electricity pole. — Last photo from the same session. This is quite similar to one of the pictures submitted for the contest. I did consider this photo as well but the other was better in my opinion. This photo would also require removal of the random lines.

Photo of a small tree in the snow. — I wish I composed this photo in a way where the trees on the left weren't in the photo.

Photo of tree branches in the snow. — Similar story here. The trees on the right don't belong in a minimalist photo.

Photo of a greenhouse part. — It was difficult to drop many of the DP3 photos. It's very easy to love the detail that comes out of that camera. Or most Foveon sensored cameras.

Photo of a window and loudspeakers. — This is the photo I liked a lot but ultimately decided that it wasn't minimalist enough. Is it?

Photo of a bench and garbage can next to lake with forest in the distance. — I could add quite a few photos from DP3 where there are only simple elements in the photo but I'm not sure whether it counts as minimalistic. I won't add them all though otherwise this writing will have a bunch of DP3 photos.

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