Assignment #90: Keeping it Simple

[matthew]

Simplicity is not the goal. It is the by-product of a good idea and modest expectations.
- Paul Rand

We last looked at the idea of simplicity over two years ago, so it's time to revisit the idea. Having simple and clear compositions has always been a goal of mine, but it's a goal that I rarely attain. I was really struck by the comment by designer Paul Rand that having modest expectations is as important as a good design.

Consider simplicity when you're taking photos. Look for opportunities to use a good idea to create a good design, and keep the complexity to a minimum. And while I always encourage new photographs, classic examples from your collection are also welcome.

[Keith Alan]

New, for this assignment and for playing with my CP filter.

[EnglishBob]

Still can't carry my camera bag (too heavy after surgery) so here's an oldie.

[matthew]

I have to confess (in case anyone didn't already know) that I wrote keep the complexity to a minimum as a reminder to myself. My personal inclination is always to give a complicated answer to simple questions, and to make the questions themselves complex whenever possible.



I really like peaceful seascapes, and felt the need to shoot multiple frames and stitch them together. This one's only two frames, but that's still more than I really need. On the other hand, it should make a nice print. The judges at my camera club helpfully pointed out that it lacks an identifiable centre of interest.



I suppose this one really is simple: I chose to blot out a lot of interesting graffiti and other items in this "abandoned" building. (It's probably one of the most photographed places in Toronto: while I was sneaking around in it, four other photographers showed up with studio lighting and a couple of models. Seriously.) It was shot in aperture-priority with a -5EV adjustment dialed in to stop the windows from blowing out. I could have switched to manual mode, but that would have been more complicated.



This is what the seascape in the first photo looks like from 100 feet further back.
To the judges credit, this one got a minor award at my camera club.



And this is the lens that took the first three photos. The concept was to replicate a "size matters" illustration from What The Duck so that I could e-mail it back to the comic strip's creator. My nod to simplicity was in finding a way to shoot the largest 'product' I've had to deal with, and include both white and black items on a dropped-out background. (No pixels have been harmed in Photoshop for this image.) I did it by sliding my ottoman up to the couch and covering them with a strip of drawing paper. This is a dark white, and comes in rolls of varying width. Mine's 36" wide, which meant I needed a telephoto lens so long that I was practically shooting from the balcony. It's lit with two flashes, one on an optical slave to blow the background, and a camera-mounted flash for on-axis fill light. That one was angled upwards just a little, and that was all I needed.

Simple. (Almost.)