Capturing Simplicity

by Terri

“A simple life is not seeing how little we can get by with—that’s poverty—but how 
efficiently we can put first things first. . . . When you’re clear about your purpose and your 
priorities, you can painlessly discard whatever does not support these, whether it’s clutter
 in your cabinets or commitments on your calendar.” ~ Victoria Moran

With our theme this month here at FOL of “simplify”, I’ve been thinking a lot about simplicity in photography. There's a lot to be said for the simple approach, both to life and photography. Digital photography is a complex subject. There is a lot to learn, and it's easy to overcomplicate things and forget that photography is ultimately about taking beautiful photos, and enjoying the process as you go along.

There are several ways to achieve simplicity in a photograph. The most obvious (and easiest) form is to place the subject against a neutral background like a backdrop or the sky. Backgrounds can be entirely neutral, like a solid backdrop or a cloudless sky; or they can complement the image, like shells on the sand.

The more technical method of achieving simplicity involves focusing on the subject while ensuring the background is unfocused. I think the most compelling images are the ones that leave no doubt about what your subject is. Everything that is not essential to the story you are telling is eliminated from the photo. 

But sometimes it’s not possible to achieve that simplicity we are striving for because we are shooting “in the moment” and capturing life as it happens. But that doesn’t mean that we have to settle for snapshot-like photos. I took this photo of my granddaughter by the pool a few weekends ago:

I had to shoot quickly before she moved. What I was trying to capture were her incredible eyelashes and sweet expression, not the stray body parts of the people near her or the floating chlorine bobber in the pool. This is when cropping your shot can mean the difference between a snapshot and a storytelling portrait. For this shot, I cropped it vertically so I could include just what I wanted to keep in the image:

It’s the exact same photo but with all the extraneous “stuff” cropped out. While I try to crop in camera as much as possible, being able to do it after the fact if necessary really can save the day.

Summer is the perfect time for simplicity – in photography as well as in life.

“And I learned what is obvious to a child. That life is simply a collection of little lives,

 each lived one day at a time. That each day should be spent finding beauty in flowers

 and poetry and talking to animals. That a day spent with dreaming and sunsets 

and refreshing breezes cannot be bettered.” ~ Nicholas Sparks

 

Are you keeping things simple this summer? We'd love to see some of the simple beauty you are capturing in the Flickr gallery.