Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #43–Less is More

“A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.” 

– Antoine de Saint-Exupery

A few years ago, I took a photography lesson. My instructor stressed how important it is to focus on one or two elements in our photos. She would make some brutal crops of my images to illustrate. I recall one day, she cropped almost everything out of my bird image and left only part of a wing. Needless to say, there was nothing left to take away from that bird photo.

As an example, here is an image of tree vines hanging on a wall. After some cleaning up through Photoshop, I can see the shape of the lines of the vines a little better:

Though I haven’t been able to achieve “when there is nothing left to take away” and often wonder “extreme spareness and simplicity” (Merriam Webster), I think the photography lesson taught me the importance of focusing on a subject. Below is a simple, unique, old fashioned door lock.

“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.”   – Leonardo da Vinci

 

“Simplicity is about subtracting the obvious and adding the meaningful.”   –John Maeda

“Life is really simple but we insist on making it complicated.” ~ Confucius

While practicing the concept of “less is more” for photography, I am also applying it to simplify my life style. That way I can have more time and energy to enjoy traveling and taking photos. 🙂

This week, I am hosting L-A Photo Challenge. I hope you’ll join me and share what “less is more” means to you. Looking forward to reading your interpretation, e.g. how you focus on a subject when you take a photo of a landscape, building, person, or your pet, and perhaps how you simplify your life style.

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