Lake Erie Rock in Fog Minimalism seeks to expose the essence of a subject by eliminating all non-essential features. It started developing in the Western Art after World World II, especially in the 60s and 70s in the United States. In a minimalist photograph, the focus should be fully on the main subject. Standard methods of focusing the attention can be used, like converging lines, framing, colors, reflections, etc. As always, elements that do not make the main subject stronger and could even distract from it should be omitted. And this last concept is taking an even more important role in minimalism.

Not everybody likes minimalist photography or other art. I find myself going through phases when I enjoy it more or less. Right now I am in the upswing and have played with the concepts quite a bit, partially assisted by luck.

Heading out for a colorful sunrise over rich landscapes and arriving at a location with thick fog makes you reconsider the goals for the day. That is what happened to me the other day and with visibility not much past 30 feet, I found myself looking for simplicity, objects with blank backgrounds, or with just a hint of color when the sun hit the fog just right or when the sky showed through it momentarily.

To play along with the concept even more, in the first photo above, I decided to go for a very long shutter speed and used my neutral density filter to smooth out the waves and ripples on the surface of Lake Erie and thus remove any texture or patterns that would be otherwise present. I like to use a screw on 77 mm B+W 1.8 (64x, 6 stop) glass filter for that. That works directly with my 11-18mm Tokina super wide angle soon, or with a step-up ring on my other 72mm thread lenses. The 6 stop light loss is usually more than plenty during dawn or dusk. In midday sun, especially if trying to use shallow depth of field, there's an even stronger glass filter you can put on - the 77 mm B+W 3.0 (1000x, 10 stops) glass filter. While my camera somehow magically still focuses through this black piece of glass, I would definitely not recommend it. First, you want to make sure you have your composition right, and second, even if relying on auto-focus, it is good to visually confirm the intended object is truly in focus. Then, switch to manual focus to retain it over several shots if you plan to bracket your exposure. To finish things off, I decided to present the submerged rock in black and white, thus eliminating color, which was barely present anyway and the tones could take one's eyes from the rock.

In the second photo I wanted to show nut just a submerged rock, but its relation to the vast, endless area of Lake Erie, thus wider angle lens. By that time, the initially thin fog lightened up a little and blue sky showed up once in a while high above. I chose a composition that included all three layers - water, fog, and sky. That however changed the shooting conditions. The lake was still very shaded by the fog and thus appeared very dark when I kept sky within the dynamic range of the sensor to train its blue color. The ND filter used for the first photo came off and on came my Cokin graduated neutral density filter. While the Cokin filters get mixed reviews and some claim that they're not completely color neutral, they're also very reasonably priced and allow for trying this tool out without a significant financial commitment. This kit includes the P filter holder and three strengths of neutral density filters (1, 2, and 3 stops). They all have a soft transition, which makes it somewhat more challenging in straight horizon photos like here, but work in less straight situations too. For this scene, a hard edge filter might have been better but I do not have one yet.

I feel both of these images meet the minimalist definition by including only the necessary elements needed to communicate the essence of the subject. They're also somewhat abstract since the natural character of the lake surface was modified into a smooth layer of something not necessarily obvious. And since there are so few other visual clues as to what is happening in the photograph, it may not be obvious. But you can be a better judge of that since I know what my lens was aimed at.

Now, can there be too little in a minimalist photo?

Have fun!