In many of our ventures into nature, we are using lines, light, shapes and colors that surround our subject to draw and hold attention to the subject. Minimalism draws attention simply by not having anything else there. This can be challenging when there are usually so many rocks, trees, flowers and other items that beg to be in our pictures. This makes it difficult for photographers to even think about minimalism. I miss many opportunities for compelling shots, simply because I don’t even consider the possibilities.

Minimalism allows you to place subjects closer to the edge of a frame. In general, the closer the subject is and still has some space around it, the more focused our attention must be on the subject. But with simple subjects, you can even have a subject closer to the center of the frame as in the image above.

What do you look for to achieve a minimalist result? 

In many of our ventures into nature, we are using lines, light, shapes and colors that surround our subject to draw and hold attention to the subject. Minimalism draws attention simply by not having anything else there. This can be challenging when there are usually so many rocks, trees, flowers and other items that beg to be in our pictures. This makes it difficult for photographers to even think about minimalism. I miss many opportunities for compelling shots, simply because I don’t even consider the possibilities.

Minimalism allows you to place subjects closer to the edge of a frame. In general, the closer the subject is and still has some space around it, the more focused our attention must be on the subject. But with simple subjects, you can even have a subject closer to the center of the frame. Monochrome images almost force the object to the outside of the frame to generate interest, whereas you can get away with centering the object more with color images in order to balance influence of the color.

Having a particularly uncolorful subject in a rather dull space can also command a lot of attention as in this photo of a girl in a red coat. Had I been in my tourist mindset I might have placed the girl more centered in the image or closer to the camera. Here our eye is drawn to the girl whose diminutive size contrasts with the enormity of the falls.

Look through your portfolio and find subjects you have shot before without thinking about the possibilities of minimalism. You may find that visiting a location multiple times or even cropping in a different manner will give you better results. On my first visit to Ice Beach in Iceland the storms had blown many glacial remnants out to sea then up on the shore. Upon a return visit, calm whether allowed for a much simpler, and my mind more compelling, composition.

The following shows an example of cropping and removing the remaining part of the left tree. Then the sky and more ocean was added to create more of a minimalistic image. The reason for showing this is to encourage you to consider compositions ahead of time where you might add more sky or water that is not part of your original composition. This will avoid building areas with current elements (e.g. using Photoshop Content Aware Fill) which inevitably repeats elements visible to the discerning viewer. While I prefer my original composition, I do wish I had gotten out that wide(r) angle lens after the primary composition. 

Although minimalism gives us a chance to break the rules, my preference is to keep the rules in mind while breaking them. If you will notice the images above direct the viewer to a subject, the direction of the subject most often directs the viewer back to the negative space. It is this interplay that keeps us in the picture longer and adds impact or emotion to your work.