Less is more in East Sutherland Camera Club’s latest competition

In their March competition, members of the East Sutherland Camera Club were challenged with the theme of minimalism, writes Andy Kirby, club secretary.

Minimalist photography is often described as a style that prioritises extreme simplicity and sparseness, focusing on clean lines, negative space, and geometric shapes to highlight the core elements of an image and evoke a sense of calm and clarity.

It is quite a challenge to decide what is necessary and what is unnecessary, leaving only the essence of what you want to convey about how you felt when you took the photograph.

An often heard phrase is, less is more.

On this occasion the judge was Piers Hemy from Cromarty. As might be expected, as well as looking for simplicity of message, he also looked at the technical aspects of the photographs, because good competition, absence of distractions and focus where it is needed become more critical when there are fewer elements to draw the eye.

In the colour section, Gordon Sparling from Ardgay came first with Clachtoll Shoreline. Gordon had used a technique known as intentional camera movement to strip the view down to the blur of waves, sky and beach into simple shapes and tones. This involves using a slow shutter speed and deliberately moving the camera sideways. The widescreen format helped to enhance the serenity he had captured.

Graeme Miller from Dornoch came second with Looking for a Friend. This was an almost monochrome view of an isolated birch tree and its shadow in a field of snow.

Large expanses of snow are difficult to capture without all detail being blown out or looking too grey. Graeme struck the right balance with just enough snow detail.

Martin Ross from Golspie came third with Vents, a very graphic image of a group of wind turbines standing close together at Nigg.

The diagonal rhythm of the vents contrasting with the nicely lit vertical towers.

Fourth was Andy Kirby, Dornoch, with Loch Droma. Dawn light filtered through a misty scene and the snow-covered hills and frozen loch minimised the tones and detail, concentrating the view on to the island of trees.

In the monochrome section, Graeme Miller was on a winning streak with his birches and snow fields. In this case Survivor came first.

This was a simple and graphic image that conveyed the starkness of a birch tree that had been damaged, no doubt in surviving storms.

Zoe Gray from Portmahomack came second with Lone Tree in Snow, an even more graphic image of an isolated pine, supported by the simple expedient of picking out a dark line of vegetation to anchor the tree in its white wilderness.

Placing the tree about a third of the way in provided a fine example of the value of negative space.

Willie Skinner from Dornoch provided a great third placed panorama, Walkies. Again a lot of negative space but intersected by the sinuous curves of the water on the beach drawing the eye to the walker and dog.

The beach also featured in Brora based Morven Sutherland’s fourth placed Kelp Indents. Such features are often overlooked on the beach but can, as here, provide excellent simple graphic images.

For more details about the club see www.eastsutherlandcc.org.uk and where the winning competition images can also be seen.

Images:

Colour

1 Clachtoll Shoreline by Gordon Sparling

2 Looking for a Friend by Graeme Miller

3 Vents by Martin Ross

4 Loch Droma by Andy Kirby

Monochrome

1 Survivor by Graeme Miller

2 Lone Tree in Snow by Zoe Gray

3 Walkies by Willie Skinner

4 Kelp Indents by Morven Sutherland

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