Ritva Sillanmäki Photography

this week’s Lens Artists Challenge with a theme is SIMPLICITY. Host is Philo of Philosophy Through Photography please check his post for inspiration. He has great ideas and how to approach this challenge. He wrote: I considered selecting simplicity since the modern world is so stressful and chaotic that we are losing the fundamental clarity and simplicity that allow us to concentrate on what is really important. I agree.

Simplicity in photography is the idea of creating images that are easy to understand, clear in their message, and free from unnecessary or distracting elements. Simplicity can enhance the beauty, impact, and mood of a photograph. I kept these techniques in mind when trying to capture simplicity in photography:

• Choosing simple scenes that have only a few compositional shapes and colors
• Excluding anything that does not add to the story or emotion of the image, such as cluttered backgrounds, unwanted objects, or competing subjects
• Using a shallow depth of field to blur out the background and isolate your subject
• Using a minimalistic color palette or converting your image to black and white to emphasize contrast, shape, and texture

A simple photograph of a lone tree on a hill with negative space

A black and white street scene with strong contrast and lines

Jewelry, and simple shapes… that’s is were we can find -simple beauty. Monochrome enhance the images.

A single flowers or plant against blurred green background

Often simplicity is achieved by the composition, with negative space.

I love taking photos of old tools and machines with rough look, but there is simplicity in them.

Thank you all for participating in my kitchen inspire challenge 🙂 I was surprised that so many of you came along.

Remember to link to your post and use the Lens-Artists tag in the reader section. Philo of Philosophy Through Photography is this weeks host.

If you would like to participate weekly in our Lens-Artists Challenge, click here for more info. 

I am hosting this week’s Lens Artists Challenge with a theme of Inspiration found in the kitchen. That is often a place I find something to photograph in an hour of need. It can be a view from the kitchen window or an interior shot of the kitchen. As we know, kitchens may vary from an alley kitchen to an open plan or kitchen-diner. More importantly, the kitchen hides a huge number of small details. Here are some ideas: cultery, glasses, pots and pans. I have done my share of these shots. Food photography, recipe ingredients, as well as a cooked meal can also be found in your kitchen. The possibilities for all kinds of variations are an endless source of inspiration. Let your creativity flow.

I am lucky to have two kitchens. The following items have found their way to my summer house. As you can see from some dust and spiderwebs, these are not in use, but make for nice photos.

Now I have one request and hope you play along. Please share a photo of your favorite cup. No explanations are necessary but hoped for. My cup is old and used to belong to my husband’s grandmother. It is pretty and vintage. I like it. Most importantly, you can have a nice cup of coffee in it.

I cannot make a post about kitchen inspiration without a shot of food. Pizza, with air dried ham, mozzarella and rucola. So good.

I hope you found inspiration and share your kitchen discoveries with us.

Remember to link to this post and use the Lens-Artists tag in the reader section. Next week Philo of Philosophy Through Photography will be presenting a wonderful challenge so look for her post.

If you would like to participate weekly in our Lens-Artists Challenge, click here for more info.