Just published: One, minimalist photography in B&W

By Johan Peijnenburg

I am fairly busy at the moment with reviewing and processing the snowy mountain landscapes that I photographed in the past few months. The winter, unfortunately, hasn’t been brilliant for photography over here. It does, however, look like I got away with some nice ones. 🙂 In the coming few months, I will focus on long exposure photography a bit more again. The mountains will transition from winter to spring, which is not my favourite mountain landscape photography time. So, March and April are great months to do more minimalist photography.

I haven’t been doing a lot of long exposure work lately, and I miss it. This minimalist black & white photograph titled One was shot last month, during the only long exposure outing I had since December last year. The conditions weren’t brilliant, but it did give me a chance to test two new lenses. This photograph is a four-minute-long exposure and features a solitary signpost on a rock in Lac Léman (Lake Geneva). Fog and haze made the mountains in the back of the lake disappear. I decided to give the image lots of negative space and use high-key processing. The combination of a single signpost, limited texture, and a black and white rendition, makes for a minimalist photography style that I personally really like. It’s not for everyone, though. So, I hope you like it!?

This photograph was captured with a Nikon D800E and a new Nikon 85mm f/1.4G lens. A stack of three ND filters (10+3+3) pushed the exposure time to 4 minutes. Click on the photograph to learn more about this photograph or to buy a print or licence of One.

Cheers, Johan 🙂

One

A minimalist landscape in black & white, featuring a solitary signpost and its reflection in Lac Léman (Lake Geneva).

217 thoughts on “Just published: One, minimalist photography in B&W”

  1. Jack the Flipper says:

    So simple and yet stunning, clam, peaceful, easing the mind and taking all the pace away……thank you for this well composed work. Very kind regards, Sascha | Jack the Flipper

    Reply
    • Johan Peijnenburg says:

      Thanks Angela! Not everyone appreciates a minimal like this, but I thought it looked kinda cool :)

      Reply
    • Johan Peijnenburg says:

      many thanks Ian. Nice to see you back around! Been aways myself for a while so catching up with comments a bit now 🙂

      Reply
      • Charlotte Therese Björnström says:

        Beautiful! Like breathtaking… Btw, the Nikon D800 is very tempting as my next upgrade (thinking my camera maybe is more than half way into its total life length by now since I’ve used it so much)….but that would mean I’d need to swap all Canon lenses… Is there any Nikon equivalent to the Canon 100mm USM macro? Also, it’s quite heavy? Maybe there will be some lightweight alternative with really good photo quality coming….

        Reply
        • Johan Peijnenburg says:

          Thanks! You would love the D800 Charlotte. It’s not that heavy. A D600 would be a great lighter full frame alternative. After that there is a D7100, but that is not full frame.

          Alternative for the lens you mention is the 105 macro lens. I have that as well and it is very good. 

          Reply
          • Charlotte Therese Björnström says:

            Thanks – will check up the D600 too…! (Not allowed to carry anything actually, but am making a camera exception, so trying to keep the weight down.) Love what I read about the D800 so far… But, would need a new computer that can handle such big RAW files. I compared it with the 5d MkIII which has a nice RAW reducing function…

          • Johan Peijnenburg says:

            That is inconvenient Charlotte! Yes, you need a good computer and adequate storage space. The latter is very cheap nowadays though 🙂 

  14. Vishal Kumar says:

    This is beautiful, Lovely Minimalism.
    I think i don’t have to swim in the lake anymore, now i can walk straight to that sign post thanks to your LE skills :)

    Reply
    • Johan Peijnenburg says:

      hey Harry. Dank je wel. Dat commentaar had ik ook eerder gehad. Lijkt er inderdaad op 🙂 Hoe is het verder! Long time no speak … 

      Reply
  33. Johan Peijnenburg says:

    @Robin: thank you Robin 😀
    @Nikola: dank je wel. Lang geleden dat ik “toppie” heb gehoord 🙂 

    Reply
  39. Johan Peijnenburg says:

    @Jorunn: thanks for the compliments! I will make sure to hurry up 😉
    @Vitor: thank you Vitor!! 
    @Shawn: thank you! 

    Reply
  42. Jorunn Gudlaugsdottir says:

    Its absolutely wonderful and I love the minimalism and the negative space too. Look fwd to see what you are procsessing and also your upcoming LE´s :-)

    Reply
  46. Johan Peijnenburg says:

    @Yasmin: thank you Yasmin! The feeling is mutual 🙂
    @Grzegorz: many thanks Grzegorz! Yes I know … I should post more. I’ll do my best in the coming months ! 

    Reply
  48. Grzegorz Piechowicz says:

    One of the most minimalistic photo-art that I have ever seen :))) But I love it Johan. Something intriguing is on here… and I hope you will find more time to posting your photos, not too often it happen recently 😉 Best regards! 

    Reply
  49. Yasmin Simpson says:

    Always inspirational professional work, words and great friendship. So thankful for people like you Johan ;-).

    Reply
  50. Johan Peijnenburg says:

    @Ada: thank you Ada 🙂
    @Danielle: hey Danielle! Thanks for the compliment and for stopping by 🙂 

    Reply
    • Johan Peijnenburg says:

      Merci Nicolas 🙂 Depends on how long the bird is sitting still Nicolas 🙂 If they move they will not be visible …. 

      Reply
  54. Margaret Tompkins says:

    I love the beautiful subtle quality of this!! I’m really looking forward to those snowy shots!! Beautiful!

    Reply
  59. Kurt Harvey says:

    Very beautiful minimalim Johan. Wonderfully captured and processed!

    (It calls to mind a mic stand but most likely no one will be walking across the water to it? :)

    Reply
  60. Mitchell Prout says:

    Awesome! I’m glad to hear you’ll be diving back into LE. I myself am looking to focus on LE much more in the coming months also!
    looking forward to seeing your shots!

    Reply
  69. Johan Peijnenburg says:

    @Rodolfo: thanks for the comment Rodolfo!
    @Sumit: thank you! 
    @Jim: thanks for the great comment Jim. Have a great week!

    Reply
  74. David Orr says:

    Stunning Johan ! I am with you there it has been awhile since I have been able to attach my Big Stopper, I amin a rut ! Looking forward to seeing your upcoming LE photos ! have a great week my friend !

    Reply
  78. Domique Hilbert says:

    There’s little I can ad, to what has already been said about this little wonder. But I can’t stop myself, of course we like it! I have very little experience with LE, maybe when I have more time, somewhere in the future, I can try and experiment with it. But I know who’s work to study when that time comes. Thanks for the extra info! My apologies for the long comment.

    Reply
  80. Tom Tran says:

    I’m loving the spacious real estate here Johan. The wisp of cloud is a nice touch in that sky. Very cool that you’re using an-otherwise-portrait lens for this image. I guess I can call it portrait of the One. :)

    Reply
    • Johan Peijnenburg says:

      Thank you Tom. Glad you like it. Forced myself to not add more contrast to the sky 🙂 That otherwise-portrait lens is pretty cool for landscape as well Tom and love it for LE work! 

      Reply
  85. Ian Good says:

    @Anette: thank you Anette! Most of the ones I am working on are not minimal, so this was a nice “distraction” 🙂
    @Ian: glad you do Ian and thanks for stopping by! 

    Reply
  91. Johan Peijnenburg says:

    @Patricia: thanks for the kind words Patricia! Thanks for stopping by 🙂
    @Louisa: thank you! I have problems keeping up as well, so no worries 🙂 

    Reply
  92. Louisa Catharine Forsyth says:

    Loving your LE work Johan, I am still trying to catch up with you all after my b’day, so good to see this now! 

    Reply
  94. Johan Peijnenburg says:

    @Michael: well thank you Michael. Hope all is well with you ! 🙂
    @Torsten: danke vielmals Torsten 🙂 You should. It is a very nice type of photography. Totally different as well 🙂 

    Reply
  100. Johan Peijnenburg says:

    @Betty: thank you Betty 🙂
    @Andreas: glad you like it Andreas! Feel free to ask if you need more info 🙂 

    Reply
  101. Andreas Levi says:

    Absolutely fantastic work, Johan!
    In the next time I will start also to try some captures in LE, so I’m thankful for your description :)

    Reply
  102. Betty Manousos says:

    love minimal photography.
    this is gorgeous!!
    thanks for being an endless source of inspiration to me 🙂

    Reply
    • Johan Peijnenburg says:

      Thank you Heine! I am always a bit uncomfortable with something as minimal as this, but liked the feeling of it 🙂 

      Reply
    • Johan Peijnenburg says:

      thanks Athena 🙂 That could very well be the case. Haven’t been there with you though. Might be a different one … 

      Reply
    • Johan Peijnenburg says:

      thanks Matthias. Glad you like it. Really tried to hold back on this one to make it as minimal as possible 🙂 

      Reply
  117. Jerry Johnson says:

    I do love it Johan and your attention to the little details that turn a very good photo into a great one are quite evident in this beauty!

    Reply

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