Lake Hawea
As you might have gathered, Queenstown turned into a very landscape-photography oriented photography trip; the colors of the landscape were magical, but the variation in light and contrast was even more so – naturally lending itself to fantastic black and white images. Since it was winter, the sun traces an arc across the sky but never shines directly downwards from above – the upshot of this is you can shoot at all times of day. Naturally, I took advantage of it. I drove, stopped where the light arrested me, shot, and moved on. And on one day, spent most of the afternoon in the Arrowtown River delta – formerly the site of the Queenstown gold rush, but now the the home of some pretty spectacular trees – and a riot of colour that will be the subject of a future photoessay. Nevertheless, I felt black and white suited the subject matter quite well, as the trees in winter have this stark beauty to them that I felt was best captured without that sense of ‘life’ that colour imbues.
Lunar contrail
On the technical front, I was on a tripod almost all the time – except for the photos at altitude, which were handheld as there were limits to what I could ski with. I shot this series with a great mix of equipment – everything from the Ricoh GR, to D810 and Zeiss 85 Otus, and Pentax 645Z with 25, 55 and 200mm lenses.
As usual, any of these images is available as an limited Ultraprint (size depends on format). Please use this link to enquire if you’re interested. Thanks! MT
If you’d like to learn more about how to create great images in black and white, the Monochrome Masterclass workshop video might be of interest…
Heart tree
In death, one and many appear identical
Bullet tree shadow
Spiral
Swirl
Start of snow
A peek
The pass
New Zealand in the landscape
Untitled
Cloud shadow
Diagonals
After the snow falls
Sun and gate
Life in the valley
Last sun in the gorge I
Last sun in the gorge II
__________________
Limited edition Ultraprints of these images and others are available from mingthein.gallery
__________________
Visit the Teaching Store to up your photographic game – including workshop and Photoshop Workflow videos and the customized Email School of Photography; or go mobile with the Photography Compendium for iPad. You can also get your gear from B&H and Amazon. Prices are the same as normal, however a small portion of your purchase value is referred back to me. Thanks!
Don’t forget to like us on Facebook and join the reader Flickr group!
Images and content copyright Ming Thein | mingthein.com 2012 onwards. All rights reserved
Ming Thein | Photographer 
Beautiful Images Ming. Just started the Monochrome Masterclass today! I can not think of any valid reasons to buy a Monochrom but as I write this I am waiting for the battery to charge for the Monochrom that arrived this morning…
Thank you – fortunately, the Monochrome Masterclass applies to both color conversions and B&W source, though I do have a dedicated separate workflow video for the Monochrom as there are enough differences in the native response between luminance only and bayer sensors…
I have purchased that as well but as of yet have not started it. Really enjoying all of the the workshop videos.
Thanks!
Wonderful pictures, wonderful places! Thanks for sharing! They are gorgeous!
Reblogged this on Eileen Lyn Wah.
How did you get to the summit of those mountains?
Ski/hike/drive…
Nice monochrome set. Makes me wonder how much better the tonality would have been if you had taken the same shots with your large format camera and Acros 100 film.
Worse, to be honest. Not as much latitude for local adjustments.
Superb series
Lovely textures Ming.
Thanks Ron! It was a very conducive landscape…
Beautiful!
Thanks!
Reblogged this on Oranje Exclusive Safaris.
As usual, excellent photographs! Love the b&w, works very well, even without seeing the originals in color.
Thanks!
Lovely set Ming.
Definitely need to see some of these at full resolution at some point…..
Gen. 3 Ultraprints 🙂
Which I saw the other day! What can I say…Hyper realistic painterly look …. it is art!
Thanks – if only more people could see the finished images (ie prints) before coming to conclusions…
Awesome shots. You made our lovely city Queenstown so beautiful even in black and white.
It’s a beautiful city, period!
Yes. Beautiful Queenstown. Period. 😄
Wonderful pictures!
Thanks!
I really like this set, especially Lunar contrail, and Swirl.
You’ve seen the Ultraprint versions too, which might well bias you somewhat 🙂
Thanks MING, excellent B&W images! Why should someone make such an high investment buying an LEICA Monochrom?
That’s a good question. I suppose if you wanted to use colour filters for B&W, or if you never intend to shoot colour, or if you feel you must have a camera with a red dot…?
Actually, there’s no red dot on the M Monochrom.
I stand corrected!
Stunning images Ming!
Thanks.
Beautiful image.
Thanks.
Your welcome