Motion at rest – 15×12″, edition of 20
The next two images on offer are from Venice; after a decent amount of sitting time, the proofs are definitely something that I’d like to have on my own wall. Motion at rest is a study in contrasts between hard and soft light and forms; it is identifiably Venice without being a cliche. Venetian Cinematics 2 is all about the red umbrella: that transient instant of passing a stranger in a rainy alleyway where you perhaps register their presence but not at a particularly conscious level; later on you may stop and wonder what might have been. It is in essence the intrigue of the city at the human level.
Read on for more information and to order. I’ve also got a Hanoi Cinematic Masterclass (21-26 July inclusive) which is open for registration – click here to book and for more information.
Venetian Cinematics 2 – 16×9″, edition of 20
As with all previous prints, they will be printed by printmaster Wesley Wong, personally checked and QC’d by me and accompanied by a certificate of authenticity. Both prints are on a matte fine art fiber paper – Permajet Portrait White 285 – which we have found after much experimentation to have the best blend of density, gamut, detail differentiation and transparent tonality. You can read more about the rationale behind Ultraprinting here and a view a comparison to a regular print here.
All Ultraprints offer an incredible amount of immersion at closer viewing distances and are ideal for intimate viewing in smaller spaces; there more detail than the eye can immediately register. This contributes to the sensation of transparency and the illusion of a little world-in-a-box. We print and resolve 720 actual PPI for a viewing experience that is about as good as a facsimile of reality can get: by comparison, a Retina display is only 450 PPI. Nevertheless, the difference is really something that has to be experienced, not described or seen in a web jpeg – there is simply no way to display all the information digitally.
Both prints are available here: please remember to include your phone number in the contact field for the courier; we cannot ship without it. Thank you in advance! MT
Selected customer testimonials on previous Ultraprint editions
Roger Wojahn: I just received Black Island, my first Ultraprint! Ming, it’s just sensational in real life! Thanks so much for going to this much trouble to raise the bar for print making. It’s just incredible!
Ben Eloy: I wanted to thank you again — the print is just wonderful — the color, detail and dynamic range are fantastic. I had it framed and it’s sitting on my mantle now as a source of photographic inspiration!
Nicolas Widmer: Looking forward to Forest IV. Lorenz Flückiger and me are big fans of your work. We both framed your prints and show them in our working place.
Linden Wilkie: My copy of this Ultraprint [Occluded Observation] just arrived. I love the image as it appears on my iMac screen, but it is nothing like as good as it appears on print in the hands. The tone and mood are exceptional. Thank you.
Gerner Christensen: With suitable presence of anxiety I opened the roll this morning. What a moment !!! To see this fantastic photo, to see this fantastic print art, this paper quality, to enter into the fantastic detailed and still silky soft universe of pure eye-bliss, yes it all took me away to dreamland. It is an exquisite pleasure all through to dwell with this photo presented in this ultimate way, I couldn’t get my eyes of it. Showing my wife having fetched a loupe to dive in further, we both got lost in time and space. It took 1/2 hour just to think about anything else. Amazing Ming. Now I am not sure, or am I, if anybody else, except of course those I know are taken by the experience themselves, would get such an ecstatic feel looking at this photo in Ultraprinted, but I am obsessed by the perfection this printed image really is. To view such a photo/print makes standard hi-rez prints look poor and uninteresting. Yes I even think I prefer the Ultraprint over a projected diapositive when it’s best. Thank you Ming making these type of prints available and please do not tempt me over the line to fill up all walls with your art 🙂
Praneeth Rajsingh: I received my copy of the Fog, Vienna today. I am really happy with the print. I placed the Ultraprint and another print of mine from Wesley side by side and the differences were as clear as night and day. Though this particular picture is different from the New Zealand series, the tree to the left of the frame really stood out for me and the detail was impeccable. Planning to get a loupe like you suggested on your certificate of authenticity and see what I can find then.
David Kimmel: I’ve followed all of the posts documenting the development of the ultra prints from the beginning but you truly cannot appreciate what they are and their importance until they are experienced in person. In that way, you have an uphill battle marketing them. I am very interested in purchasing a print. I think it will do 3 things: provide me with a reminder of what I learned in MOI, it will also provide me with an example of what to strive for technically and artistically, but most importantly it will be a beautiful piece of art to add to my home. The hard part is selecting an image. I absolutely loved ‘Matcha’ not only for the beautiful colours but the way it transports the viewer to a Japanese cafe (is that indeed where it was taken?). The other image that stands on in my mind is one of the landscapes from New Zealand of a lake whose name escapes me. I remember the beautiful subtle earth tones and the small isolated lake in the foreground on the right.
Christian Tekath: Just wanted to drop you a quick thank you for the excellent print/photo, which arrived in perfect condition on Monday. If you ever consider a workshop in Germany, let me know! 😉
Jan Martin: What a nice surprise. It is beautiful! It is perfect. It is my inspiration! This and the Swan are my two favorite photos of yours. It is going on the wall directly in front of my desk. I can’t wait to figure out how to frame it — any suggestions of what might be best? Do I need special archival mat boards, etc? The packaging was perfect — nary a dent — so I hope this worked for all your customers. I took the print to the best local framer I could find and I must say, he was very impressed with the image and the printing. He took out his magnifying glass to examine, and spent a lot of time thinking about framing options. We opted for matting (otherwise it’s against the glass and that didn’t seem right!) and a thin black frame. I didn’t do a dry mount because that also seemed damaging, so we are doing photo corners and I hope that will work well enough. If not, I can always have it dry mounted later. You guys rock!
Andre Yew: I got the Ultraprints today, and they are amazing! Anyway, the detail and tonality look great. I especially like the highlights off the tree trunks in the color picture. I feel like the paper’s texture almost detracts from the detail because it can get in the way of the actual detail. I also have to be careful with my light source so the specular reflection of the light doesn’t obscure detail. Looking at it through a 4x loupe, I feel like I could zoom in forever and still see more detail. It’s certainly a unique and special offering that no one else is even attempting, so it’s very valuable for that alone, despite the many other considerable qualities of the prints. Thanks for offering it again, and I for one hope you don’t get the Pentax, because I wouldn’t know what to do with bigger Ultraprints!
Marcos Hatada – Just received the ultraprints. They are incredible! So unbelievably beautiful!!
Harsh Agrawal: Forest II is the finest print I have ever laid my eyes on in my entire life. My vocabulary doesn’t have enough superlatives to qualify or quantify the magnificence of this art piece. It is beyond stunning.
Matthias Gaiser: The Ultraprint has arrived – and it’s everything I expected it to be. In fact, I’ll have to rearrange the pictures on my walls to make room for it in order to appreciate it fully, i.e. it’ll get the best spot available! Wonderful work – in all respects! Thank you both very, very much!
Bob Prangnell: Received the Ultraprint – very nice thank you. Beautiful colors and amazing detail and 3-d effect. I said to my wife that I could lock you in a bathroom and you’d come out with a dozen great shots – and you proved that today with “Towel”
Junaid Rahim: Very nice prints Ming, really enjoying them. Looking at forest II I kind of rue not getting the bigger prints for the tokyo set. But the colours are lovely and definitely some lovely detail in them. I think Forest II will have to be framed. Forest II is one of those shots that really grows on you with time as you start seeing more and more detail in it. So happy at least that one is the more ‘native’ size!
Junaid Rahim (second print): Finally got the print in my hand! A few things to let you know – the packaging was much better this time with the harder back to prevent bending, so please continue with this! Also has something changed with the printing process from last time? From my own eye, I perceive the print quality to be a bit better or is it simply down to the tonality of the colours being different from the Cuba pics vs the autumn in tokyo ones?
Very happy again and look forward to getting one from the 645Z – hope you put a run out Ming after your New Zealand trip!
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Turn the mood and style up to 11: the Hanoi Cinematic Masterclass in association with Zeiss (21-26 July inclusive) is now open for registration – click here to book and for more information.
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Images and content copyright Ming Thein | mingthein.com 2012 onwards. All rights reserved
Ming Thein | Photographer 
Motion at rest is gorgeous.
Thanks – and available as an Ultraprint 🙂
A question, is the spire in the background of the Greek church in Venice ? I ask as I was in fact christened there and absolutely love this image.
ignore my question I have done some research, but still adore the photo 😉
A few years late, but in tracking back through your posts in order to see what you mean as ‘cinematics’, I saw that you mentioned a photographer shown as part of SFMOMA’s Picturing Modernity series whose name you had forgotten. Was it perhaps Philip-Lorca diCorcia?
It might have been, I honestly can’t remember now 🙂 This article might be what you’re looking for though.
Limited edition meaning in digital photography. In the art world, a graphic artist (etching for example) would destroy the copper plate that was manually engraved to print the art piece. I still have some of those copper plate from my art gallery time. Before digital photography, destruction of negative would be properly documented for a limited edition. With the multiple possible copies of a digital photography (CD, computer , SD cards and worst of all,on line) how can a limited edition be guaranteed. I understand that you have a quasi monopoly on quality but lots of worst copies could be made. How do you protect your art ? I remember the Canon story
What Canon story are you referring to? I have never had any dealings with them…
I protect it very easily. I control the files and nobody else has our print technology, so the copy is going to be crude at very best. Only customers have seen the certificates of authenticity, and if you’re buying one without a COA and of unknown providence on the secondary market, then sorry, caveat emptor. They could easily email me to check who the original owner was – I have complete records of which print and edition # and spec was sold to whom on what date.
Interesting pictures!
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http://travelingrockhopper.com
Thanks.