The pizza man
Following on from an earlier article about light and mood in monochrome, I feel some examples are in order. Though these were all shot in San Francisco, they are from different eras in my career. Nevertheless, I believe the feeling I personally experience in San Franciso is consistent – one of possibility and excitement reinforced by the weather and tempered by something slightly along the lines of wondering if you’re going to live up to the standards of the city or stand out like a hick – there’s this sort of sophistication and modern edginess, I suppose. And nights are quiet rather than being lively (or I’m simply going to the wrong places). Enjoy! MT
This set was shot with a diverse range of equipment, but processed using the techniques covered in the Monochrome Masterclass workshop video.
One human silhouette
The chess players
Partial intrusion
Modern thinkers
Shadows
Untitled
Anticipating bad news
Descent
5566648
The watcher
You are not one of us
The risk of being faceless in the big city
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Images and content copyright Ming Thein | mingthein.com 2012 onwards. All rights reserved
Ming Thein | Photographer 
Beautiful tones and angles Ming, yeah it came across as a quiet city at night to me too. Just another reason to move there for me!
Thanks. There were some slightly scuzzy bits that I’d definitely avoid at night though…
Most definitely, sir. I live about 85 km from San Francisco, and usually end up in the scuzzy bits because I love the food there.
Really? What are they?
Great to see these, thank you, just what I have in mind after going through your Monochrome Masterclass, albeit my outings will be in London and therefore a bit gloomier perhaps 🙂
I’ve had some sunny days in London 🙂
Wonderful series Ming. “Untitled” has me wondering about the relationship between the two men.
I leave that open to the imagination of the audience 🙂
Great images! It’s really great that unless I click the image for the exif data, I could never tell you used different cameras. Photos from a m4/3 camera vs medium format is barely recognizable to me; that’s something. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks – at this size differences should be pretty small and limited to tonality only (dynamic range of that Pentax is at least 3 stops greater than M4/3…)
As usual the execution is impeccable. I love “Modern Thinkers” and “You are not one of us”.
Thanks! The former reminded me of a classical Greek statue – even in real life!
I really love your photo essays Ming. Short introduction and then the study. I think the bits and pieces here leaves me back with a certain feel of SF even I have never been there. What I find exciting is not only what you included in your composition, but where you were more exactly and the idea about excluded surroundings. A lot left to phantasy and imagination.
*5566648*, *Descent* and *Anticipating bad news* are fabulous !
Thanks Gerner – it’s the perpetual question of how to convey the feel of a place without screaming out the location… 🙂
I like the photos taken in 2013 more than the later . But that is just me – a direct feel rather than any analysis.
Lots of subtle changes between the earlier and later images; well done for noticing. Unfortunately one of the consequences is that the later images are optimised for print and don’t always have as much punch at web sizes. 🙂
Hi Ming,
Apart from the quality of the photographs,
you also very often show that titles can greatly add to the experience.
“You are not one of us” is a fantastic title for that photo and made me laugh out loud.
The right title in your head before you raise the camera, that significantly adds to the fun, doesn’t it?
Thanks Jaap – yes, usually the title is in my head beforehand as ‘the idea’ 🙂
Yesterday? 🙂
Much earlier, my bad. Fixed now.
This and the previous post are full of beauty AND learning material! Many thanks.
Thanks!
A nice timely photoessay for me Ming. I’m planning a trip to SF in November to indulge myself in 7 days of photography. One of the things I struggle with when photographing such a well known and iconic place is how to capture the essence of the place and keep it recognisable without just taking the usual tourist shots you can see on a thousand postcards and million flickr uploads.
I think that’s a very valid problem for all of us: the only solution is to observe, figure out what identifies ‘SF’ (or any other place, for that matter) to you and include the bare minimum required…
“Modern thinkers” is so quintessentially urban America…although I guess you could take that shot in any modern city nowadays. Despite always thinking of SF in purely colour terms, because it can be such a colorful city,these images work very well at conveying a different mood. I recall taking a long loop tram ride late at night, 11ish, and also being surprised at how sedate the city became in the evening. Except in the Castro, which was a bit livelier, but that’s not quite where my wife and I wanted to hang out, with all due respect to the residents there. 😉
Haha, thanks Grant!
Wonderful images. I need to get back to San Francisco.
There seems to be a typo: Following on from yesterday’s article
Thanks Eric – whoops, I rescheduled that post to be much earlier – fixed the link 🙂