The mother of all DSLR comparisons is coming soon. Give me until Sunday!
POTD: I’m working on it.
May 4, 2012 by
Opening night of my joint exhibition with Jaeger Le-Coultre and Leica
May 3, 2012 by
Last night was the grand opening party for my exhibition of fine art watch photography at Starhill Gallery, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Pending any unforeseen changes, the images should be up for the next month on the first (Adorn) floor, and were co-sponsored by Jaeger Le-Coultre and Leica. Some images from the launch party follow.
For my KL readers, I’ll also be on radio – a short interview – on Friday, 4th May at 1.45pm on BFM 88.9. For everybody else, there’s a podcast on bfm.my. MT
Sorry, no POTD today – was trying to rush these out for today’s post.
Some images courtesy KH Yeo (D700, 24/1.4) and myself (M9-P, 35/1.4 ASPH FLE).
An open invitation to my exhibition of watch photos sponsored by Jaeger Le-Coultre and Leica
May 2, 2012 by
If you’ve got some free time and are in Kuala Lumpur, please drop by to have a look. The exhibition is on the Adorn Floor of Starhill Gallery, Bukit Bintang – where all of the watch boutiques are located. It’s scheduled to run for the month of may but there may be some changes to venue after the first week. I’ll update accordingly here.
More details on how the images were shot here and here.
I’ll also be hosting a small gathering for readers who’d like to come and have a guided tour of the exhibition; we can go grab coffee afterwards and shoot the breeze about anything photographic. This will take place at 10.30am on Saturday 5th May; we’ll meet across the road by the fountain at Pavilion. Would be great if you could leave a comment if you want to come, so I know who to expect. If you can’t make it, drop me an email and I’ll try to meet you there another time. Thanks! MT
POTD: Workers
May 2, 2012 by
Workers. Leica D-Lux 5
Any guesses as to which famous photographer’s style I’m emulating here? MT
Photoessay: Electric trees
April 29, 2012 by
For reasons I can’t fathom, this entirely man-made artificial construct on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur draws huge numbers of visitors – mostly young Malay couples on dates looking for somewhere dark that they can get away with holding hands in a very conservative country – in the evening. During daytime, it looks terrible. But at night, the shadows hide the artifice and provide a counterpoint to the multicolored bulbs. I went more out of curiosity than anything, and to see if the X1 could hold its own in a low light situation. MT
Series shot with a Leica X1.
Suicide bear at the adjoining funfair
Limited fine art print offer! (and POTD)
April 28, 2012 by
Seeing the wood from the trees. Leica M9-P, 21/3.4 Super Elmar ASPH
Today’s POTD fell out of a test run for the 21/3.4 Super Elmar ASPH, which I’ll be reviewing in the next few weeks. Initial impressions: hugely impressive, especially in the corners. I see almost no optical flaws anywhere, at f4 – which is just half a stop down from wide open.
I’m also happy to announce a new partnership with Giclee Art in Malaysia (a HP print ambassador) and master printmaker Wesley Wong. The work I’ve seen is stunning – he will be printing the images for my upcoming exhibition.
Both of the prints you see in this post will be up for as a limited run. (These things help me keep the site running – creating content takes time I can’t use for anything else, and I really want to keep the site ad-free to maintain the picture viewing experience; also, it helps you decorate your walls 🙂
The print offer will be limited to 20 copies of each image, at 16×24″ (A2) printed on 20×30″ paper. Here’s the kicker: the prints will be done on 380gsm matte fine art paper, printed with 200 year archival grade pigment ink on a HP production class machine. The look of the black on the paper is indescribable – I’ve never seen anything like it before, and I knew I had to make some prints with this. There are no reflections anywhere, which means the image is so much more viewable. The blacks are dense and chalk-pastel like, with fine tonal transitions. All prints will be numbered and signed. (And no, there will be no black borders around the images in the final print).
Schonbrunn Fog, Vienna. Leica M9-P, 28/2.8 ASPH
The price for either print is US$550 net to me including shipping worldwide via courier in a sturdy tube. To keep things simple, payment can be made via Paypal to mingthein2@gmail.com, which means you can either use your Paypal balance or a credit card.
Please include in the message field which image you’d like, plus your shipping address, contact email address and telephone number. I’ll email a confirmation as soon as I a payment from you. If you’d like multiple copies or multiple images, that’s great too – you just make one payment.
I’ll be closing the print offer at the end of May, and shipping shortly thereafter. First come first served! Remember, these images will not be offered for sale again at this size. Thanks for your support everybody! MT
Photoessay: City Hall, London
April 23, 2012 by
City Hall, London – headquarters of The Greater London Authority and home to the Mayor’s office. An interesting blob of a building located in Southwark, near the southern end of Tower Bridge, it was designed by Norman Foster and opened in 2002. It sits at the center of an open plaza with a recessed area containing F&B outlets and entrances to the surrounding buildings, as well as a museum. I just like the architecture. MT
Series shot with a Leica M8, Zeiss ZM 2.8/21 Biogon and Voigtlander 50/1.1 Super Nokton.
Shadow projection.
Repairs.
Oddly reminiscent of a coil of DNA inside a nucleus.
POTD: Urban isolation
April 22, 2012 by
Shared space, but no shared connection. Leica M9-P and Zeiss ZM 2/50 Planar.
Five people effectively occupy the same 1.5 square meters of space, yet there’s absolutely no interaction between them. The two outside probably don’t even notice the third person inside hovering over them drinking soup; for all we know, they could even be texting each other. If he was at the same table without the glass barrier, the outside couple would probably feel quite uncomfortable. People everywhere but each retreats into their own worlds. Is this a metaphor for modern society? Perhaps. MT
Photoessay: Catwalk fashion with a Leica M
April 21, 2012 by
Here’s an unusual challenge. During my ‘early Leica era’, I decided to challenge myself: I shot a catwalk fashion assignment with a Leica M8 and 35/2 ASPH, rather than my usual D3/300mm combination. How did it turn out? Different – and that was the point. The client magazine was pleased, which is what mattered. And boy, it was possibly the most difficult shoot I’d done up to that point – this being early 2009 – because of the combined challenges of extreme lighting, new and unfamiliar equipment, manual focus, and a much shorter focal length than usual. The plus side is that nobody seemed to mind too much when I was roaming in and amongst the guests; an M8 is surprisingly at home in this environment. One nasty surprise was the IR pollution issue – at this point, my UVIR filters hadn’t yet arrived, and I spent a LOT of time afterwards correcting the color. Even so, you’ll notice a higher than normal proportion of black and white images in this set. MT
Series shot with a Leica M8 and 35/2 Summicron-ASPH.
POTD: In the recording studio
April 19, 2012 by
Radio is a lot less happening than TV…Leica M9-P, Zeiss ZM 2/50 Planar
Score one for the M9-P, I was able to shoot in discreet mode without anybody noticing, or worse still, having something recorded on the air. In hindsight I probably should have used something totally silent like the Ricoh GR-Digital III, though that wouldn’t have given me enough working distance. MT
Ming Thein | Photographer 