2019 – Ming Thein | Photographer

Merry Christmas!

December 25, 2019 by Ming Thein

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As another year draws to a close (where do they all go?) it remains for us at mingthein.com to wish all of our readers Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, and may you either have somebody to buy you the treatment to alleviate your GAS, or have the wherewithal to buy it yourself. Lapses in judgment can be excused for at least one day a year! Thank you for sticking around and providing intelligent discussion below the line even though we continue to move away from hardware – it’s reassuring to know there are still people who are into photography for the pictures. So go on, get off the internet and social media and spend time with the special real people in your lives. Eat too much, drink too much, and don’t forget to bring a camera to record it all.

-MT, Robin & Praneeth

Filed Under: Off topic Tagged With: 2019, merry christmas, ming, ming thein, mingthein.com, thein

Robin’s take: Thaipusam 2019

February 24, 2019 by Robin Wong

Thaipusam is one of the largest festivals in Malaysia, drawing no less than 2 million people to Batu Caves in 2018. MT did a splendid job covering it in 2017 with the Hasselblad H6D-100C (photoessays here, here and a video here), shooting mostly in low light as the rituals start on the eve of the actual celebration. This year, I decided to brave the crowds at Batu Caves but was also intending to do things differently. Instead of punishing the camera in impossibly low light situations, I played to my strength by shooting during the day and utilizing the beautiful morning light.

MT’s note: I’ve covered Thaipusam on several occasions in the past, but tend to prefer working at night for both the atmosphere/drama and the lower temperatures (though it brings its own challenges in the sheer crowd sizes, light levels etc.) Had to sit out this year because of my back, but glad to see one of the team made it!

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Filed Under: On Photography, Robin Wong Tagged With: 2019, documentary, mingthein.com, photography, robin, Robin Wong, thaipusam, wong

New year’s resolutions, 2019 edition

January 1, 2019 by Ming Thein

Perhaps a more accurate title for today’s post isn’t so much ‘resolutions’ as ‘expectations’. I like to think that after a while in the same industry*, one acquires the maturity to know what you want to do, what you can do, and what you realistically might be able to expect. Here’s my plan for 2019, both photographic and otherwise. Some stuff I’ll have already said to various individuals or gotten lost in various comments, but as yet things have not been unified. So, to hopefully stem the tide of ‘are you going to x’ emails, here goes…

*Shooting since 2001, for clients part time since 2005, and full time since 2012 – that’s a good 18, 14 or 7 years, depending on how you want to measure it. Even 7 years in the digital era is an age given how fast things change.