ming thein – Ming Thein

Photoessay: Signs of life: shadows and silhouettes in Prague

February 15, 2014 by Ming Thein

And now for something a little different – what if I took the abstraction of man to the next logical step? The idea of a person, not the specific individual? What interests me is the way man interacts with his environment, leaves his mark, but is ultimately temporal; more so in modern society where the multitudes of us land up mostly being nameless, faceless and somewhat commoditized. What does generic man look like in native habitat? I’m sure it’s soulless, clinical and a little cold, but hey, I can’t help it if that’s the way I see the world sometimes.

Street photography, soul and ethics, revisited – a personal view

February 13, 2014 by Ming Thein

Man, or the idea of man?

Not to flog a dead horse, but I want to pick up from where the one of the earlier articles hinted and left off: the topic of ‘soul’ in street photography, and what that means in terms the increasingly grey ethical area for photographers. There are also legal implications involved, and we’ll discuss those in passing – individual territories have different regulations, so it’s really in your best interests to check before shooting.

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Filed Under: Articles, On Photography Tagged With: article, ethics, ming, ming thein, mingthein.com, opinion, soul, street photography, thein

The attraction of clouds, water, fireworks, trees…

February 11, 2014 by Ming Thein

Over the last couple of years, I’ve noticed that there are a few subjects that tend to be universally attractive to a wide audience – and I’m not referring to cats, bikinis or brick walls (or strange combinations of all three). They tend to be of the type clouds, water, trees, fireworks etc. I’d like to explore that a bit more in today’s article.

Photoessay: the clouds of Prague

February 9, 2014 by Ming Thein

I have a theory as to why we as a species seem to be universally attracted to things like clouds, fireworks, water, trees and flowers; that will be the subject of a much longer philosophical elucidation soon, but in the meantime, consider what all of these objects have in common. For today, just enjoy the clouds and their endless variety. 🙂

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Filed Under: On Photography Tagged With: cityscape, clouds, landscape, ming, ming thein, mingthein.com, photoessay, photography, prague, thein

Two places now available for the Email School…

February 8, 2014 by Ming Thein

Gratuitous advertising image: learn how to compose like this, consistently.

A couple of my students have just graduated from my Email School of Photography, which means there are two slots that have just opened up. Details continue after the jump. The current student and alumni pool is 150+ strong; additional testimonials on my teaching can be found at the bottom of this page. First come first served, so if please send me an email if you’re interested. Thanks! MT

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Filed Under: Teaching Tagged With: email school, feb 2014, ming, ming thein, mingthein.com, thein

Revisiting the past: the 2003 Olympus E-1

February 7, 2014 by Ming Thein

Old flagship, meet new flagship. The E-M1 – and E-M5 – finally deliver on what the E-1 should have been.

2003 was an exciting year for digital cameras. I remember it as being the turning point just before the DSLR became accessible to the masses; professional image quality was now theoretically within reach of everybody – well, assuming you had the knowledge to use it. If not, you could theoretically keep shooting until you did; and that’s just what I did. It’s also where my personal photographic journey began in earnest. APS-C dominated as the best compromise of sensor size and cost; the D1X and 1DS were king. On the high-speed, responsive, general purpose front were the Nikon D2H, Canon 1D and Olympus E-1 – though the latter raised a lot of eyebrows with its smaller sensor. In mid 2004, I remember putting heavy consideration into both the E-1 and D2H as a replacement for my broken D70; I remember liking the way the E-1 felt and shot, and especially the smoothness of the mirror, but I didn’t like the limited variety and cost of lenses, not to mention the relatively slow 3fps and limited AF system compared to the blazing-fast 8fps D2H and CAM2000 – on top of which, you had a huge variety of lenses – a lot of which were cheap and excellent. I went Nikon again, but have always had a seed of curiosity towards the E-1. It’s been ten years now. Olympus Malaysia managed to find one in a cupboard somewhere, and kindly lent it to me…

Photoessay: mono transport in Amsterdam

February 5, 2014 by Ming Thein

The one thing that stuck with me was the very small number of cars – and of the cars you did see, most were quite ancient…I guess it must have something to do with the Dutch taxes. At any rate, there was certainly enough variety to keep things photographically interesting, even if the weather wasn’t that fantastic. It’s certainly hard not to feel that it’s both a very eco-friendly and healthy city… MT

Shot with a mixture of cameras – Hasselblad 501C with 80/2.8 on Fuji Acros; OM-D E-M5 and 14-42 X pancake; Ricoh GR.

These images were made during the October 2013 Making Outstanding Images Workshop in Amsterdam; I will be holding three more of these in Melbourne, Sydney and London later this year. Click here for more info, and to sign up.

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Filed Under: On Photography Tagged With: amsterdam, ming, ming thein, mingthein.com, photoessay, photography, thein, transport

To specialise or generalise?

February 1, 2014 by Ming Thein

The work of a generalist, or a specialist in seeking abstraction?

There’s always been a slightly inaccurate preconception in any field that a specialist must be better than a generalist – surely, if you’ve done something a thousand times, you’d be better at it than somebody who’s done it ten times? Today, from a photographic standpoint, I’m actually going to argue against this – albeit with a very specific set of caveats.

One place left each for Melbourne workshop and Havana masterclass

January 31, 2014 by Ming Thein

From Making Outstanding Images Amsterdam 2013

Just a gentle reminder – I have one place left each for the Melbourne (27-29 March) Making Outstanding Images workshop, and the Havana, Cuba Masterclass (28 April-3 May). London Making Outstanding Images (16-18 July) is full, but I am taking standbys as there are almost always reshufflings due to people’s work schedules…thanks! Please click on the links to the individual announcements for more info, or please send me an email to book. MT

Testimonials from previous workshops can be found here.

Filed Under: Teaching Tagged With: 2014, cuba, london, making outstanding images, melbourne, ming, ming thein, mingthein.com, thein, Workshop

The importance of shot discipline

January 28, 2014 by Ming Thein

Miss it, and the moment is gone. Procession, Nepal. Nikon D700, 24/1.4

Repost: I’ve been referencing this particular early article so often in posts and emails that I think it’s high time we had a reminder. I’ve dusted it off, refreshed it a little. We’ll start by defining shot discipline. There are two main aspects: timing and technique.