TPX04: Ming Thein – There’s More to Photography and Success than Money

Ming Thein of  MingThein.com from Malaysia is a photographer first, a philosopher / writer second, a commercial photographer third, a teacher fourth and a blogger a distant fifth. In saying that, he has one of the most popular photography blogs on the web. If that's his distant fifth, you can imagine how good a photographer this guy is!

After receiving a master’s degree in physics at 16 and a successful career in business, Ming Thein became a full-time photographer in 2011. He's has since been named one of the worlds best street and commercial photographers today and appears to be working more hours and harder than any photographer I know yet he says it doesn't feel like work.

Here’s some of what we cover:

• Why pursue photography despite Ming's successful career in Physics and the business world
• How Ming made the transition to his career in commercial photography
• Why full time with photography instead of his original intention to keep it a hobby
• The type of clients you are likely to attract as a commercial photography
• The risks when given the creative freedom to produce work for your clients
• The toughest part of transitioning to full time photographer
• What do you really have to do to get that good at photography
• Quality is always more important the quantity
• The importance of pre-visualizeing and having a shot list before going to shoot
• What did photography success looks like when transitioning into this new career
• Is money a driving factor for Ming and his photography business
• Dealing with Asian family pressures when shifting careers
• Why Ming blogs so prolifically and who he is writing for
• A photographer's work becomes easier the more educated potential buyers are
• Consisteny matters
• Why Ming doesn't monetize his website
• It's beneficial to both parties to teach someone who wants to learn
• Why integrity is always questioned when monetising your business
• What to shoot when shooting for fun
• Why you need to make time for personal projects
• Why you need to do a proper post-mortem of images for experimental reasons
• Why it's very difficult to be obective about your own work
• Should you put out your work out there to gather critiques from other photographers
• The number of personal projects Ming is currently working on and how he manages them
• Giving birth to new personal projects
• Why Ming prefers Photoshop over Lightroom
• Ming's workflow
• Having your own recognisable style is important in an industry that is highly competitive
• How to find your own style
• Is the shallow depth of field one of the most overused techniques by amateur photographers
• Ming's pricing strategy and how he selects the right client
• Dealing with copyright and usage rights
• Professionalism has a certain degree of committment
• Why you should never undermine yourself when considering pricing
• Adding extra value to your product offerings
• Why Instagram and filters are not for professional photographers
• Why photographers should not be shooting in JPEG format today
• The benefits of using a Hasselblad
• The pressure to deliver

What is your big takeaway?

Following this interview, I’d love to know what your biggest takeaway is – what is the one thing that you’d like to implement or learnt from what was shared? Let me know by leaving your thoughts in the comments below.

I'm trying to give the best value to my clients – Ming Thein

If you have any questions that I missed, a specific question you’d like to ask Ming or if you just want to say thanks for coming on the show, feel free to add them below.

I'm a very binary person. Either I do it or I don't, and if I do it, I do it at 110% – Ming Thein

It really is not about how good you are. You can be good enough. As long as you're good enough and you can sell, you'll do very well. But if you're really really good and you can't sell, then you're screwed – Ming Thein

I would personally rather have fewer but better images – Ming Thein

I try and see the world in colors and shapes. If there's interesting geometries, colors, shapes and textures, I'll just shoot it anyway. I shoot anything  – Ming Thein

Links to people, places and things mentioned in this episode:

Ming Thein Website

Ming Thein on Facebook

Ming Thein on Twitter

Ming Thein on Instagram

Ming Thein on Flickr

Ming Thein's Teaching Store

The Idea of Man

Steve McCurry

Sebastião Salgado: Genesis Review

Equipment:

Hasselblad H5D-50c Wi-Fi Medium Format DSLR Camera Body

Hasselblad H6D-50c

Nikon D810 FX-format Digital SLR Camera Body

Fujifilm Neopan ACROS Black-and-White Negative Film ISO 100, 35mm, 36 Exposures

Thank you!

Thanks again for listening to the show and thanks to Ming for coming on and experimenting with a new and different format for this photography podcast.

The main thing that unifies all of my images is control and precision. I'm a very precise and controlled photographer both in terms of composition and in terms of exposure , and everything – Ming Thein

If you have any suggestions, comments or questions about this episode, please be sure to leave them below in the comment section of this post, and if you liked the episode, please share it using the social media buttons you see at the bottom of the post!

That’s it for me, hope everything is going well for you in life and photography!

Thanks and speak soon

Andrew