“You can’t wait until life isn’t hard anymore before you decide to be happy”, Jane Marczewski (Nightbirde). 

Everyone of us had own issues, problems and situations to manage, handle and resolve, we all have our ups and downs. Life is never easy, some had it tougher than others. Personally, I had my fair share of ups and downs, however last year 2021 was one of my most difficult periods, mentally and emotionally, there were huge struggles on both personal and professional aspects. I am still struggling (lesser as compared to 2021), I wasn’t happy even though I don’t show it on my facial expressions.

Recalling Nightbirde’s quote, we can choose and decide to be happy. A gentle reminder, a wake up call, I can choose and decide to be happy. This is not going to be an instant change, first and foremost, I am making the decision to be happy, while facing all the incoming headwinds and challenges head on.

Jane Marczewski (Nightbirde) passed away on 19th February 2022, her voice, words, positivity and courage will always be remembered. 

Rest in peace, Nightbirde.

The post Decide to be Happy appeared first on TGH Photography and Travel Portal/Blog.

Time to finish up my photography zine  

I started working on my second photography zine some months back around June/July 2021. That was a work-in-progress, there were delays, distractions on my part, facing writer’s block and no creative breakthrough. 

As I was reorganising and replanning my works for my run-in during the final month of the year 2021, I told myself, it’s time to finish up my second photography zine and getting it ready for the zine/book launch in January 2022. My theme for my second zine revolves around nature therapy, great outdoors and photography therapy, thus I am returning to nature and great outdoors.

Return to Nature and Great Outdoors

Most recently, I went on two treks to the Old Jurong Line / Sungei Ulu Pandan Park Connector, I brought 2 different groups of friends there. Time to work on my Old Jurong Park Connector article. Not only have I rekindled my passion for trekking, enjoying and relaxing, I am also chasing sunsets, they can be pretty dramatic and epic at this time of the year.

What I want to do and where I want to explore/trek in December 2021

• Bring like-minded friends on treks, returning back to the days when I used to lead photo walks previously
• Go with like minded trekkers to explore more nature and outdoors 
• Bird photography at Sungei Buloh 
• Old Jurong Line / Clementi Forest / Dover Forest exploration and documentation for my article 
• Jenal Jetty / Rower’s Bay / Yishun Dam / Seletar district 
• Mt Faber and Labrador Park (history documentation)
• Chestnut Nature Park (continue my nature exploration)
• More places to be added at a later time

Some of those destinations would most likely have extended trekking adventures in order for me to have a more extensive photography documentation and exploration. 

How should I go forward with writing and sharing my trekking adventure stories?

Although I have been writing regularly on my trekking adventure stories, I am considering different approaches on how to go about doing it, how much information and photos to share. 

Should I consider the following points below:

• Go on travel/trekking writing approach from point A to Point B with route map added, directions etc? 
• Consolidate and update my previous trekking/exploration adventures e.g. The Green Corridor, Old Jurong KTM Railway Line?
• Input more history behind my trekking adventures whereby there is a bit of history behind those places?
• Should I do a coverage on Singapore’s many Park Connector Networks (PCN) routes?

It’s a food for thought, any new approaches to my trekking adventure stories would probably start in Q1 2022. Stay tuned!

Keep on trekking, keep on exploring

As the Chinese saying goes, “千里之行, 始于足下“, a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. I want and I have to keep on trekking, keep on exploring, not just in my photography (both business and personal), my travels, my other business developments and also in my personal life too.

Sometimes, I have to walk alone. 

Sometimes, You’ll Never Walk Alone.

The post December 2021 – Return to Nature and Great Outdoors appeared first on TGH Photography and Travel Portal/Blog.

Photography by Ryan Cheng

From April 2021 to August 2021

A quick recap, I celebrated a milestone “Celebrating 15 years of TGH Photography and Travel Portal/Blog” in April 2021. Things was looking quite alright at that time but life doesn’t go as planned many times. 

Phase 2 Heightened Alert (P2HA) came into effect in May 2021, I got into some wrong end of some personal situations, I spiralled down, got stuck in a rut, depressed, I asked myself on the topics of “Fate and Time”. A few friends came forward and pulled me out from my rut.

During my recovery journey, there was an “Blessing or Omen?”, followed by me “Reflecting H1 2021 and New Themes for Photography and Travel in H2 2021”. Another round of P2HA was implemented again in July 2021, it definitely was very tough and challenging on us mentally, emotionally and financially. 

Most recently, I wrote a personal tribute to my former DSG Scoutmaster who recently passed on, this would give you insights into my humble beginnings decades back, that’s where I started my love for outdoors, travel and exploration. 

Photography business

Operating and running a small business (such as my own sole proprietorship photography business) during this global pandemic is one of the toughest life/society/economy lessons that you can ever have in running a small business of any kind.

This was a period of pivoting, adapting, adopting, changing, making strategic and directional changes. Beyond just photography services, I am in the midst of developing and expanding my TGH Digital Studio, into Digital Marketing, Content Creation, Social Media Marketing and Videography services. 

Photography by Isaac Ong

I am curating and updating my new portraiture photography portfolio for my TGH Photography website, adding pet photography and zen / therapy landscapes portfolio too!

On the topic of collaborations and partnerships, there are ongoing discussions, stay tuned!

Zines/Books Updates

Ever since I published my first official zine TGH Photography Zine Vol 1. – SG55 Special Edition in December 2020, I really wanted to publish more photography and travel related zines on a regular basis. This proved to be quite challenging, from my project and time management perspectives.

I have three ongoing work-in-progress zines/books

• Meow Mixed Media
• 15 years milestone zine/book
• Photography therapy + playbook

There was an initial plan to publish a photo book based on one of my personal documentary projects that would be partially funded through my application for funding from organisations. Looking at my current situation and timeline, I am most likely going to postpone this to next year 2021, concentrating on my current work-in-progress zines/books.

Travel and Tourism

We haven’t been able to travel since the global pandemic hit the whole world in 2020. I reckon many of us are feeling the urge to travel out and away, we have been “stuck” in our home country for a period of time, wishing that we are back to the pre-COVID19 days when we can travel freely and easily.

I wrote an earlier article on, “When we restart tourism?”. Initially, I was a bit optimistic that we might be able to travel soon in Q3 or Q4 2021. However, during that time when I published my article, there were quite a fair bit of world developments in the global pandemic situation, the Delta variant is a lot more tricky to handle than the whole world initially thought it was able to do so. 

After following and reading news, updates and views from various industry sources, I am holding back my optimism, choosing to be more cautious and prudent. While countries are currently working towards opening up their tourism industries in selected areas/regions, I have to plan and consider carefully before making any travel decision, there might not be any travel for me in 2021, it might just be early 2022 instead.

I am also enlightened by fellow TTOT (Travel Talk on Twitter) co-host Sonja’s words and advice on traveling during this pandemic. Let’s see how the world travel and tourism situation develops in the next few months.

Meanwhile, I am establishing new networks, partnerships and collaborations in the travel and tourism sectors. When the suitable time arises, I would share more details and updates in this area. 

Digital Arts and NFT

I have been talking about this topic on digital arts and NFTs for a period of time. This is still a very new area for me to enter into, I haven’t fully embark into this arena yet. I am still researching on which NFT marketplace is more suitable for my photography works, how to go about minting my digital artworks. 

This is an area that I am currently working on, I hope to share more updates soon when it is appropriate to do so. 

Personal Documentary Photography Projects

Whenever I am not doing commercial photography, I have my own personal documentary photography projects, some I have already embarked on, so it’s a continuation in a way. There are also some new personal projects that I am going to embark on. 

Here’s a list of my ongoing personal documentary photography projects:

• Photography therapy / Nature therapy / Shinrin-Yoku 
• Old Jurong Line Nature Trail 
• Clementi Nature Trail
• Dover Forest 
• Old Place/landmarks/neighbourhoods that are going to disappear 

Keep a lookout for them in my upcoming articles!

Printer Review + Printing photos as gifts

I am reviewing Canon’s PIXMA G670 photo printer, I would be taking this opportunity to print curated 4R and A4 photography prints for a small group of people who had helped me during the past few months, especially during the period when I was stuck in a rut, they were the ones who lent their helping hands and emotional support, they pulled me out from the bottom and walked with me in my recovery journey. 

Oh yes, do keep a lookout for my PIXMA G670 photo printer review!

Canon lenses rebalancing in progress

Canon L lenses are superb lenses, I have been using some lenses for a period of time. For those who have been following my Canon explorer stories since the start of my TGH Photography and Travel Portal/Blog, you would know how long I have been using some of my Canon L lenses.

I was contemplating some changes and upgrades since last year, I finally made a decision in the first quarter of 2021 to do a “rebalancing” my Canon lenses setup. It took me a while to get my lenses and accessories sold as well getting in my new lenses.

Out

• EF 17-40mm f/4L USM
• EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM Mk I
• EF 300mm f/2.8L
• Extender 1.4x TC
• Extender 2.0x TC

In

• EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM Mk II (used)
• EF 16-35mm f/4L IS USM (used)

Coming soon (Hopefully!)

• Sigma 150-600mm (used) 

New (used) f-stop gear Satori-EXP camera backpack + wardrobe revamp 

Over the years, I learnt the world (and ropes) of buying and selling used goods especially in the photography market. I found a used f-stop gear Satori-EXP camera backpack at a very good price on Carousell, adding it to my photography bags setup (A rebalancing of my photography bags is coming soon too!). Even though it’s a very used camera backpack, I still like it a lot! I was inspired to make some changes to my wildlife/outdoors photographer/explorer setup with a wardrobe revamp, I do need to replace some of my older apparel due to wear and tear over time.

These are my new additions/changes in my wardrobe revamp

• New trekking/wildlife exploration cargo pants (for my commercial photography wear as well)
• New buff/bandana 
• New Merrell hiking boots
• A long sleeve outdoor/trekking black colour shirt from my wardrobe
• Selecting another jungle hat from my collection 

Therefore, I am commissioning a new photographer profile shoot, new wildlife/outdoors photographer/explorer profile photographs are coming soon! 

Videography and Filmmaking Updates

In case you missed it, I do have a YouTube channel, please do support and follow! I haven’t been updating my videography and filmmaking channel. Maintaining photography and videography/filmmaking concurrently was much tougher than I expected. 

Videography/Filmmaking is an area that I have identified to be lacking in, a skill to learn, improve and as a form of creative production to complement my photography and content creation. I am working on some new video/short film projects:

• Photography therapy / nature therapy / Shinrin-Yoku project with therapeutic music composed by a very talented musician, composer, photographer and technology writer Chester Tan. 
• A new profile video with my revamped outdoors/wildlife photographer/explorer wardrobe. 

Last but not least

Last but not least, thank you for taking the time to read till the end of my photography, travel and updates 17th August 2021. This time round, it’s probably a lot more lengthy than my previous updates! Our reading and attention time span has drastically reduced in this modern social media driven environment. 

I really appreciate the support and encouragement that you have shown for my photography, content creation and writing works over the years, walking with me as I explored, sharing the different worlds and stories through my photographs and stories.

The post Photography, Travel, Updates 17th August 2021 appeared first on TGH Photography and Travel Portal/Blog.

Photography by Isaac Ong

I am not going to share P2HA restrictions photos or talk much about the restrictions in place, the stacked up tables and chairs at kopitiam, cafes, food outlets or the taped up benches and tables at hawker centres, like what I published previously here. However, I would still continue documenting and photographing P2HA whenever possible. 

Photography by Ryan Cheng

Our mental and emotional health/well-being are receiving further and bigger impacts from the ongoing COVID-19 fatigue along with cabin fever. It’s more than a year now since 2020 when the global pandemic hit us, everyone is feeling very tired, it’s taking a big toll on our mental and emotional health. We can see more people around us getting depressed with news of three murder cases within a week in Singapore doesn’t bade well on our current mental and emotional health/well-being. My mental and emotional health/well-being took a hit in the earlier P2HA, I was depressed, in a rut and I was blessed to have friends who pulled me out. 

Through my own photography therapy, trekking into nature and outdoors for forest bathing, I found solace, peace and tranquility again during this ongoing battle against this global pandemic. While this was’t an immediate recovery, it was a slow and steady pace for me. If you are feeling mentally and emotionally burnt out, feeling depressed, you are not alone, you’ll never walk alone, you have your family, loved ones and friends beside you to help you through this.

Please speak to someone that you can trust, go for physical and exercise activities, get into outdoors and nature, return back to your hobbies. You can also do/start something new too. Mental health matters, your mental health and emotional health matters. Take good care of yourself first and you would be able to help other people, from your family, loved ones, to friends and others in the society that have fallen through the cracks.

I am working on a photography therapy project at the moment, I hope that my upcoming humble photography therapy book/zine can help you or play a small role in improving your mental and emotional health/well-being. 

Is there light at the end of the tunnel in this ongoing battle with this global pandemic? Initially, it seemed like we can see light at the end of the tunnel yet the return of P2HA again dampen the whole recovery journey. This is definitely a long and lengthy battle against this global pandemic COVID-19 with many turbulence of ups and downs, this dip might derail our recovery efforts towards a new normal. Let this be the time to unite, be strong and work closely together to continue our fight and recovery journey against  this global pandemic. 

Return of P2HA – Please Take Good Care!

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Photo credit: Isaac Ong

While we were taking photographs of the local wildlife, a moth was flying around me and landed on my Canon EOS RP and EF70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM II lens! I was pleasantly surprised that a moth would choose to land on me! I quickly asked Isaac to help me photograph this priceless moment, the moth flew away and landed on my ThinkTank lens pouch before it flew away from us.

Photo credit: Isaac Ong 

The last time a moth had such an impact on me was on the eve of my paternal grandmother’s death anniversary in November 2019. Our extended family gathered in the living room of my Uncle’s home, we were relaxing, chatting with each other and catching up. A moth flew into the room, landed on the wall, above the family altar. My auntie said, “That’s your grandmother returning to visit us!” 

For some people, the significance of a moth appearing has different meanings and views. I came across this article, “Moth Meaning and Symbolism: The Mysterious Spirit Messenger” by Crystal Clear Intuition. This article gave quite comprehensive insights into the meaning of moth, symbolism and what it means when it lands on us. 

Personally, when this moth landed on me, is both a blessing and omen for me. For those who missed out on what really happened to me during the past few weeks, I was not in a very good shape at all, both mentally and emotionally. That was during Phase 2 Heightened Alert, I wrote about my Reflection, Thoughts and Feelings, along with my poetic visual storytelling on fate, time, ikigai and personal struggles. On top of that, I had a few very personal situations/matters that overwhelmed me into a tipping point that I almost spiral downwards. If it wasn’t for a few friends (Chef Keith, old primary school classmates Michael and Wendy, photographers Ryan and Isaac and a special mention to my cousin-in-law Tiffany for lending me her listening ear) who pulled me out from the rut, the situation might be worse for me. 

As I climbed my way out from the bottom, slowly clearing my mind, thoughts, emotions and hurt. The battles are still ongoing in the aspect of running and managing my photography business. I was constantly reminded, “Survival first, followed by love yourself and take care of yourself first. The rest can come later.”

Taking small steps, through nature and forest bathing (Shinrin-yoku 森林浴) with my photography therapy in the following two weeks after 7th June, I slowly climbed my way out from the bottom. I prioritised the battles to take on and fight. First and foremost, survival. Meeting people to discuss business, partnerships and collaborations over different days when Phase 3 Heightened Alert with 2 pax dining started, there were small changes and good things coming to me in small ways in one way or another. 

Photo credit: Isaac Ong

As I was trekking through MacRitchie Reservoir Park/Central Catchment Nature Reserve, I looked up above the rainforest canopy, the light shining upon me from above through the leaves, this is Komorebi (木漏れ日) that I have been seeking. 

Are all these blessing and omens the turning point for me? Is there light at the end of the tunnel for me and for the world, as we are all battling this global pandemic situation that has caused such massive impacts to our economy and daily living? Was the appearance of this moth landing on me not just a coincidence, it’s also carrying a message of both blessing and omen for me, to remind and encourage me to keep on striving forward and grab hold of the opportunities with both hands when they appear? 

I am still hurting inside, there is something that cannot be said, leaving it to fate and time. My life and business journey continues, the constant battles continue in the wake of this ongoing global pandemic as well.

That moth has probably sent me some messages for me to decipher, discover and embrace the blessings and omens from above. However, I still have to work very hard to fulfil them and make them come true for me. 

Photo credit: Isaac Ong

Let’s keep on striving and moving forward in this very difficult and trying times.      

The post Blessing or Omen? appeared first on TGH Photography and Travel Portal/Blog.

As I explored and trekked through the mountains, forests and valleys, searching for the answers, am I able to find them? Life for me, as well as my photography, they have never been smooth sailing, it’s full of ups and downs, twists and turns, we have to weather the storm and welcome the sun to shine upon us again when it’s all over. The beautiful sounds of the wildlife calling out to us, the sound of the waves reaching the shore. The freshness aroma of the after rain, sweet fragrant aroma from the trees, leaves and flowers. 

Chasing the sunrise, the light rays shining through the rainforest canopy, patiently waiting for the sunset to end the day on a high. Is it fate, is it all about the time or they both combine together at that moment in time? 

Fate and Time, these two things intertwined into my life. Are things/we fated? Maybe it’s just not the right time. Maybe, I just have to let fate takes its course. Where will fate and time bring me? 

我们到了站，这一站叫 ____ ? 下一站是 ____ ？

Maybe I need to trust the timing of my life. Trust my own journey, my own fate and my own time. 

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