During the journey leading up to this launch, I do have a lot of thoughts, feelings and emotions, behind the scenes in producing and publishing my second photography zine that couldn’t really go inside there, I wanted to share some of them here below. 

What is my second photography zine all about? It’s a lot more than just sweat and tears 

The motivation and story behind my second photography zine came about from some personal crisis in a middle of an ongoing global pandemic situation. There were a series of situations that took place in 2021, I won’t be going into detail anymore. In a nut shell, I spiralled down into a rabbit hole and I have to find my way out and up. 

My second photography zine has a unique and special theme – photography therapy theme, heading to the outdoors, nature, photography walks with friends, all forming part of my route to recovery. 

On a side note, if you are interested to read and know about my lengthy rantings, you can visit and discover my articles on this TGH Photography and Travel portal/blog and TGH Technology and Business portal/blog (where I write and publish personal articles as well)

Why do I write and publish a zine, and not as a book?

I decided not to go in an official book format/style, I would like it to be a bit less formal and a photography zine allows me to explore and test it out further, my photography zines are my building blocks towards a more formal visual story telling style book down the road.

“Nobody is going to buy your book/zine”

A feedback/comment that I heard previously, both a constructive and brutal harsh feedback/comment in a capitalist world that we live in. This is also on me to constantly improve my writing, style and types of visual story telling projects. 

We are living in a goldfish memory world that probably has only a 1-2 minutes attention span, glued to videos and driven by social media flaunting, or only looking at article headline and not reading the full article/story. 

Let’s bring back the world of reading, not just online, also reading from a physical book/magazine/zine again, in a world driven by internet and social media. We are also supporting fellow creatives and writers too! 

Question: Where can I purchase your second photography zine?

For my relatives, friends, supporters and followers from outside Singapore, my second photography zine is available for purchase on the MagCloud. For those living in Singapore, you can also order from MagCloud platform! 

As for my family, relatives, friends and supporters in Singapore, I would need to speak to local publishing/printing company Grenadier Press, and print them for the local Singapore market. I have yet to finalise how and where I am selling them. I might have a chat with my regular photography shops and place my zines for sale at the local Katong Square lifestyle and vintage market held every first weekend of the month.

Acknowledgements 

There are a number of people that I would like to sincerely thank them from the bottom of my heart, from being there for me when I was at the rock bottom. I wrote a pretty lengthy acknowledgements inside my second photography zine.

Thank you very much from the bottom of my heart to the following folks that played a significant role/part in my second photography zine that you might or might not have known: Chef Keith, Ryan Cheng, Isaac Ong, Wendy Kong, Michael Tay, Sue Fang, Tiffany Ngan, Belinda Tan and Fernando Gros.

What’s next in 2023?

Till my next photography project in 2023, which form and type should I embark on? A new photography book from my list of personal projects, a visual story book on my travel or a new set of photography zine? 

Last but not least

Last but not least, thank you from the bottom of my heart, to my family, relatives, friends and supporters who believe, trust and supported me in my photography and personal journeys, writing over the past decades (and still counting).

I have my fair share of criticisms, making (I lost count) mistakes in my personal life, professional career and from running my own small business. There are also people who look down on me (who doesn’t have them in your life?). We have to take it on our chin – learn from mistakes and life lessons, change, adapt, adopt and improve.

It’s not perfect, there’s always room for improvements, my photography business, personal photography, writing, publishing photography books, photography zines and I can only get better.

Thank you once again, for joining and following me my visual storytelling photography adventures over the years!

The post Official Launch of my Second Photography Zine appeared first on TGH Photography and Travel Portal/Blog.

Photography 

Business

Running any business, no matter whether it’s a small, medium or big business, it’s just very tough, very difficult and very stressful. Throw in a global pandemic situation that further transformed into an economic crisis, the magnitude increased exponentially. No educational textbooks can really teach you everything about running and operating a business, let alone a photography business. 

While I didn’t exactly started off properly in my photography business a few years back due to some unforeseen circumstances, when this global pandemic wave hit us in 2020, this was a major setback. I didn’t know exactly know what steps to take, it took me a while to navigate, adapt and change my photography services portfolio. 

In a harsh and brutal analysis, switching photography genres and services can be playing catch up with fellow photographers in those particular fields. Considering the ongoing and near future impacts of this global pandemic situation, I have switched my photography genres services as well as adding digital marketing/social media marketing into a digital agency setup. Therefore, I established TGH Digital Studio earlier in the year and I am working to expand on this in Year 2022. 

Personal/Leisure

Although I didn’t put more time into my personal/leisure photography as I would love to, I was glad to rediscover the art and wonder of nature therapy/forest therapy, a.k.a. Shinrin-Yoku (森林浴) – forest bathing. Entering into the world of nature, green spaces and the great outdoors was my haven for refuge during this particular period whereby I was in a rut, in a really bad emotional and mental health well-being. 

A big thank you from the bottom of my heart to my photography outdoors explorer friends that trekked together with me exploring forest bathing and offering me priceless and unwavering support and encouragement during my downtime. 

Travel 

Exploring my own backyard / Domestic 

The good and bad thing about us being unable to travel overseas, is that we explore our own backyard. For me, even though I have been regularly going out to explore my own backyard, it feels good and refreshing to re-explore my own backyard again, documenting and updating my collections.   

The bad thing to me is, everyone is now a hiker, cyclist, nature lover or heritage and conservation advocate probably because they can’t travel out of Singapore for their regular holidays. While they probably have good intentions, their actions and ethics prove/shown otherwise. 

International 

At the start of 2021, I was cautiously optimistic that I would be able to travel out again around Q3 or Q4 2021. However, I got myself thrown into a spiral downwards into a rut due to various situations happening in mid 2021. The travel situation in the earlier part of the year wasn’t that optimistic as well. 

As time progressed into Q3 2021, there were vaccinated travel lane (VTL) arrangements between Singapore and a list of countries, opening up the possibilities for people to travel out. However, there were still many uncertainties with this ongoing global pandemic situation. The emergence of the new variant Omicron has put international travel back to a slowdown again.

As a co-host of Travel Talk on Twitter (TTOT) community chat on Twitter taking place every Tuesday 9:30am GMT and 9:30pm GMT, I learned a lot more about the international travel and tourism situations from fellow travel and tourism friends and networks. 

I was reminded on this life lesson, “Travel can be a privilege”, a constant reminder to myself. During this global pandemic crisis, this quote is even more prevalent, revealing the widening gap between the rich and the rest.

There are still many travel uncertainties, rules, restrictions and lockdowns can change at the snap of the finger by the respective authorities of the country. I also have a tight financial situation due to my photography business being affected by this pandemic. 

When can we really truly restart tourism again? I would share my thoughts and views in another article in January 2022, an update to my earlier articles “When can we Restart Tourism?” and “World Tourism Day 2021”. 

Last but not least

Year 2021 had been a very turbulent year of many ups and downs, disappointments and heartaches from unnecessary expectations. There were many life and business lessons handed out to me, priceless and painful.

Do visit my TGH Technology and Business Portal/Blog too! I have also published a reflection, thoughts and views article in my technology, business and personal segments.

Signing off Year 2021 with a beautiful sunset to say goodbye to Year 2021, good riddance to bad rubbish. It’s been a very painful time, very difficult and tough, mentally, emotionally and financially for me personally. I will learn, remember and apply the good and bad lessons from this year. I will also make sure that I will never let myself fall as low as what happened to me in 2021. 

Year 2022 is starting soon, a new year, a fresh and brand new start in an ongoing global pandemic situation. I would share more about my plans and directions in the Year 2022 for my photography and travel segments inside my upcoming Theme and Goals for Year 2022 article. 

To all those who had pulled me up when I was down at the bottom, as well as those who supported and encouraged me throughout this very difficult Year 2021, I sincerely thank you from the bottom of my heart, no amount of words can show my utmost appreciation towards what you all had done for me. 

It’s time to say Goodbye Year 2021 and Welcome Year 2022.

The post Reflecting Year 2021 (Photography and Travel) appeared first on TGH Photography and Travel Portal/Blog.

What is Shinrin-Yoku? Shinrin-Yoku (森林浴) literally means Forest Bath (thanks to Google Translation). The YouTube videos produced by Forest Digital from Hokkaido were very soothing, calming and therapeutic. I visited Hokkaido twice in 2014 and 2016, it’s a very beautiful destination for landscape and wildlife photographers, not to forget their delicious cuisine too!

Inspired by their videos, I revisited my Hokkaido travel photography 2014 and 2016 collections on Flickr. Being an outdoors and travel person, this is probably why Shinrin-Yoku resonates so much deeply inside me, whenever I am inside forested areas, surrounded by the fresh air, beautiful sounds of Mother Nature, tranquil surroundings and in peace with myself inner soul. Nature therapy is one of the best natural therapy around us.

During this tough period, I hope that the Shinrin-Yoku videos and my Hokkaido travel photographs would be able to give you some peace and tranquility from all the stress, anxiety, frustrations and pressure that you are facing right now during this Covid-19 situation.

One day, I would return back to Hokkaido again, to continue my travel photography coverage of her spring and summer seasons. Along with climbing mountain peaks in Hokkaido, I am going to add Shinrin-Yoku pilgrimage in Hokkaido too.

Forest Digital

Website: https://forestdigital.org/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ForestdigitalO

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4xYvCZf-Magqh6Nj6PVXmA/

The post The Art of Shinrin-Yoku appeared first on TGH Photography and Travel Portal/Blog.