YIN & YANG

No. It's not the name of the new couple and list of photos that I am blogging about. It's the Chinese 'Yin Yang' I am talking about.... So what is 'Yin Yang' to you? Equilibrium (eh? another word to decipher? Go wiki that ...) according to the Western Definition or Mythologies? I actually did a search on Yin Yang and was surprised to find this entry on Wikipedia;

"In Chinese philosophy, yin and yang (simplified Chinese: 阴阳; traditional Chinese: 陰陽; pinyin: yīnyáng) are generalized descriptions of the antitheses or mutual correlations in human perceptions of phenomena in the natural world, combining to create a unity of opposites in the theory of the Taiji." - Excerpt from Wikipedia. Full article here.

I am beginning to understand why that is the definition ... if you get two mutual opposites, according to the laws of physics, they will cancel out each other, negating the effect ... hence perfect balance..... Oh my, you may think that I've gone from pre wedding into philosophy or physics now!!! I think I am losing it .... oh dear ....

So what is this Yin Yang that I am talking about? Well, here is my version of Yin Yang;

Yin Yang - @THSH Style

I bet many of you are wondering who is that. Well, some of you may recognize the guy in the White Box (wait a minute, or is it black?) .... others may actually recognize the guy in the Black Box (err, or is it vice versa?) ... Ha ha ha ... Ok ok .. enuff teasing with my whimsical philosophical physics metaphysical thingy ....

Ladies and Gentleman, Guys and Gals, may I introduce to you our new speakers and creative directors for our community projects ...... Mr. Jen Siow and Mr. John W. Ishii, our own unique Yin Yang ......

Mr. Jenhor Siow or better known as Mr. Jen Siow, is considered the pioneering master of photography in Malaysia specializing in photography, lighting and digital works. Jen has been very kind to offer his services to our community project as he would also like to give back to the community with his vast amount of experience. Jen has now moved on and is pioneering the art of Digital Portraiture Painting , an old art form brought back to life with a new twist.

Imagine if you will, when a time that film had yet to be invented, if you wanted a photo (alien word then) you would actually have to get an artist to sketch then paint your portrait while you painstakingly sit still, trying to hold your cracking smile. This process can take days if not months. Well, Jen takes that art form to a different level altogether, from start to finish, interacting with his clients and giving advice on the type of poses based on their needs, using his immense experience in photography and lighting. Jen has a very dedicated team of hand picked all-ladies stylists and crew, in order to give you maximum comfort and privacy. Jen will then proceed to take a full range of pictures, and the selection process will be done by him. After which, Jen will actually use acrylic or oil based paint and proceed to paint the picture with traditional art brushes, capturing the image as a painted portrait of you, immortalized forever. No more sitting painstakingly, holding your breath and smiling! (And you should be glad they got rid of corsets too ...). All his finished pieces are signed by Jen, so no 2 copies can ever be the same .... you will be in possession of a 'one of a kind' masterpiece! (Now where can you get that these days???)

Jen has found a perfect combination of art and science, something very rare these days .... another form of Yin Yang if you will, as Jen looks to innovate new ways in bringing to you the highest possible art form in his field, in Malaysia. I personally have been to see some of Jen's finished works and I must say, it is all extremely well done. In fact, a few months ago before this project, as a tactic to appease my wife on pre wedding photo taking (eh? married already but you still talking about pre wedding photos?), I plainly suggested to her; why not we just take one photo and ask a digital artist to PP it as a painting? Well, now I don't have to look further .... Jen's the right person for me.

As you all may already know, Mr. John W. Ishii is also no newcomer to this industry. He is a professional photojournalist and has worked with many news agencies and done a lot of corporate work in Malaysia. He has also had an exhibition under the auspices of the U.S. Embassy .... John is actually an American and has always been beguiled by the wonder of Asia, he keeps on telling Tommy and me that there are many, many, many places to shoot in Asia (ok ok, we get it John ....). He is a person who is never happy with his works ... he only wants to continuously better himself, improve himself, innovate and reinvent himself. (Geez, I used himself 3 times!!). Being an artisan like Jen, John is always on the lookout for new challenges and pre wedding / wedding photography has currently caught his imagination. His search has just begun as his ultimate goal is to capture shots of the couple at their most intimate level possible, and I must say, listening to John, that is indeed a challenge but it would be extremely interesting ... I wonder how it would all turn out ....

As we have worked with John, until today I am very impressed of his sincerity in wanting to share with others his vast experience and that gives me the fuel to continue this project .... if not for him, I would have fizzled out after the first event as it was really very difficult to get everyone and everything together. John's photography works until today has never failed to amaze me and I have sworn allegiance to his photos .... (lucky I didn't say the star spangled banner ... if not, maybe my own country disown me ....)

On behalf of Dailylifestyles.com, Pretty In White, MalaysiaBrides.com and @THSH, we bid you a warm welcome and we are indebted to both Jen and John (J&J for short) for your selflessness and thoughts for our community project. We hope that you will enjoy your stay with us.

I personally would like to bow to both Jen and John, offering you two cups of green tea, saying "Pai Kin Sifu, Cheng Yum Cha, Toh Toh Chee Kow" (Cantonese, for accepting a disciple in the Chinese tradition, literally saying - I call you Master, please accept my tea offering, I hope you will teach me lots!" I also hope that our version of Yin Yang will tickle your fancy for our upcoming projects .... please do help support all our efforts!

It's late (err .. early in the morning ...) and I need to sleep lar ... Updates coming again shortly ....... If you are looking to register for our Northern Region Community Project - The Road Trip, please click here.

NOTE : Apologies to the user called jeffooi on lensamalaysia forums for taking John's photo and using it. It's very difficult to get photographers own photos and I had to hunt high and low. Please visit lensamalaysia forums for the topic on John here as a peace offering to the user jeffooi.