I was shaking like a leaf when I saw this envelope almost folded inside our apartment’s mail box today.
It was sent by Ms. Natalie Joy Lee, the Associate Editor of Lonely Planet Asia magazine. The esteemed travel magazine is printed and distributed by Regent Media in Singapore.
You cannot blame the amateur in me if I’m ecstatic to see one of my photos published in Lonely Planet Asia magazine July-August issue under its readers’ contributions section called, Postcards.
Now that I’m more relaxed after that short and sweet euphoric state, allow me to take you down a recent memory lane…
This photo which I named, “Floating Duo” was taken August 2011 in Klonghae Floating Market, Hat Yai, Southern Thailand when my family and I engaged on a short 3D2N stay after experiencing crossing Malaysian-Thai borders via public bus for the very first time.
Who would have thought that this shot taken on a whim without a tripod, with only my Nikon D7000′s kit lens and unarmed with technical knowledge and skills in this hobby called photography, would figuratively float and literally land on the surfaces of a couple of famous online and print spaces?
Initially, I took a chance in one of the world’s most famous travel magazines’ online photography contest on the last quarter of 2011. Obviously, it didn’t win the almost US$10,000 prize but it actually gained 1,000 likes and 80 tweets from generous and supportive followers. And for that, I am very grateful. I felt more than a winner!
I never imagined that a day would come to see the same photo published in LONELY PLANET ASIA magazine.
Lonely Planet Asia, Thank you for printing my blog’s URL! I so appreciate the plugging! 
It’s thrilling to see your own work posted on blogs and websites with proper credits, more so, published on a book (I got one photo on a book, read post HERE) or best, printed on a widely read travel magazine like Lonely Planet Asia with circulation of 80,000 copies!
For a non-professional photographer like me who only shoot pictures for family, personal use, for this blog and for posterity, this is overwhelming! Thank you to Lonely Planet Asia and to its Associate Editor, Ms. Natalie!
This simply ignited a personal spark of inspiration and stimulated an impulse to revel in.
The moment’s surreal!
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OPINION COUNTS…