Michele Yong's Blog

The Month Of August

by Michele Yong Posted on September 2, 2010

I can’t believe I’m only now updating for my August post and it’s already September!!!!! I am really, really bad at this; no discipline at all. Pfft.

Anyway, I was back in Malaysia for a few days in August for some shoots. It was quite ironic that while I was still living there, I could barely find enough jobs to survive from month to month but after moving to Paris, clients were willing to fly me back to shoot there. Just a fluke chance I guess?

Oh hello, that’s me! Why do I look like I have really fat legs??

Syahmi and Jonathan hard at work as usual…

One of the shoots were for a new brand ULTRA which promotes eco-friendly clothes but with very edgy designs, not your run-of-the-mill hippy-hemp-tie-dye kind of fashion. It was fun because I got to work with Jonathan and Syahmi again, as they are currently the main designers for the label headed by Tengku Chanela Jamidah. I’ll post the campaign pictures with more information here once it’s released.

The main reason I was back was to shoot for a Levi’s Fit Finder event. According to the event organisers from Tongue In Chic, Levi’s wanted me to be a ‘guest photographer’ to photograph regular off-the-street girls in their new jeans where the event was being held. Sounds pretty simple but it was actually quite a challenge. Everybody was really nice and sweetto accommodate me so I hope to be able to work with them again. I got a really nice surprise when I arrived and saw this:

They make me sound like such a celebrity (super ego alert!).

Once back in Paris, it was just in time for my birthday! I really wanted to spend it here even though it was just with four friends of mine. I came up with the fantastic idea of having a small but intimate picnic celebration at a park with lots of sushi and champagne instead of the usual cheese and wine. I was so sick of that after numerous amounts of picnics (as you can also see in my post before this). The weather was gorgeous although a bit cold but I think everybody can agree that we had a great time that day. I do think that finishing so much champagne in a short period of time had something to do with that. All I remember was ending up drinking some more by The Seine and passing out after I got home but hey, it was my birthday!

In the beginning…

<3 <3 <3

So happy!

Around the same time, I was having problems with my eyes for the past few weeks. I didn’t bother seeing a doctor because I thought it was just conjunctivitis or some minor irritation that would eventually go away. One day it got so bad that I could barely open my eyes and anything with light would completely blind me. My eyes were swollen and completely bloodshot, it was really scary. I looked really scary! It hurt to see anything and I had to stay in a completely dark room just so I wouldn’t be agonising in pain. I gave in and decided to see a doctor about it and found out that I had corneal ulcers!

My eyes are healing now but my vision is still very blurry so I really hope that everything will completely heal soon. If I had let it go untreated, it could have scarred my corneas and there’s a possibility that I could go blind and require and eye transplant. Just the thought of me going blind is nerve-wrecking. Imagine a blind photographer; I don’t think I could do what Beethoven did with his music…

Just recently, I was at Aix-en-Provence in the south of France to photograph Nataliya and Bastien’s wedding. Now I know plenty of you know that I don’t do weddings but Nataliya was a model I photographed before in Singapore last year and it just so happened that I was also in France at the same time. Apparently even before finding out that I live here now, she’s wanted me to photograph her wedding from the very beginning, so talk about chance! I will write more about her wedding a little later though.

The view outside my window in Aix-en-Provence.

A little sneak preview. This shot was taken straight off the camera!

And now it’s already September! OMG where did the time go???? I promise September’s update will be much more interesting. Really!

Posted in General | Tagged Behind The Scenes, Designers, France, Malaysia, Personal, Social, Travel | 4 Comments

The Month Of July

by Michele Yong Posted on July 26, 2010

I’m just gonna cramp a whole month (or two) worth of blogging here! I am getting really bad at this but many people have been pestering me to update this dying space. So it’s almost been a month since I arrived in Paris and some of you (if you still read this) are probably wondering what I’ve done the past month.

Bon voyage Malaisie, bonjour Paris!

I’m quite glad that there are so many things to do here so I’m quite rarely bored, unless I stay at home the whole day. Few things I’m quite upset I didn’t do though like hunting down the cast of Gossip Girls when they were filming around the city, going to Champs-Élysées to experience the finals of the Tour de France, and uhm…. that’s all that I can think of right now! The pictures will tell you the rest of the story.

Rollerblading at Palais Royal.

We celebrated Catherine’s 23rd birthday at Pont des Arts and it was a day before Bastille Day so plenty of people were having picnics on the bridge. It started out quite sane but at the end of the night it became quite crazy because everybody on the bridge was extremely drunk. We had plenty of random people ‘joining’ our little party, taking pictures with us and all I remember was a lot of random flirting going on. French guys are certainly very curious when they see a bunch of Asian girls together.

The next day was Bastille Day (the French national day). I didn’t bother going to watch the parade because it was raining so I opted to watch it on our tiny little TV set and laughed at everybody caught out in the rain! It looked kinda boring anyway so going to watch the fireworks at night was a much better option.

For some reason, these photos make it seem even more amazing then it actually was!

On a random note, I got very hungry the next day and made this:

Yum, yum, yum.

Sam visited for a few days and I took him around Paris to see the sights. Seriously, I can be a very good tour guide right now. My only complaint is that my feet are starting to get sore with so much walking in just one month!

There was one really cliché thing that I’ve always wanted to do, which was to have a picnic underneath the Eiffel Tour so this was the perfect opportunity! There’s something about it that’s incredibly charming but doing it once is enough, and of course the food also has to be super French like baguettes, wine, cheese, saucisson, cherries, etc etc. It’s good now but I’m already starting to get sick of it!

Lots and lots of people at Champ de Mars.

From sunset at 9 pm to the light show at 11 pm. So beautiful.

I’ve been trying to meet more new people in Paris recently. It’s quite tiring when I have to go out almost everyday but I guess that’s better than staying home all day. However, I received a bunch of flowers yesterday which was unusual but also quite sweet. I’m not much of a flower person so this is a very, very rare occurrence I can assure you of that, but I guess it’s the thought that counts!

I wonder how long this will survive?

Posted in General | Tagged France, Personal, Social | 2 Comments

Another Chapter: KL – Paris

by Michele Yong Posted on June 1, 2010

So I have reached the end of my fabulous life in Kuala Lumpur and am currently living out of my suitcase at my parents’ home back in Kota Kinabalu, but with exactly one month to Paris I don’t really mind… much.

Living with the family again is an interesting experience. You miss them so much when you’re away, but once you live with them you can’t seem to get away fast enough! It’s a good thing I still have to travel in and out of the city this month to make it a little more bearable. Ah, how I miss my spacious, gorgeous, minimalist studio apartment. We seem to have a LOT of things at my parents’ place that I half-joked to my mother saying that my old room feels like a storage area now.

It’s quite funny how my last two months in Malaysia seems to be the busiest for my work and social calendar. Why is everybody asking for me only when I’m about to leave the country? I had months of moping around the house watching TV for countless days and constantly just feeding myself, attributing to some very obvious weight gain. Gloom.

Anyway, I shouldn’t complain too much. I’m sure this weight will start shedding off once I’m on the starving artist’s diet when I’m in Paris very soon.

I’m very excited and a little nervous about the big move. On one hand, I’d be living in the city that I feel so at home in even with all the annoying and frustrating quirks about it. On another hand, I’d have to start all over again.

It hasn’t been that long since I moved to Kuala Lumpur exactly one year ago, with just the hope of making a name for myself in the fashion industry and getting out of my small hometown. I did not have anybody worth knowing and had to support myself by waiting on tables for a few months (which some people might find as a surprise).

Eventually I got pretty lucky and landed myself a pretty big job for the Malaysia International Fashion Week. Because of that, I was able to meet a lot of people who I ended up working with even months after.

I’m nervous because I don’t think I will get lucky so quickly in Paris. I don’t have the contacts, familiarity, understanding and very little friends. Many people have shown their support saying that they know I will do well in Paris which is great, but the question is how much time should I anticipate it for? I don’t want to put my hopes of making something out of nothing in an unrealistic amount of time and feel like such a failure if I don’t succeed.

I didn’t expect this post to go on for so long but what I mean to say is I wish for a miracle and hope that I don’t fall flat on my face in Paris. I need to make something out of nothing in a foreign country, foreign language and foreign culture. It’s a huge risk to take but what is life without risk, right?

If any of you have words of advice, do share them with me!

Posted in General | Tagged France, Malaysia, Personal | 1 Comment

Coen Koch & Karel Struhacek: KL, Malaysia 14 April 2010

by Michele Yong Posted on April 20, 2010

After a while, I’ve decided to just skip all my blog posts that I’ve missed and catch up with whichever is more current. Anything else I’ve not talked about can be seen on my Facebook anyway.

Anyway this was a test shoot that I did rather on a whim with two very gorgeous guys, Coen Koch and Karel Struhacek, styled by Henry Gan who helped me as a very last minute favour. Since the shoot was not really planned, naturally it was shot in my apartment. Talk about convenience! These are some of my favourite shots.

Stay tuned for another very revealing shoot featuring them both! xx

Posted in Photoshoots | Tagged Malaysia, Photoshoots | 1 Comment

Patty Luyt: Arnhem, The Netherlands 20 January 2010

by Michele Yong Posted on April 2, 2010

Patty is an incredibly sweet and very young, new model from Amsterdam currently with 77 models and I must say that the Dutch girls are definitely ruling the scene. Patty has a sort of fresh faced innocence which can be easily transformed into a sultry sex goddess.

It was a really cold day despite the sun being out (which did help make us feel slightly happier), and we shot at the huge Sonsbeek park which was absolutely gorgeous. It was acres of land sprawled across the edge of the city, lots of bike and walking paths, lakes, waterfalls and such. It was almost like a tame forest.

A small part of Sonsbeek.

In the middle of the shoot, Mr Swan made a special appearance. I guess he liked the attention too.

And the gorgeous ducks in the river…. Gosh the ducks! Patty can attest to how excited I was at the fact that there were real, beautiful ducks right in front of me. I know, this is really weird of me. First cows, now ducks.

Pretty ducks!! <3