After such a great experience with Stéphane on our previous shoot, the master came to capture another one of our projects.

I have to say my fondest memory from this day was scarfing down the amazing butter croissants in the middle of the outfit changes. Michele will always be Michele.

For the October issue of Oxygen, Jonathan and I had the bright idea of shooting in the Paris metro. We weren’t sure how it would turn out shooting in such a public place with a shot amount of time. And where could the model change? It was a wild ride changing through many different stations while following my exact plan to make sure we didn’t loose time.

What kind of shoot would it be if there wasn’t anything crazy along the way? Boring.

It was also my first time working with video extraordinaire  Stéphane Carcopino-Tusoli. He blew my mind away with the amazing video he made of our shoot, behind the scenes kind of stuff. Take a look at it and see for yourself. Makes you wish you were there!

And course the final photos.

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!

Obviously I had to ‘pretend’ to do some hard work for the cameras, right?

This was my first job as the official photographer for Fashion Week, first time working with a Malaysian designer, first time working with a studio setup, first time shooting with a TV crew documenting us, first time for a lot of things actually.

With the amazing Katerina. Girl can strike a fierce pose and speak Malay!

The designer was Karina Ng who people in the industry know as the shoemaker for Malaysia’s leading fashion designers including Bernard Chandran. She now has her own shoes and accessories label Ling-N and sets herself apart from others because all her shoes are handmade. These are some of my favourite shots.

Designer: Ling-N by Karina Ng | Styling: Nareez Zabidi | Hair & makeup: Kelly @ XpressionMaster | Photography assistant: Jay Lai | Models: Linda Markova and Katerina Davidova @ Andrew’s Models

A few weeks after the shoot, Karina gave me one of the best gifts ever–a pair of custom-made stiletto ankle boots which I wear very often even at shoots because they are so comfortable. They are so amazingly hot and I’m going to show them to you

5 inches of leathery goodness <3!!!!

My planner at the start of the week. The two pages were completely filled by the end of the week.

Nareez, totally stressed out coordinating all the shoots and meetings.

First stop, Sonny Sun for Eclipse.

Shoes, shoes, shoes!

Pickup from Tangoo to Jovian Mandagie.

Close-up of the shoes. <3<3<3 Only one pair created specially for the runway show.

Gallo.

Teresa, the designer for Gallo had her 18 month old daughter in the studio that day. When I first saw the adorable girl, I thought she looked like she was wearing designer baby clothes. After a while I realized that Teresa actually made her a baby version of the collection for Autumn/Winter 09! How cool is that? I doubt the baby versions are for sale though.

Our third visit to Eric Choong in a week.

The car by the end of the day.

Altogether we collected over twenty outfits but used about fifteen. The back seat was filled with so many clothes to the point of not being able to see the rear window. The total value of everything was probably more than the car itself! And this is only one of the very few things we do with much more to come…