Best Of 2009

A lot of things happened for me in 2009. I travelled a lot between Bangkok, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur, published some of my work with Breeze (a local magazine), relocated to the big city, discovered Europe for the first time, became the official photographer for Malaysia International Fashion Week 2009. In a way a lot of it happened quite unexpectedly. I decided staying in Kota Kinabalu would not be the best idea so I packed up and left for Kuala Lumpur in less than 3 weeks. Arriving in KL I was jobless for a few months until I landed the biggest job I’ve had so far for Fashion Week. Going to Europe had always been a distant dream of mine but one day I saw the opportunity and decided, why not? It’s all about grabbing life by its horns and going with it.

These are some of my favourite works from 2009. It was quite hard for me to narrow it down to 10, so I decided on 25 instead (I’m really bad at cutting down numbers!). Some of them you may have seen, but some not. I went through my library of photos and found hidden gems that I overlooked and decided to show them here.

Hope you like them!

Karin Balzli for Catherine Lian, Kuala Lumpur.

Nataliya Zapolina, Singapore.

Andrea Fonseka, Kuala Lumpur.

Grace Kho for Breeze, Kota Kinabalu.

Charlene Decena for Breeze, Kota Kinabalu.

Mariann Vella for Villiam Ooi, Kuala Lumpur.

Patricia Silk, Singapore.

Suzana Abu for Ratu by Walis, Kuala Lumpur.

Mila Melissina for Syomir, Kuala Lumpur.

Wang Ying, Bangkok.

Iva Sakarova, Bangkok.

Kaspar Hebblewhite, Bangkok.

Brygida Naumowicz & Helena Berezina for Pretty In White, Kuala Lumpur.

Mariya Markova for PEGG, Kuala Lumpur.

Aline Thiel for Glitz & Glamour, Kuala Lumpur.

Matheus Nagel for William Liew, Kuala Lumpur.

Ling-N Lookbook: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia 21 August 2009

Malaysia Interntional Fashion Week 2009 is finally over so I’m hoping to update my blog more often now (unlike once a month before!). It was a crazy, hectic few months trying to squeeze in so many shoots on such a tight schedule like 6 shoots in 3 days. I’ve never experienced anything so high pressured and draining but surprisingly I made it out alive and a lot better than expected.

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!!!!

Shoot Prep For Andrea Fonseka, Face of M-IFW ‘09

Much of the preparation for this shoot was the styling which both Nareez and I did. With Andrea Fonseka as the face of Malaysian International Week 2009, we wanted to go with a few grand, over the top outfits, and some equally as glamorous but much more wearable day to day. Just going from one designer to another took two full days with the insane KL traffic and everything. Obviously we got snap happy and recorded our days in photos.

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…