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!

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

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.

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!!!!

The shoot was simple and done in the comfort of my own apartment. We had lots of fun and it was fantastic working with such great friends. If only all shoots could be like this.

<3 my polaroid wall. Are you on it yet?

I am also introducing a slightly different style to my photos so I hope you like them

And as always, the short behind the scenes video

Me, Karin and Catherine.

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…

Here are some of my favourite portraits taken in that year including those that I have not been shown before.

Tim Wetzel, Kuala Lumpur

Thomas Pullar, Melbourne

Natascha Verkaik, Melbourne

David Maher, Melbourne

Rhiannon Hough, Melbourne

Elke Bonner, Brisbane

Sharon Smith, Brisbane

Annalyn King, Singapore

Vishnu Bala, Singapore

Rokshana Aitken, Melbourne

David Paris, Sydney

Brendan Maclean, Sydney

Quick fitting with the models.

Routine hair and makeup. Plus a big mess.

I had no idea where to shoot until the very last minute and decided to just go up to my trusty rooftop, one of my favourite places to shoot simply because of the vast space, view and convenience. I may have exhausted it a little too much though. Oops. I do not recommend it for people with Acrophobia because it is 18 floors high and on the edge of a hill. Hehe. 

Mark taking in the view.

Grace with her ‘guns’ ready to terminate all lovey-doveys.

Give me your PMS face! More pain, more pain!!

The shoot may have seemed very simple but I found it to be quite a challenge because of limitations to how creative I could get. Looking back at it now I think I could’ve pushed a little more but we did exhaust ourselves for it. Simple clothes and simple setup felt more difficult than it seems, hard to believe I know. Again as with all Breeze shoots, the video and the pages.

Thank goodness for ice cream and long sessions at Mosaic. Oh yeah.

Richard, Grace, Mark, Charlene and me.

First impressions from the front door.

My lovely new clean kitchen and loving my bar stool (necessary to satisfy my ‘bar habits’).

Tiny dining space for two. I absolutely adore that little plant and floral arrangement, I need more of it (hint hint).

Living area and workspace, featuring a glossy new 24″ iMac and the amazing Alesis M1 monitor speakers.

Last but not least and definitely my favourite, The Room.  Also, awesome night view outside my window.

I did have some assistance from dear mother with moving in and shopping for all my items so that was a big help. Thank you mother (yes, she does read my blog). I still have this huge space at the start of the apartment that I need to fill up with furnishing. It’s so empty that my voice echoes in that area. I really like the fact that I have so much space which I can also easily convert into my shooting areas. Apparently my bathroom is so big it can fit a whole family into the shower area, not that I tried of course.

I would love to have people come over for some company since it can get rather boring staying in the apartment by myself all the time. You are also welcome to bring the following as housewarming gifts hehehehe:

• Flower arrangements or shrubs

• Rugs and placemats

• Wine and champagne glasses

• Art pieces or large canvas prints

• Candles and holders

• Throw pillows

• Let’s not forget the ‘Hard Stuff’ (liquids).

Come visit soon because I also have an amazing poolside <3 <3 <3

Off we go! (I drive a HUGE antique Benz, if you were wondering)

Ok, this post is long overdue and about time I write all this down. Before I started on my 6-week trip I had another shoot for Breeze. Finding a suitable model for this was quite a challenge because I wanted to go in an androgynous direction. Yes, it’s been done a million times before but we all love it and I haven’t seen enough of it in local publications. So anyway, which model would be willing to allow me to transform them into either sex or looked like it could be remotely possible?

The answer is Grace Kho. I’ve worked with her before a year ago and she really stood out amongst all the other girls. Humble, funny, and totally on the same wavelength as I am, shooting with her was a pleasure because we understand what each other want. LOVE.

Fitting, makeup, fitting, makeup.

The process of making Grace look like a man. Or sort of.

The ever helpful Richard Nelson played a big role in this shoot. He was a major hand in helping me search for the models, location, work behind the scenes, take unnecessary photos and do bits and pieces for this shoot. In fact, he was the one who suggested that I use Grace. Richard is a very friendly and chatty personality to have around, which is good to help break the tense concentration I tend to have sometimes on overbear on myself. I have also never in my life seen anyone offering themselves to be my slave. Yikes.

“Oh my God, what did Michele do to my face!?”

I like this shot very much. I really need to get my nails done though.

We photographed under a flyover in the Karamunsing area. When I told this to people, they gave me a weird look and wondering how on earth I decided to shoot there. Again, Richard first suggested this location to me. I never thought about using the place since we seem to overlook that area though we’ve been there a thousand times. I’m really glad I listened to him and it was perfect for the dramatic lighting I wanted to get.

Curious spectators at the bus stop across the street from us.

More curious spectators.

Check out all those clips, they actually do an excellent job at holding the clothes tightly.

Shooting in that area was interesting because a lot of pedestrians walk pass to get to the bus stop or shopping mall across from where we were. Every time someone walked by we would get weird stares and even questions, the most common being “Is this for a magazine?”. Seriously, I didn’t realised you cared! I guess Grace was being too fabulous of a model and regular people have never seen a proper one in action before. Malaysians are incredibly curious. Then again, I got the same curious audience when I shot in Khaosan (Bangkok) and Redcliffe (Brisbane) as well.

People have mentioned that I tend to pose with the model, which I didn’t believe till I saw this photo.

Digital cameras make things too easy sometimes.

I am really pleased with the result of the shoot and the great team that came with it although it was actually just the 3 of us. It’s a pity that I was given only 2 pages to show the photos, would’ve to have loved more! (Note to Editor: Jonathan, are you reading this??)

Pages of the magazine. I myself have not even seen the physical copy yet.

Another photo that I love, but is unpublished.

Unpublished photo but I could not resist posting it here.

I have a number more unpublished photos but I’m too lazy to post them up here. Maybe if you beg or buy me dinner I would consider showing them to you :p  Anyway you must watch the Behind The Scenes video as well, simply because I put a lot of time into making them. He he he. I need to feel the love. I’m rambling too much now, bonne nuit!

Thanks for pulling a great effort, see you when I get back xx.