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.

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

It was quite a day, we were reprimanded by an old waitress for doing hair and makeup at McDonalds (and got a lot of distasteful stares–Welcome to Singapore), almost got run over by a train (more on that later), was close to getting heat stroke and developed major sunburns under the deceiving overcast sky.

Getting all glam at McDonald’s.

The tracks at King Albert Park.

Food break.

Endangering our lives in the middle of the railway tracks.

At one point while shooting on the tracks, a train was coming towards us and we had to grab all our clothes, makeup and equipment and run down the pebble slope. The train operators were screaming at us and we were in such shock being so close to being run over. Before you think ‘what were you doing on the tracks in the first place, stupid?’, this railway is hardly ever utilized because it’s meant for cargo and long distance trains which only come by every few hours. The operators came over to chase us away so we went across the bridge to a wider, safer track but what an adrenaline rush! Sort of a close-shave-with-risking-our-lives moment.

Anyway here are the final shots as well as the behind-the-scenes video.

Sweaty, dehydrated, sunburnt and a few seconds from being run over or rolling down the slopes with all our stuff, was it worth it? Certainly a shoot I would never forget. Pity I have no video footage during that little incident! Damn.

Railway workers united. Aaron, Clarion, Me, Patricia and Hannah.

Even though I’ve been to Singapore plenty of times, looking for a shooting location somewhere besides my hometown has always proved to be a challenge. Aaron was incredibly helpful in helping me with the locations and we decided to go with the old Supreme Court. That place has been used probably a gazillion times by other photographers for wedding, fashion, etc etc but heck I liked the place so why not? I took it on as a challenge to show it differently through my eyes.

I love having proper stylists on the shoot because they always have everything possible with them! <3

As you all know, I tend to (unintentionally) make the models suffer one way or another and this time it was putting Nataliya in heavy fabrics under the unforgiving tropical sun. According to Aaron, the pained look we got out of Nataliya worked well with the whole mood of the shoot and again, it was well worth it. We had a number of curious spectators and there was a wedding shoot going on at the same time and apparently the photographer berated the party to “work it like the pros!” after watching us hog up all the space. So cute.

Her bone structure is simply amazing.

My favourite series of shots.

Amazing colonial architecture for a European feel.

Feeling the burn.

This time we also have a short behind the scenes video for the world to see

We felt nauseous at the end because of the noontime sun but that’s alright…. right guys? Right? Hehe.

Sweaty and exhausted. Clarion, Nataliya, me and Aaron.

Quite hard to explain but let’s just say the number of flyovers, abandoned looking buildings with a mess of electrical wires hanging off just about every where, added with the throngs of people, hawker stalls, overuse of cars with yet no sense of traffic direction, it’s like being the epitome of Asia. Oh and let’s not forget about the big-ass ultra modern looking shopping malls as part of the skyline either.

Anyway, Singapore was incredibly busy. I feel like I’ve been there for a month, yet it also just feels like a couple of days. Shoots, meetings, shoots, shopping, you know the usual activities. Unfortunately I didn’t have much time to check out the nightlife there but I did manage to make it to the closing party of KM8 at Sentosa. My best description of it would be like Miami Spring Break.

The birthday boy, Vishnu.

The party went from 4 pm till 8 am the next day!

KM8 had a hot tub/pool right in front of the bar, which is also affectionately named as the Sperm Pool. Now, let’s not get into any details, but it’s a good thing I was not near the pool that night because I heard from my friends about some pretty nasty things going on there. I didn’t even think that was legal in Singapore!

These people are pretty scary when they’re drunk especially when they already have so little clothes on. All that sand and water makes them very creative. I myself go to parties a lot, but nothing really quite prepared me for the craziness of KM8. Oh, and it’s also mostly attended by 80% Caucasians, 20% Asians.

The four models, Vishnu, Mikkel and Emilia. They do enjoy being photographed.

Me and the four models. They tower over me so I had to make them bend down. He he.

Ok, I’m sorry I didn’t take THAT many photos of my trip to Singapore. I’m so upset that I have to miss Craig David playing a show at Zirca on 8th April! Nooooooooooooooo! Sob