We teamed her up with Gather.ly's own Holly Smith, the gorgeous Lorelle Rayner, Jason Crozier (MUA) & Camilla Sverdrup Thygeson (Stylist)... Oh, and over £10,000 worth of Vintage Chanel, Valentino, Dior. The brief was simple, tell your own story. The catch, she had 24hrs. Canon hooked her up with all the best kit & Gather.ly made it happen.

7th February 2014. ‘We've been chatting with Canon and I wanna see if you'd be free to shoot with us! It involves you, me, a model and Paris.... x’. Now that message right there, completely blew my mind.

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After a month of planning this project with Holly, the day had finally come. Before going to the airport, I went to the Gatherl.y office to not only pick up Holly, and also to pick up the equipment from Canon which I requested for the project. Opening the box filled with Canon kit felt like Christmas, and I couldn’t wait to use the 85mm f1.2 lens in Paris. Holly and I arrived in Paris in the evening, where we were accommodated by our fellow Gather.ly student photographer, Nicole Gomes, who happened to also be shooting for Paris Fashion Week during that time.

Waking up first thing in the morning with a beautiful view of the Parisian sunrise, we went to grab some breakfast (more like desserts) and snacks (lots and lots of croissants!) at a local bakery before meeting the rest of the team. We were very luck to have had a UK represented team with us in Paris for the shoot, a model named Lorelle from The Face Paris Management, Camilla-Sverdrup Thygeson as wardrobe stylist, and Jason from Croz Nest for hair and make-up. All who I have previously worked with before, I knew it would be the perfect team to take to Paris with me. As much as we wanted to sit down and enjoy catching up with each other, we knew we had to crack on. Lorelle was getting her hair and make-up done by Jason whilst Camilla started to lay out and steam stunning vintage designer pieces from Orsini Vintage shop.

Our first location was a spontaneous decision, where I had noticed earlier in the apartment that there was a beautiful mosaic wall in the bathroom, along with an emerald green fireplace by the living room. We shot two looks in the cosy apartment before heading out as there was some sunlight shining into both rooms, it felt like a perfect place to start.

All ready and packed, we embarked on our adventure around the area called Montmatre. La Basilique du Sacré Coeur was one of the places we planned to shoot around, and when we got there, it was packed with tourists! We found a spot near the steps where I wanted shoot the scenery overlooking Sacré Coeur, to show the glamorous cityscape of Paris. It was challenging at first, as the weather during that time was continuously changing from sunny to cloudy. In addition, there were curious tourists climbing up the stairs to see what was happening, you would start to see their heads creeping up from below the shot!

We then moved onto the main steps toward the church, where we had a huge audience watching me photographing Lorelle twirling around the staircases. We heard a couple of whistles here and there, but some even took advantage of the situation and took their own images!

Only a few streets away from the Sacré Coeur church was the Place du Tertre, where we made a pitstop in one of the cafes for an outfit change. Whilst changing and doing hair and makeup touch ups, we noticed there were many artists setting up their easels tourists to buy their artwork. Approaching them to ask for permission wasn’t the best idea, as some asked us to pay a ridiculous amount of 250 euros for us to photograph with their paintings! We finally found an old french man in a quiet corner who looked interesting, however he refused to have his photograph taken, but gave us 5 minutes to grab a couple of shot with his easel and paintings. Again with the crowds, but this time we were asked various questions like if we were from a big company like Vogue or shooting a campaign. There was also a flirtatious french waiter who served us and was interested in our project, so we decided to also take a few shots of Lorelle with him. We never ended up using those images, however it definitely was worth a behind the scenes shot and ended up to be the funniest moment during the trip.

We headed straight into the city centre for another look change, and continued through the Pont des Arts bridge and stopped at a building called Institut de France. After taking a few shots, there was a security man who came to stop the shoot, we tried to ask for a couple of minutes, but he kept refusing. So we waited for a few minutes after he left and shot a couple more sneaky shots.

Initially my plan was to catch the Eiffel tower during sunset, however we did not make it on time, so we decided to wait for the evening lights instead. We saw a carousel across the tower filled with colours and bright lights. Lorelle spontaneously hop onto the spinning carousel in her Prada shoes and vintage Christian Dior dress, and after a round of shooting, we were stopped by the man in charge of the carousel. He started to shout at Lorelle, telling her to get off the moving carousel, but no way was she able to with in those glamours clothes! Camilla managed to bribe the man with 2 tickets worth of the ride, and so we continued shooting. I must say this was the trickiest part of the shoot as it was impossible to shoot and guide Lorelle at the same time, when the carousel was spinning to fast!

Finally, the Eiffel tower. I must say, getting changed into a vintage Valentino dress under a dodgy stinky bridge must have been the highlight of the evening. We could not stop laughing about how ‘glamourous’ that moment was. Timing was key for this final shot, as we had to wait for the sparkly lights on the Eiffel tower to turn on by the hour. We had about 5-10 minutes to capture as many shots as we could, and also get some filming in for the video too. It was a magical moment when the lights turned on, and what a perfect way to end the evening. ! !

Never in my life would I have expect to be given such an amazing opportunity. Gatherl.y in partnership with Canon has allowed me to do the things I love, which is to travel with a group of fun and talented creatives and photograph fashion stories inspired by the culture of the place.

I truly think Gatherl.y is a place for opportunities for anyone in the creative industry, so get involved!

See the film Holly Smith produced documenting Phoebe's day below

To see more of Phoebe Cheong's beautiful fashion photography click here