Calvin’s Hub

25-year old Michelle De Jesus bested thousands of participants (over half are from the Philippines) who submitted their photo entry for the Lee Make History campaign photo contest for Asia Pacific.

This is the photo she submitted which she calls “Love Hurts” that won her a cool USD40k (around Php1.8 million).

Michelle's winning photo, "Love Hurts".

Michelle or Zeay (pronounced Shey), as I’m more used to calling her, was in California at that time spending Thanksgiving with her family when her cousin invited her to a bar. A friend of her cousin showed her his new tattoo and Zeay was blown away with it that she asked him if she could snap a picture of it.

I was able to whisk Zeay away from her very busy schedule for a very brief interview:

C: When you heard that you won the contest, did you tell your cousin’s friend?
Z: I didn’t tell him yet until i could send any form of published material to prove his overnight stardom. I sent him a pdf of the Philippine star article and i have not heard from him yet. I am not sure about his whereabouts as of the moment, he may be in some remote island hiding.

C: What camera did you use to take the uber-amazing professional-looking winning photo?
Z: Casio Exilim EX-Z600, my first non-hand-me-down camera and my first purchase from my first paycheck from Wideout.
C: Wow! Eat your heart out DSLR users!
Z: I sold the camera to employee #1 of Wideout.
C: Heh!

C: Was that the original photo or did you do any post-processing?
Z: No touch ups! It is what it is!
C: Oh, I thought you just photoshopped the word “Love”. Hehehe.

C: Did you consider submitting any other photo for the contest like maybe one of your road sign photos?
Z: 1st pick! No seconds thoughts!

C: And the million dollar question… who is your crush? Err, what will you do with the money?
Z: I will buy back my camera from employee #1 (which he broke), have that gold plated, then buy a new one (well i hope somebody just gives me one) and save the rest for graduate school.

C: Ok last, what will you do if you found out that you’ll only get Php200,000 after taxes?
Z: If after taxes I only get Php200,000, I’m going to need anger management then. Those are quite expensive so I think 200k will help me forget that I got screwed… money well spent!

C: Thanks Zeay for taking the time. Magaling ka pala mag-English.

...and here's the billboard of her photo.

Congrats again Zeay. Remember what Aunt May said, “With great money comes many new friends”.

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