Grace Tan

The Simple Things in Life

Alex’s iPhone pic

After a long day of shoot, I completely enjoy coming home to my husband Alex for a snuggle (after the shower, of course!). But today, I came home from my morning shoot to find french toast and coffee waiting for me in the kitchen. And of course, Alex. :)

After yesterday night’s squabble about “Me being very careless and dropping things often” which made me a little upset… I guess after this surprise breakfast, all is forgotten. For those of you who know about my goldfish memory, forgetting is really easy to do.

Isn’t that what relationships are all about? You love, step on each other’s toes, yell occasionally, and then forgive and forget. And then, you eat french toast.

Grace Tan In Testimonials

Behind the Scenes: Amri & Daphne

It’s almost a year since I shot Amri & Daphne’s wedding. Happy upcoming wedding anniversary, you two! Hope you are enjoying married life heaps and heaps!

I can’t believe how things have changed since one year ago. The way I shoot has evolved, and the way I look at light and posing has been refined.

During Amri & Daphne’s wedding, Kee Sitt was with me, and shot some behind the scenes shots of me at work. Somehow, I never had the time to edit it (and never did!). This video was edited by Shu Wan. Thank God for her, otherwise, it might take me another year or so to get this behind the scenes video up! I must say, it is really really difficult to see yourself on video – I get really self-critical… Why are you standing that way? Why is your hair so messy? Stop moving so much! What are you rambling about?

And so, in order to be completely honest with you, here’s me at work – silly quirks and all. Hope you’ll enjoy it!

[flv:http://www.stories.my/wp-content/uploads/2010/slideshows/daphneamri.flv http://www.stories.my/wp-content/uploads/2010/slideshows/daphneamri.jpg 700 394]

Grace Tan In Chinese Weddings, Weddings

Wedding of Mak & Elsa

Photographers: Grace & Mark
5D Mark 2 Video: Alex & Shu Wan
Same Day Slideshow Editing: Shu Wan
Gown: Pretty in White
Make Up: Angie Ng
Dinner Reception: Jaya Palace Restaurant

Two days before their wedding, I spoke to Elsa, and she told me, “I am not sure whether we are going to have a tea ceremony in the evening or morning with my relatives… let’s play by ear and see what happens” That’s how laidback Mak & Elsa are when it came to planning their wedding. She told me that her friends fretted more than she did over the wedding! Despite all that fretting, things went well for Mak & Elsa, and their wedding day breezed along smoothly.

This was my first time at Balakong, and I am glad I didn’t get lost finding Elsa’s place! Thank God for google maps! But I think it is time for me to invest in a GPS.

Together with my team, we came up with this same day slideshow that was played that night at Jaya Palace Restaurant. Watch out for the cool ring shot thought up by Mark at the end of the slideshow!

[flv:http://www.stories.my/wp-content/uploads/2010/slideshows/makelsa.flv http://www.stories.my/wp-content/uploads/2010/slideshows/makelsa.jpg 700 394]

Here are some of my favourite shots from their wedding.

The lace on her gown is just exquisite!

For this shot, Mark had to hold a reflector next to me, not to reflect the light on Mak & Elsa, but to shade them from the sun!

This is kind of how the place looked like:

I didn’t know it when I took this teapot shot, but it seems that teapots were going to be the theme for the day!

Especially at Jaya Palace Restaurant, where they had large pillars filled with cool teapots like these! We were a little worried that we’d knock into these teapots as we squeezed between tables…

This restaurant had really really good food.

Thanks for being so welcoming and for taking care of my team, Mak & Elsa. Oh, and thanks for walking up and down the stairs a couple of times for us to get the ring shot, Elsa!! :)

Grace Tan In For Photographers, Musings

Fashion savvy female photographers

Ever since I became a photographer, I have griped on and on about not having anything to wear for a shoot. To be honest, back then, I didn’t really know how to dress. I only knew that most photographers wear black (which to me, is really really boring, despite the many explanations of how black should be THE colour).

My choice of wardrobe was always linked to what I had to have on me at the time of shoot. During full day wedding shoots, I always carry my Think Tank pouch with me that contains memory cards, spare batteries, name cards, my phone, lens pen, and lenses (of course, duh!). I find that having a pouch helps alleviate the stress of carrying a heavy slingover bag on my shoulder. I don’t want to be carrying two camera bodies (with flash sometimes) on my shoulder AND lenses too. So the weight of the lenses rest on my waist and hips.

Ok so Lara Croft look-alike belt is ready.

So obviously, dresses are a no-no right? It’s fashion kill to combine both a pouch and a dress like how I did here:

I only wore a dress for this shoot because it was sooooo hot during that wedding! Photo taken by Mark.

So, most times, I am wearing pants and a shirt/nice top for a shoot. Like this:

Ok, I don’t always shoot barefooted! This was taken by Ian at Alfred & Geeta’s Hindu wedding last year.

I always believe that a photographer should look and dress well for the occasion. I don’t feel it is appropriate for a photographer to come for an event dressed shabbily when all the wedding guests are dressed so well. Round collared T-shirts are a no-no for formal wedding events!

But you know, ultimately, I would LOVE to wear something like this at shoots:

Minus heels of course. I cannot imagine running around for 10 hours on heels.

Lately, I won a Shootsac bag which means that I can ditch the pouch for short shoots. But after 5 hours of shoot, it is still a bit painful on the shoulders. However, the Shootsac enables me to wear dresses without butchering the entire look. :)

Alright, this is NOT a dress, but it’s a shot of how my Shootsac looks. Taken by Shu Wan.

A few years ago, Veralyne, a superb gown designer who used to work with Pretty in White, but now has her own label… told me that she’d design a dress for me for shoots. Recently, she gave me this design:

It looks lovely! I asked her, “Where to put lenses?” and she has yet to get back to me. Hehe…

Anyhow, I think for now, I’ll just stick to wearing pants, nice tops / shirts with the Think Tank pouch and occasionally a dress with the Shootsac.

Grace Tan In Musings, Relationships, Testimonials

Thank you notes & Love Languages

It is at times like these when clients drop a thank you note unexpected onto my lap that I feel so appreciated. I completely enjoy my job, and even more so when I get chocolates and hand written notes! Recently, two clients gave me notes that I truly appreciate.

If you have read the book “The Five Love Languages“, you will understand when I say that my love language is ‘words of affirmation’. Essentially, the book explains that every human being has a different way of expressing and interpreting love. Out of the many ways we express love, the top five ways are categorized as:

1. Words of Affirmation – Hearing words like “I love you” or “You mean the world to me” is really important to you. (Yup, I love to hear people saying nice things about me! Makes me feel loved!) And because words are so important, when you hear words that are insulting or hurtful, it really really hurts.

2. Quality Time – One of my other love languages too (you can have more than one I think, but usually one is more primary than the other). This is when your other half gives you ALL of his attention, and by this I mean, not like having a date with you in a nice restaurant but playing games on his iPhone at the same time. (ahem, Alex, please take note!) Basically, quality time together is really important to you. You enjoy doing things together because you simply love spending time together.

3. Receiving Gifts – It’s when you really appreciate the idea of receiving gifts because you feel loved when the person who gave you the gift went to such effort to give you something. It’s not about materialism but it is about the thought behind it.

4. Acts of Service – This is Alex’s language of love. He feels loved whenever I do things like try to keep the house neat, turn off the heater switch when I get out of the bathroom, or run little errands for him when he doesn’t have time for it. And this is what bugs him the most about our relationship – sometimes I can be a really lazy person! Or it hurts when I make a commitment to do something and then forget about it later (which happens very very frequently due to my forgetful nature!)

5. Physical Touch – It’s not just about physical intimacy, it’s about little acts of touching, like hugs, stroking your cheek, or holding hands… they all communicate the idea of care & concern.

Interestingly enough, the way you show love (your love language) may not be the way your partner feels loved. So, since Alex’s love language is acts of service, no matter how much I tell him, “I love you”, it doesn’t mean as much to him as me picking up the clothes off the rack! To him, it’s when I take time off to do things out of my comfort zone for others (or him) that he feels that I am showing love.

Ok, now that I’ve rambled on enough about love languages, back to the thank you notes! Here’s a card and chocolate that Siva & Sumi gave me last week (the box was just taken out of the fridge when I took this shot).

Pre-Wedding: http://stories.my/engagement-portraits-siva-sumitha/
Wedding: http://stories.my/siva-sumitha-temple-wedding/

And this graphic was created by Ash & Candace! While I was in Krabi shooting their honeymoon, they had taken some shots of Alex and I on the go, and created this little jpg! (actually, it’s not so little, it’s like 4000 pixels wide!) It’s so cool!

Since the text is a little small, I’ve typed it out here:

“It’s our turn now to be photographers!!!! How? Can make it or not?? Lucky the subject matters are good looking. Once again, Ash and I would like to thank you for making our photography sessions so engaging, fun and flexible. Don’t know how but you managed to capture all our moments maybe by some teleportic abilities or having some hidden cameras somewhere, but Man, didn’t we look good that day in the pics! Heh. We deeply appreciate the extra goodies you gave us (Johan and the video snippets) which made our day even more special. To top all of that, the honeymoon crashers folks enjoyed your company in Krabi and had only good things to say about Alex and you. Thanks for being a part of our big day and making it so wonderful. Take care and God bless the small people. =)”

Loads of love,
Candace & Ashley

Pre-wedding: http://stories.my/ashley-candace-in-singapore/
Wedding: http://stories.my/ashley-candaces-wedding/
Honeymoon: http://stories.my/krabi-honeymoon-shoot-of-sorts/

Thank you so much! I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again, I feel lurrrved!!