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Grace Tan
In Life, Musings, Relationships

A Perfectly Ordinary Day

Every now and then, something comes into your life and causes you to think a little. It causes you to pause, to reflect and to appreciate. Life. People. Simple things. Huge things. Ordinary things.

I recently stumbled upon this video on Facebook and it was thought provoking, wonderful, sad and yet true. Though it’s slightly long, I do encourage you to watch the entire duration.

Just as Katrina Kenison says, the most wonderful gift we have and the one we need to cherish, is the gift of those perfectly ordinary days. Today, as I hold my almost 4-month-old daughter Krysta in my arms, I am learning to cherish. The smile on her face as I sing to her the same song for the 40th time. Just riding in the car with my husband to church, having a conversation about everything and yet nothing.

Enjoying a swiss roll with my sister in her backyard, while feeling the cool evening breeze on my skin. Hearing my mum sing the Kookaburra song to my daughter and laughing as Krysta responds to the song.

Yup, it’s one of those ordinary days. What a beautiful day it is.

* Grace and Krysta (iPhone pic)

Grace Tan
In Family + Children Portraits, International, Life, Musings, Portraits, , Running a Business

Being a working mom

Ever since I delivered baby Krysta mid December, I have discovered the joys of motherhood. Everyday, my heart swells with even more love for this cute little baby of mine, especially so when she looks adoringly into my eyes and coos in her baby language telling me all sorts of things that happened in that day. Six diaper changes, lots of good yummy milk, and recently… her first overseas trip to Krabi, at 2 months old! While I was out shooting, Alex, my husband, was the baby sitter to Krysta!

* Krysta’s newborn photos, when she was 14 days old. 

Though I have tried to stay away from work and enjoy my maternity leave, I realized I can’t ‘stay’ still… in fact, I didn’t really observe most of the confinement practices (to the horror of some people). By the first week of her birth, after the C-section, I was up and about, attending Christmas events and even brought her for a theatre production at church. While on maternity leave, I was still replying work emails, meeting up with potential clients, skyping, and blogging. I now completely understand how difficult it is for working moms to balance between working at home and taking care of a child. All I can say is… thank God for the help of my maid, and the pacifier!

Now that I have officially starting working and shooting, I hope that the transition is not too difficult. I am a little concerned about being away from her for some of my outstation shoot jobs, especially since I am still breastfeeding, but I guess I’ll jump over that hurdle once I get to it.

* Krysta looking really happy at getting her very first ang pau for Chinese New Year!

I know the blog has been silent for 2 weeks, so here’s a teaser image from the recent pre-wedding session at Krabi, Thailand for Nicholas and Lina… my first client after delivery! More to come later!

 

Grace Tan
In Life, Musings, Relationships

From 2 to 3…

A week ago, I became a mum. For 9 months, I carried a little bundle inside of me… a little being that grew from a tiny foetus into a 2+kg baby. I brought her for shoots with me, and we grew, together. When we saw her first few photos on the scan, we were excited (doesn’t matter that it was just a mass of 2 oval shapes showing the head and body). When she kicked, we were delighted. Towards the end of my term, I couldn’t wait to meet her, my little bundle of joy.

A week before my due date, at about 2am, my water bag burst and an hour later, I was in the hospital. By 9am, I had only dilated 1cm and she was facing upwards, which made it hard for her to come out naturally. So by 12pm, a decision was made to go for a Caesarean birth, and within a few minutes, I was in the operating theatre. It felt like a blur, I couldn’t see what was going on, didn’t feel any pain, but I could just feel the gynae touching me and her being pushed out. All throughout the surgery, I was praying and singing the song “Lord you are always here with me”.

At the precise moment I heard her cry, my emotions just overwhelmed me and I couldn’t help but cry too.

She was brought to me not too long later and she was just beautiful!

One week later, and I have already posted countless images of her on Instagram and Facebook. I’ve joined that group of millions of mothers worldwide who are proud of their little kid. Not because of what they can do (she hasn’t earned any A’s in school yet, or started working to earn her keep), but because of who they are. Simply loved because they are their child. I am reminded of that same love that God gave to us… unconditional love, not because of what we can do, but because of who we are… His creation. And nothing we do in this life can take away Christ’s love for us.

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
– Romans 8: 38-39 –

Such is the heart of our Father…and a good reminder this Christmas! Have a great Christmas season and a Happy New Year!

xoxo,

Grace, Alex & Krysta

Last 2 Photo credits: Asther Lau Photography

Grace Tan
In Casual Portraits, Life, Maternity, Musings, Parties & Events, Portraits

A Surprise Baby Shower!

Two weeks ago, I was completely surprised when I opened my front door to reveal a group of friends who had gathered for a surprise baby shower for me! I didn’t expect anything at all so it was really sweet of everyone to make so much effort to organize everything… from the beautiful decorations to the cute cupcakes and great food that was served (oh, and not to forget the gifts too!). I was told that half an hour before I arrived, they were busy cutting butterflies to stick onto straws! I was awed at how everything looked so perfect. But of course, the main thing was that I had a roomful of my closest friends to celebrate it with. Thank you so much everyone for making my baby shower so special, and for the friendship that we share. Really love all of you!

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Grace Tan
In For Photographers, Life, Musings

A Capoeira Experience: The Panasonic GH3 launch

Since our last Bloom Workshops with Panasonic as our main sponsor, we’ve been doing a few things together. I’ve conducted a portrait photography workshop for their Lumix users, and yesterday, I was involved in the launch of 5 of their latest Lumix cameras. Together with host Julie Woon and fellow photographer Szetoo Weiwen, we shared with the press our experience using their cameras, and for me specifically, it was the GH3. I had heard the GH series is great for videography, so I had to put it to the test. I contacted Johan one day, and asked him to arrange for a small capoeira outing. We had a blast that morning with Mia and San, who were awesome in front of the camera.

I shot the video mostly in full HD at 50p and did the slow motion in post production by tweaking the frame rate to 25 frames per second. It was shot on the Panasonic Lumix GH3 with only 2 lenses – the 7-14mm f4.0 and the new 35-100mm f2.8. I love the effect of the telephoto lens… very sharp with creamy bokeh (photographers would know what I mean!).

Julie was impressed when she found out that I shot this video while I was pregnant (I think I was into my 7th month then?), squatting on the ground etc…and all within 1.5 hours. My hope is that I’ll have an easy delivery, cause everyone tells me that you’ll have a good labour if you’ve been active through out your pregnancy! (fingers crossed)

Hope you’ll like the video (by the way, I was told that it’s never too late to learn capoeira! As for me, that’s one activity I think I’ll skip)

Music credits:

Song name : ‘Focas da Aguas’
Artist : Mestre Acordeon
Album : Capoeira Voices Vol.III