Musings

Grace Tan In Family + Children Portraits, For Photographers, Musings, Parties & Events, Portraits

Ice cream themed birthday bash – Thea Grace turns one!

We photographed Aldrian and Mei Mei’s winter themed wedding some years ago. Ever since then, we’ve kept in touch over Facebook even though they live in another continent. This year, I got to meet their lovely daughter, Thea Grace, who just couldn’t stop smiling and giggling at our shoot. Well, surrounded by cookies that look like ice cream and pillows that look oh-so-sweet, who could blame her? She was just high on love and all things sugary. This styled shoot is a testament of how different people came together to make this work.

20160616- FamilyPortraits_Aldrien_MeiMei-008 Mei Mei brought some props from the UK, and I especially love all the hand-sewn animals hanging off the basket, holding… guess what? Ice cream! The letters that made up Thea Grace’s name were hand made by Mei Mei, and so were a number of the props themselves. Evelyn of Moments contributed the delicious looking ice cream shaped cookies, balloons and we provided the crates, blankets, bags and basket!

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Grace Tan In Musings, Tips + Ideas

Canvas Clusters

Canvas-13 I believe canvases are a great way to brighten up a home – especially if it is filled with lovely images of your family. At Stories, we have designed canvas clusters for our clients through the years. All you need to do is to tell us the dimensions of your wall in inches and we will design it for you, free of charge. Here are some tips on how to plan for a beautiful canvas wall at your home:

Find a wall that is a feature in your home – meaning, the wall should be in a prominent location that is eye-catching. This could be above the couch in your living room or next to your dining table.
Avoid having too much clutter at the bottom of your feature wall. If the wall is next to a cabinet that is filled with children’s toys, your eyes will be drawn to the clutter and not the images.
Install spotlights that direct your attention towards the images on the wall. This is especially good for night events!
When choosing images to include on the wall, think about some form of continuity – for example, are all the images taken in a nice outdoor environment but one is not? Do the images complement or distract each other? Is there a theme to the images selected? Do also include a series of candid and posed shots for best effect.
Communicate with your designer if you prefer to have designs that are neat (for example, all canvases fit into a perfect square) or if you prefer a more organic design that doesn’t have to align perfectly with each other.

Canvas-10 What do you think of the sample walls at our office?

Grace Tan In Casual Portraits, Life, Musings, Portraits, Relationships

Reminiscing: Portraits in Kelantan

A year ago, the Stories team headed to a small village in Kelantan to photograph portraits for the families affected by the devastating 2014 flood. We were just so blessed to be able to meet these families and to replace precious family photos that were lost in the flood. We braved the Hari Raya jam and drove up north, to a place we had never visited before and ate Raya kuih with families who welcomed us with open arms. Have a look at the behind the scenes video that describes more about what took place over the few days we were there. It was a one of a kind experience for all of us. Wishing a great time of family bonding for everyone celebrating Raya!

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Grace Tan In Musings, Parties & Events, Portraits, Tips + Ideas

Ways to personalise your wedding bands

I recently had the pleasure of visiting Rings and Bands, a concept store based in the elite neighbourhood of Valencia. Li Dong, the owner of this exclusive wedding ring fine jewellery store, shared some of her experience in the jewellery business. The rings were just exquisite – you could choose from rings made of platinum or gold, or even rhodium. You can also custom design your own rings at the store, overlooking golfers on the lawn next door.

ringsnbands Photo courtesy of Rings and Bands

I was also excited to hear about some interesting ways you can personalise your wedding bands, other than just engraving your name. You can sign your promise, inscribe your love story, write a personal note on the surface of the rings… and wait for this… even put your fingerprint on it!

What a great idea! Not only is it totally unique, you can even use it as a security feature if your wedding band ever got stolen! Just compare fingerprints and you’re done. :) Obviously, the band is not really able to fit your entire fingerprint, but just a small portion of it.

I was also invited to give a short talk to some of the residents at Valencia about the art of people photography. It was nice to be able to collaborate in such a manner. Do visit their concept store or check out their website to see their collection of finest engagement rings and wedding bands.

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Grace Tan In Family + Children Portraits, Life, Musings, Portraits, Relationships

Happy 4th Father’s Day

This morning, I woke up in bed, 73km away from home at a town called Port Dickson, body still sore from last night’s wedding shoot. I thought of my kids at home, being cared for by my Indonesian helper the night before as my husband is away in New Zealand, setting up the Integricity NZ office. I drove home, packed my kids to church single handedly and was reminded about how much Alex is missed this Father’s day.

I cannot imagine life as a working single parent, and I take my hats off to those moms who had to fill the role of a mother and father to their kids because of various circumstances, or vice versa. Having a father figure is so important to every child. I am so glad that Alex is the kind of man who takes time to do simple things with our children, whether it is baking a cake, painting some eggshells, reading books to my son so that he can potty train him at the same time or carrying them on his shoulders when they are tired.

He is the kind of man who would gladly step up and help a friend in need, one who is generous and a person who truly cares. I hope our children will catch these traits from their dad as they grow up. We miss you, dad this Father’s day. Come home soon.

20150404_KRYSTA_KYLE_313 Baking a cake