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Grace Tan
In Musings, Tips + Ideas

Wedding Do’s & Don’ts (as told by Grace Tan)

Some time back, Abirami Durai, a writer for Faces magazine contacted me. She asked me if I was keen on contributing some tips for couples who are about to get married and if they could feature my wedding in the magazine. The first thought that came to me was… “My wedding? That was 5 years ago!”

I said yes.

I don’t claim to be a wedding expert. I can only share from my experiences – whether it was from planning my own wedding or from going through many weddings as a photographer. (by the way, the article said I’ve photographed hundreds of weddings… just to let you know that the numbers are more modest than that, maybe a hundred plus?).

If you are interested in getting a copy of this magazine, you can buy it from any normal bookstore. It’s the July / August 2011 issue.

Do let me know your thoughts by leaving a comment here and maybe you can share some tips of yours as well.

There isn’t any photographer credit mentioned for my wedding images featured below. I’d like to thank to Andy Lim, Joseph Siew and Yean Tai for these photos here!

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Grace Tan
In Life, Musings

The Final Goodbye

28th June 2011. That was the date we said our final goodbyes.

Goodbye to the place I called home when I was a child. The place where I learnt to ride my bicycle, play fashion stylist to all my 9 Barbies, reluctantly helped my mom bake her pineapple tarts so she could sell them for Chinese New Year and also the place where I tried to cram my head full of info for my SPM exam.

It’s never easy to say goodbye, but in life, you have to move on.

While I discovered my treasure trove of Barbie dolls with clothes that have been lovingly hand stitched by my mom from scrap pieces of cloth…

My sister discovered some old pots that she decided was worth keeping. And my uncle from Brisbane discovered his old copper art piece that he created years ago.

We also discovered my brother’s old teddy bear that my sister claimed was bought by my dad when he was in London years ago (like 40 years ago or so!). And my dad’s beloved chess set. He was the President of the Malacca chess club in the 80s.

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Grace Tan
In For Photographers, Musings, Tips + Ideas

Photographing Large Groups

At weddings, it’s normal for the couple to request for group photographs. Most times, the group size ranges from 5-20 people. However, if you are like Ben and Angela here, you might request for ALL your guests to be in the same image. While it’s a cool idea, there are some challenges a photographer faces when shooting such a large group. How do you even organize the people? How do you see everyone in one image? How do you even light everyone properly, especially if it’s an indoor venue?

Unless you have a huge, multi step platform with about 15 steps that can comfortably fit 10 people per row without one person blocking another, there’s no way to properly achieve this shot.

Tip: So, if you plan to do a large group image like this (anything beyond 50 people)… please make sure there is a way for the photographer to be elevated above the guests.

I wish I had a behind the scenes shot to show you how we achieved this shot. The photo was taken at Zion Lutheran Church in Brickfields, and it didn’t have a 2nd floor where I could be elevated. So Ben organized a tall ladder for me, Johan placed 3 speedlights behind me and held the ladder steady while I climbed it to get this shot.

Ideally I would have liked to see everyone’s faces better without any distortion, but given the space constraints, I could not use any other lens other than a wide angle lens.

Having said that, I am quite happy with the results and I think it’s a pretty cool and unique group photo!

So, it is possible to take large group shots and also make it interesting. Hope that helps! Over time, I hope to share more tips on planning for your wedding, especially from a photographer’s point of view.

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