Musings

Beauty Ad

Recently, we did a photo shoot for a beauty product company, and even though the talent (who was one of my previous brides!) was naturally beautiful, we had to do some digital enhancements. For all our wedding & portraiture work, we do some minor touch ups, but not as extensive as this. Would like to share with you a before and after shot for this shoot. The image on the left is taken directly off the CF card with no enhancements. And the image on the right is the digitally touched up one!

What are your thoughts on digitally enhancing images? Are you for, or against it?

Grace Tan In For Photographers, Musings, News

Integricity Visuals is hiring!

Are you an enthusiastic learner who is willing to try out new things? Love design, video editing, animation and all things creative? Integricity Visuals, the company behind the brand Stories is looking for a Digital Artist to join our team! You will get the opportunity to work on corporate and wedding projects, whether it be related to video production or photography. We are looking to hire someone on a full time or contract basis. It would be great if you have at least 1 year of working experience, but fresh graduates are encouraged to apply as well. We use Macs, but if you are a PC user, we welcome you too! (Just that we’ll convert you to be a Mac user really really soon!)

Your role:

Digitally enhance images using Lightroom and Photoshop
Create photo album designs
Video editing using Final Cut Pro
Creating 2D animation in After Effects
Assist in video or photography shoots

Let us know what skills you have and what gear you own by emailing us your CV. On top of that, you can even send us your blog link, Flickr portfolio, Facebook profile, or anything that would help us get to know you better! You don’t need to own expensive gear or have all the skills to join our team… what we are looking for is someone who is willing to learn, fun loving and responsible. You will be based in our office in Centrepoint, Bandar Utama. So, I look forward to seeing your email in my inbox soon… please email me at grace.tan [at] integricity.com.

And just because every single post is cooler with a photo, here’s a random one featuring Alex and Mark!

Grace Tan In Life, Musings, Relationships

Appreciating the MAN…

He has been by my side for many years, encouraging me when I feel down, cheering me on when things are going well, holding my hand when I am sick, my adventure buddy, my partner, my lover. That’s Alex.

This is my fourth year of marriage, and boy, has it been exciting. This month, we celebrated Alex’s birthday, and I thought I’d write a post to celebrate him. The best part about my marriage is the fact that I can journey together with him, going on our little adventures together. It’s not just about a trip to the beach or an extravagant holiday somewhere, but it is the little things in life that I appreciate. Him waking up early in the morning to prepare me breakfast. Him carrying my camera bags from the car at the end of a tiring shoot. Him looking after my parents while I am away.

He’s an amazing man.

Photo by Dawn McCarthy

Yes, we have our squabbles, like any other couple (like him getting exasperated at my short term memory, or me getting annoyed at him for leaving receipts and bills all over the floor)… but at the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter. I believe in not holding grudges and working at a relationship to make it work.

So… to celebrate his birthday, I did a few things…

Grace Tan In International, Life, Musings

India: Sights, Smells, Sounds

A kaleidoscope of colours, smell and taste. I did not imagine India to be anything else but interesting. In my list of countries to visit, India is definitely not one of my top 10. But at the end of June 2010, I had a taste of India. AND, felt the burning heat of the sun, all 40 degrees of it. I was in India for a corporate shoot. 8 days, 4 internal flights, many hours on the road and 5 cities later, I felt I had seen two different sides to India.

On one hand, you have poverty…

Children with growths on their heads, young girls who barely look like teenagers holding on to babies, begging on the streets…

And then you have development…

Fancy buildings that look so futuristic. Offices with coloured glass windows. High end apartments that only few can enjoy.

What a contrast.

Grace Tan In For Photographers, International

Accidents while on shoot

I’m still traveling in India on this corporate shoot, but will be glad to return to the comforts of my own home (and a loving husband) soon. While at one of the many construction sites, the 3rd-party strap (but, but it was an uber comfortable neoprene padded one that was supposed to cushion the weight of the camera on my neck!) I was using came undone from the buckle, causing my precious 5D Mark2 to fall with a resounding thud.

I picture it in slow-motion over and over again, wondering if I could have dived in Matrix-style to save it before gravity got the better of the DSLR. What’s done is done, I guess and I’ve resolved to be very, very careful when buying camera accessories.

As a professional, I always carry a backup camera body and for good reason. I would feel a whole lot worse if I let my clients down because I was not well prepared enough. As the scouts would chant, “Be Prepared!”.

Canon, pretty, pretty please get this fixed quickly when I get back, and I hope it won’t burn too big a hole in my pocket.