Musings

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 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!!

Grace Tan In For Photographers, Musings

RedNinja.tv got Mojo? camp

After a few months of planning, our first RedNinja.tv event has finally taken off the ground! The got Mojo? seminar and camp was a huge success. We had a lot of fun with so many talented photographers in the country, some who are thinking of making the leap into full time wedding photography. Many photographers said they learnt a lot from Wiki Lee and his wife Ilona, who shared their hearts to everyone. On top of that, they felt the personal mentoring sessions by the team mentors (Jon Low, Mark Leo, Jenny Sun and I) were really beneficial.

I hope that after this camp, a lot of these photographers will put what they learnt into practice – whether it is regarding honing their style in photography, posing a couple, or about how they run their business. Here are a few behind the scenes shots taken at the camp in Corus, Port Dickson.This is Wiki doing some ninja impersonation with Ilona by his side.

Thanks to Canon, we had a few prizes to give away.

Things you learn at camp: As a ninja photographer, you need to be agile. Very agile – like being in this squatting position for hours.

Wiki giving tips to the photographers during the model shooting session.

I managed to take a few snaps as well even though I was there to mentor the team. Here’s Sonia & Reyhan looking really good! All model make up was done by Shinny Ong, who did an amazing job. The beautiful gowns are sponsored by Pretty in White.

The following photos were taken by Mark. He recently made the switch from Nikon to Canon. (yay!) Here’s a photo of Mark looking like he’s doing the macarena. On the right, Jon Low, who was one of the key organizers for the event and on the left, Ian Chong, who surprised us by showing up at the camp unannounced. Ian is one of the other photographers who I have worked with closely over the past few years.

These are Mark’s shots. Models are Rachel & Ser Young.

Shu Wan, Stories’ amazing digital artist was there at the camp as well. This time, she took up the camera and was shooting away instead of touching up images! Here she is in blue (her favourite colour!)

And these are Shu Wan’s shots.

And finally, a group photo of the team I was mentoring. I had fun with all of you!

Grace Tan In Life, Musings

The all new Stories Facebook Page

Yes, it’s official! We now have a Facebook page at www.facebook.com/Stories.my. About half of the number of enquiries that we get originate from Facebook, so it only made sense to have a page where everyone can interact, discuss questions regarding wedding photography (or your gown, or deco even if you wanted to!). It also features ongoing promotions, and contests in the future. To launch the new page, I created a video of myself… It’s tough being in front of the camera, especially when you have to speak! After a few takes, I managed to come up with something ‘acceptable’. :)

Welcome to our Stories Facebook Page!