Casual Portraits

Grace Tan In Casual Portraits, Portraits

A Portrait Session: Elaine & Friends

These four ladies came together to celebrate their 50th birthdays. It’s an annual tradition. This shoot also celebrated 28 years of friendship since they first met each other in their early 20s! We had a conversation about getting older and one of them said,

“As we age, we don’t really feel any different from when we were in our 20s. Our bodies might be getting older but emotionally and in our minds, we’re still our crazy, silly selves from when we were younger.”

I feel the same way too (in my 40s now). When I was 25, I thought anyone over 40 was old, but now as I have reached that milestone, I don’t feel old, I am just a wiser version of myself. I’ve added more years of experience to my life and sharpened my focus on my priorities. But as I get older, I must remind myself to always have fun and enjoy the little things in life. Like making time to celebrate life and friendships with a photoshoot, perhaps!

Grace Tan In Casual Portraits, Portraits

A Harajuku Styled Shoot on Kuala Lumpur’s Streets

Imagine if we could only use colours, textures, and fashion styles to express who we truly are – no words allowed. What would that look like? What would YOU wear? ⁠⠀
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I have never done a Harajuku-inspired shoot before. So when our friend and bridal make up artist Cindy, suggested the idea of doing one as a creative exercise, we jumped at the opportunity. She roped in Yon Lynn, an artist who fronts Raijin, a Japanese pop rock cover band in KL. Lynn thinks that the Japanese are very expressive and these costumes are a way for her to express herself in a bold and creative way. ⁠⠀
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We spent almost five hours on the shoot with breaks in between. Each ‘look’ took about an hour for hair, make up, and styling to be done, but it was all smiles as we could do all the prep work in the comfort of our room at Four Points by Sheraton, Chinatown. We took photos at the hotel and around the premises, including the newly restored back lane – Kwai Chai Hong.

It was a very interesting experience for me and the team. Once the costumes are on, it feels as if a different person emerges, but in reality, it is a true representation of who they are. ⁠To me, the shoot represents boldness. Just like the people on Harajuku Street whose individuality and boldness soon came to define a significant part of a nation’s cultural identity. It takes boldness to be different, to stand out in the crowd, and be unique.
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Big thanks to everyone for making this happen. It feels so good to keep our creative juices flowing with opportunities like this! More photos below with some interesting facts about each Harajuku style.

Grace Tan In Casual Portraits, Life, Musings, Portraits

Dancing Around KL City Centre

As a Canon EOS ambassador, I get to test out the new EOS R5 and a few lenses, namely the RF 15-35mm f2.8 and 85mm f2.0 macro. I contacted my friend, Joanna Koleth, who is an amazing dance-artist, and some other amazing vendors who made this shoot happen. Soon, we were doing jumps around KL city centre. This shoot is part of a bigger project, one that involves a few other photographers. But that is yet to be revealed. The theme of the shoot revolves around this word, Harmony.

When conceptualizing the shoot, I thought about this word and what it means to me. A quick Google search revealed the meaning of harmony as “the state of being in agreement or concord.” As a Malaysian, I truly desire a state where the people in our land can live in harmony with each other. Our country is full of culture and heritage, and we’ve gone through good and bad seasons since celebrating our independence in 1957.

Learning how to balance our diversity with unity is not easy. Harmony is not just an outward appearance of accepting each other, it’s respecting each individual as they are. It’s also about merging old and new mindsets so that we can grow as a nation.

It’s a delicate dance.

Sarah Lim In At Home, Casual Portraits, Musings, Portraits

What is Lifestyle Photography?

Do a Google search for a ‘family photographer’ and chances are, you’ll see lifestyle photography as a service too (that’s what we offer as well). “What’s lifestyle photography?” you might wonder. Well, this article will be addressing that. After this, you can add one more photography term to your vocabulary with confidence and clarity. Most importantly, you’ll know what it means for you!

A lifestyle photographer is someone who documents a person’s lifestyle by capturing photos of their real-life events, situations, or their milestones in an artistic manner. It celebrates the art of the everyday. Many photos you see of other families and couples having the best ‘candid’ moments captured while doing ‘everyday-looking-things’ are often categorised as lifestyle photography. A true lifestyle session is full of candid moments that happen when a photographer gets to follow their subjects to places that they frequently spend time at.

However, what really goes on behind the scenes is that there’s a highly skilled photographer directing all the shots! Many of these ‘candid moments’ don’t happen by themselves, and they may not always happen in places that are meaningful to the people in the photo. The reality is, its usually a photographer’s job to create opportunities for these moments to happen and quickly snap the photo whenever it does. Here are some examples:

Sarah Lim In At Home, Casual Portraits, Family + Children Portraits, Portraits

A Mother & Daughter Portrait Session at Home

We often get requests for family portraits where everyone dresses up and comes to our studio or we go to their homes. But once in awhile, we also get requests like this one from Allison. She invited us over for an afternoon just to capture the everyday moments that she shares with her daughter. We love how casual and laid back this set turned out, with lots of love and affection between mother and daughter. It was a real treat to follow them around the house, just capturing them in their element as they bonded over their usual activities at home… cooking, lounging by the pool, taking walks in the garden, or catching up over a glass of wine. We even managed to squeeze in a pillow fight! It’s often the simple moments shared with family that we treasure the most, and they’re also the ones that fly by the quickest. We’re so glad to be able to immortalise a few of these precious moments for Allison.