Family + Children Portraits

Grace Tan In Family + Children Portraits, Portraits

Shichi-go-san celebration for a Japanese family: Yohei & Fumiko

Yohei and Fumiko have been living in Malaysia for the past 2 years ever since they moved here from Japan. In 2014, we photographed their family for the first time, and now, it’s really lovely to see their children all grown up!

Their son Shotaro is going to be 5 years old in May and the main purpose of the shoot is to celebrate his anniversary. According to Fumiko, Shichi-go-san, which means seven, five and three, is a Japanese annual event to celebrate healthy growth and the hope of longevity for three and seven-year-old daughters, and three and five-year-old sons. So Shotaro turning 5 is a special occasion for their family and they wish to remember this moment by having nice photos taken.

What a great idea!

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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

20150405_KRYSTA_KYLE_345 Creating a mural on the wall for Krysta’s room

Alex_swimming-kids2 20151229-FAMILYHOLIDAY_AVILION-74 Enjoying father-son time in Port Dickson

20160507-HOLIDAY_JAPAN-066 Planning the Kyoto itinerary with Kyle

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Grace Tan In Family + Children Portraits, Life, Maternity, Musings, Newborn, Portraits

Documenting Ethan’s Water Birth

I must admit that the thought of seeing a woman going through labour and finally delivering her baby scares me. A little. Even though I have 2 kids of my own… but I went through c-section and I never really experienced childbirth the way it was meant to be…. natural and painful. So I was a mix of emotions when Crystal hired me to document the birth of her baby Ethan last month. I was a tad bit worried that I might pass out when I saw blood.

The whole experience was new to me. About a year ago, I was also supposed to photograph another birth, but that didn’t quite happen the way we expected (pun not intended!). When Crystal’s delivery date drew near (18th May) and she started having contractions, I was a bit of a nervous wreck! I would check my phone frequently for updates, and was all charged to head out to the hospital when needed. On Thursday night, she checked into Pantai Hospital but by Friday evening, she was still far from delivering her baby!

That Friday night, I went to watch a movie, and even lugged my camera gear into the cinema, just in case! Crystal really suffered through hours of labour, and it was only on Sat night (11pm) that I was called into the hospital. I must say, she is one tough cookie. With no painkillers, she laboured and delivered beautiful baby Ethan at 3am on the 22nd of May. I could see how supportive her husband Wei Leong was through the entire process. Even though it was pretty back-breaking to help support Crystal in the tub, he did it over many hours with occasional stretches. I think Crystal was in the tub for a good 7 hours!

When Ethan came out, there was a sigh of relief and lots of happy smiles around.

Overall, I am just so amazed at this miracle called birth. How wonderful it is to witness a human being coming into the world. It is just so beautiful.

20160522-BIRTH_ETHAN_CHEW-060 20160522-BIRTH_ETHAN_CHEW-061 20160522-BIRTH_ETHAN_CHEW-071 Extra interesting notes:
1. Lighting was extremely difficult in the dim room, since they wanted to create a more relaxing and conducive environment. Flash photography wasn’t allowed and occasionally a spotlight would be turned on at times – so thank God for high ISO and experience shooting in low light!

2. The little floating duck is a thermometer! How cool is that. It was the first thing I spotted when I arrived.

3. The nurse and doula was in the room all the time, monitoring the contractions, keeping Crystal warm by pouring water on her. Dr Paul came in towards the end to receive the baby. I truly respect those in this profession, their personal lives are dictated by the lives of others!

Grace Tan In Family + Children Portraits, Parties & Events, Portraits

Twins and a Cake Smashing Session

Collin and Casper are twins who are as different as night is from day. Collin is very attentive, loves games, looks pretty serious and more quiet compared to Casper. Casper, on the other hand, is so playful, he can’t keep still for a few seconds! He has a cheeky smile and likes to act cute! But on the day of our shoot, the twins were just recovering from the flu bug. Despite that, I am glad that I managed to get cheeky shots of Collin and Casper. We started off the day at the Botanical Gardens (a little challenging with the hoards of people there and the humid Singaporean weather!). Then thankfully, we moved back into an air-conditioned environment at the suite of St Regis, Singapore. It was such a lovely place that we had to explore every corner, including the gigantic bath tub!

Lastly, we had an extremely successful cake smashing session for their birthday (the actual birthday cake was safe). It was my pleasure photographing my childhood friend, Patricia’s family. We have come a long way from playing with Barbie dolls in Malacca. May your beautiful family continue to grow!

20160416-COLLIN_CASPER_ONE-233 “Oh my brother gives me a headache!”

20160416-COLLIN_CASPER_ONE-095 20160416-COLLIN_CASPER_ONE-072 Collin on the left and Casper on the right

Grace Tan In Family + Children Portraits, Newborn, Portraits

Newborn Portraits: Matthew

My friendship with Mark and Mun Tzin has spanned many years, ever since Mark became one of the first freelance photographers to work with me when I was just starting out in the industry. Then I got to know Mun Tzin… who became a colleague as she planned weddings and events under the banner of Milestones. I am really pleased to see how their little family has grown, with baby Matthew now. He was only 13 days old when we took these photos.

20160513-NEWBORN_MATTHEW-73 The story of Matthew, by Mun Tzin

When I first started Milestones in 2012, we decided to put having a kid on hold so that the business can stabilise and we are not bogged down with too many things. As Milestones progress and after two years into running the business, I was open to trying to have a kid. We have been trying for a year and it was after a year, we were thinking of getting ourselves check by a specialist to make sure everything is working fine. Stress was kind of building up as Mark’s parents knew that we were trying to have a kid of our own. Little did we know that God has his own timing and plan for everything. In Mid September 2015, I was planning for a scuba diving trip and wanted to make sure that I was not pregnant before I go for the trip. It was then I discovered that I could be possibly pregnant. From being super kiasu by peeing on 3 pregnancy test to getting blood test to confirm, we were still not certain till we met our doctor. It was at the doctor’s clinic that he confirmed that we were going to have a baby. At that time, we were still fearful as we wanted to see our child’s heartbeat to confirm that he is alive. It was only after seeing and hearing his heartbeat the first time, were we able to celebrate God’s goodness to us.

From an easy pregnancy with minimal morning sickness to having minimal aches and pain, God has indeed watched over our family. Two weeks before I was due, Mark had to fly to Jakarta for work and I was supposed to travel to Genting Highlands for work too. In the beginning of the week, I fell ill and stayed at home. On the same week Thursday morning, I suddenly felt painful contractions while driving to work so instead of driving to work, I drove home to pick up my hospital bag and drove to the hospital. Doctor says this might be it and I quickly contacted Mark to come home. Little did we know that this was a false alarm and God was preparing us slowly for the real thing. Throughout the weekend and the following week, I kept having contractions and feeling uncomfortable. We kept asking our son when will he decide to come out and meet us.

On a bright and early labour day, I felt contractions at 6am. Thinking it might be a false alarm again, I decided to wait for another 2 hours before waking Mark up to head to the hospital. Upon arrival at 9am, I was immediately admitted to the hospital. From the time I was admitted to the delivery time, God made it so quick that I delivered our son before 12 noon. When we first laid eyes on our son, all our cares and worry was forgotten and we had so much love for him. Our son is indeed a gift from God in His own perfect timing. Matthew has been relatively easy to take care and we as new parents are learning from him each day. If we can love our son who is only a couple days old so much, how much more does our God loves us. We are very thankful to God for giving us the opportunity to be parents to Matthew.

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