Portraits

Grace Tan In Portraits, Pre-Wedding & Engagement Portraits

Mad Men-Inspired: Pre-wedding of Jonathan & Jacinda

Honestly, I’ve not watched a single episode of Mad Men. But the images are so iconic of the 60s and styled so well that it encourages photographers all over the world to do Mad Men-inspired shoots. When Jon and Jacinda mentioned about doing a Mad Men-styled shoot, I excitedly said yes. With a few challenges ahead of me (like for example, both Jon and Jacinda are Asian, we photographed at the Westin, KL), I had to figure out how to pose and create a mood that would portray the look we wanted to achieve. Thought of some ‘parody’ shots too and discussed with Jacinda’s wedding planner Mun Tzin about the types of props that we would need.

So here’s my little take on a Mad Men-inspired shoot for Jon and Jacinda. Hope you like the images!

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Grace Tan In Family + Children Portraits, Portraits, Studio

Family Portraits: Matthew, Pooi San & Arianna

When you get to photograph a baby as cute and smiley as Arianna, it kinda gets your female hormones working a bit more… “Aaaww… I think I want to have another kid!” At 6 months, she is so sociable and super adorable. Naturally, it took her a while to warm up to Diane and I, but after a while, she was laughing at our silly songs, noises and whatever strange antics we had to do to get her all pumped up.

Matthew and Pooi San were really easy going and chatty too. It was nice to be able to connect with them and to spend some time photographing their family. I love how they described what they wanted out of our photo session… “We really want the photos to portray a tastefully done paparazzi shot…meaning it’s like someone is spying on our good times together and everyone is just enjoying each other’s company.”

Matthew and Pooi San, I hope I managed to capture the essence what you hoped for in our session!

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Grace Tan In Portraits, Pre-Wedding & Engagement Portraits, Testimonials

Raw, Vintage & Classic: En Ruey & Jas Min’s Pre-Wedding

One of the things I love about my job is the ability to connect with my clients. Photographing people is such a personal task, and making them feel comfortable and look confident in front of the camera is a challenge I take to heart. Just knowing that I have managed to capture the essence of a person through my images makes me really happy. That’s how I keep going on and on, year after year, even though physically, the job is really tiring.

En Ruey and Jas Min, I am really glad that we could connect and get along so easily. I love all the random locations you brought me to, and of course, all the fun ideas you had! My two photography sessions with you and your family made me feel like long lost family members; I feel so welcomed. En Ruey, thank your mom too for the brunch after the shoot! I am looking forward to your wedding this January!

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By En Ruey (Henry): Having done a family shoot with Grace a few weeks before, I was confident the indoor shoots would go relatively well. I was however very worried for the two outdoor shoots as we didn’t opt for the usual outdoor pre-wedding locations and went guerrilla instead. One of the locations we scouted was a piece of undeveloped land full of lalang, trees and was very secluded. To make matters worse, I heard a rumor the night before that a couple and their photographer got robbed at the exact location so I was quite stressed for everyone’s safety. But it was all for naught as nothing untoward actually happened on the day of the shoot.

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The first shot of the day was a walk-by in front of some steel structures and vines with the morning sun hanging low in the background. Being directed by Grace on how to stand and where to walk while being engrossed in each other made it so easy. After taking a few shots, she walked up grinning and showed us the shot on camera and it was absolutely beautiful. To me, that really set the tone for the day and we really got into the shoot after that and went all out.

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Grace Tan In Family + Children Portraits, For Photographers, Musings, Portraits

Family Portraits: Terence, Devi & Jaydee

I’ve known Terence and Devi for over 10 years, since I was a university student in Brisbane. They are 2 very cool individuals – Terence’s grin and laughter (plus silly jokes) is pretty infectious (though I sometimes admit I roll my eyes occasionally), while Devi’s warm, calm and pleasant personality makes you feel as if you’ve been her friend for umpteen years (even though you might have met her for only 15 minutes).

Devi’s Thai and Kadazan heritage is pretty cool too… therefore, they named their daughter Jaydee… which in Thai means good-hearted. Jaydee is such a sweetheart. Her smile makes you warm up instantly… I guess it helps to have super smiley parents like Terence and Devi!

This shoot was not an ordinary portrait session for us. In fact, there were 5 of us there that day – Johan, Ben, Diane, Felicia and myself. 5 photographers for a family portrait shoot? That sounds pretty crazy huh! Well, our main purpose that day was to share ideas, think outside the box, and sharpen each other’s skill while shooting.

We had heaps of fun. So here’s a combination of shots from all of us! Started out with some couple shots – image on the left taken by Johan, and on the right by Grace.

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Below: L (Diane’s image), R (Grace’s)

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Grace Tan In Portraits, Pre-Wedding & Engagement Portraits

Lush Love: James & Rachel’s Pre-wedding

His first few lines to her was… “Could I loan a book from you?” They were students in TAR College… young, naive and open to love and adventure. One book opened the door to a series of meet ups, and soon, college life, became… well, shall I say… a lot more interesting to James and Rachel.

In reminiscence of their many hours together in college, James and Rachel decided to photograph their pre-wedding there. Wandering the corridors, visiting their usual haunts… it brought back many fond memories for the both of them.

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As a contrast, we also shot at Sekeping Tenggiri. I love how the location is transformed into a magical forest in the shot below, taken by Weiming.

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