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

Hari Raya with the Naza Family

I was honoured that an old friend had recommended me to Datuk Wira SM Faisal SM Nasimuddin, who was looking for a family portrait photographer during the Raya holidays. It was wonderful meeting the entire family behind the Naza Group of companies, including Marion Caunter. Donned in festive clothes too, I tried my best to look good setting up lights while wearing a kebaya. :)

Everyone looked really smart in their baju Raya and the kids were just too cute. Here’s the large family portrait that was set up in 5 minutes. As one of the siblings, Nadia mentioned on her Instagram account, “There’s a whole troop of nannies behind this shot”… and may I add, taking photos for the family with their mobile phones! I wish we had taken a behind the scene shot of that!

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Grace Tan
In Musings, Tips + Ideas

Canvas Clusters

Canvas-13I believe canvases are a great way to brighten up a home – especially if it is filled with lovely images of your family. At Stories, we have designed canvas clusters for our clients through the years. All you need to do is to tell us the dimensions of your wall in inches and we will design it for you, free of charge. Here are some tips on how to plan for a beautiful canvas wall at your home:

  1. Find a wall that is a feature in your home – meaning, the wall should be in a prominent location that is eye-catching. This could be above the couch in your living room or next to your dining table.
  2. Avoid having too much clutter at the bottom of your feature wall. If the wall is next to a cabinet that is filled with children’s toys, your eyes will be drawn to the clutter and not the images.
  3. Install spotlights that direct your attention towards the images on the wall. This is especially good for night events!
  4. When choosing images to include on the wall, think about some form of continuity – for example, are all the images taken in a nice outdoor environment but one is not? Do the images complement or distract each other? Is there a theme to the images selected? Do also include a series of candid and posed shots for best effect.
  5. Communicate with your designer if you prefer to have designs that are neat (for example, all canvases fit into a perfect square) or if you prefer a more organic design that doesn’t have to align perfectly with each other.

Canvas-10What do you think of the sample walls at our office?

Grace Tan
In Family + Children Portraits, Portraits

Kelvin, Jamie and a sleepy baby

In a family portrait session, everything rarely ever goes according to plan. Sometimes babies will bawl their heads out, refuse to smile (even when parents insist they are super smiley babies) or in the case of Kelvin and Jamie, their baby boy Tristan fell asleep halfway through the shoot! I guess we were kind of boring to him! Well, the shoot had to carry on, so awake or not, we took photos of the little sleepy head. Thankfully, after his 10 minute power nap, Tristan woke up all cheerful and ready to face the day.

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Grace Tan
In Casual Portraits, Life, Musings, Portraits, Relationships

Reminiscing: Portraits in Kelantan

A year ago, the Stories team headed to a small village in Kelantan to photograph portraits for the families affected by the devastating 2014 flood. We were just so blessed to be able to meet these families and to replace precious family photos that were lost in the flood. We braved the Hari Raya jam and drove up north, to a place we had never visited before and ate Raya kuih with families who welcomed us with open arms. Have a look at the behind the scenes video that describes more about what took place over the few days we were there. It was a one of a kind experience for all of us. Wishing a great time of family bonding for everyone celebrating Raya!

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Grace Tan
In Musings, Parties & Events, Portraits, Tips + Ideas

Ways to personalise your wedding bands

I recently had the pleasure of visiting Rings and Bands, a concept store based in the elite neighbourhood of Valencia. Li Dong, the owner of this exclusive wedding ring fine jewellery store, shared some of her experience in the jewellery business. The rings were just exquisite – you could choose from rings made of platinum or gold, or even rhodium. You can also custom design your own rings at the store, overlooking golfers on the lawn next door.

ringsnbandsPhoto courtesy of Rings and Bands

I was also excited to hear about some interesting ways you can personalise your wedding bands, other than just engraving your name. You can sign your promise, inscribe your love story, write a personal note on the surface of the rings… and wait for this… even put your fingerprint on it!

What a great idea! Not only is it totally unique, you can even use it as a security feature if your wedding band ever got stolen! Just compare fingerprints and you’re done. :) Obviously, the band is not really able to fit your entire fingerprint, but just a small portion of it.

I was also invited to give a short talk to some of the residents at Valencia about the art of people photography. It was nice to be able to collaborate in such a manner. Do visit their concept store or check out their website to see their collection of finest engagement rings and wedding bands.

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