children

Grace Tan In Family + Children Portraits, International, Portraits

Portraits in Singapore: Tang Family

Yee Ming and I have a long history together, from our primary school days in Malacca. As childhood friends, we used to play hide and seek together. Four years ago, when her daughter was born, I flew to JB to photograph some family portraits. I rarely get to see Yee Ming anymore since I hardly travel back to Malacca, but I was honoured that she asked me to fly in to Singapore to photograph her husband, Boon Hock’s extended family.

We went to East Coast Park for our shoot, but on a weekend, it was packed to the brim with people! It was pretty challenging trying to find corners to shoot without someone walking into my frame. But from the photos below, you might have thought that we had the entire park to ourselves!

Grace Tan In Family + Children Portraits, Maternity, Portraits

Vintage Chic Maternity Portraits: Diana

Darryl and Diana tied the knot a few years ago and had Kate shortly after, but they didn’t get a chance to take maternity or newborn photos then as she was born premature and sent to the ICU. But look at how she has grown! She will be receiving a baby sister soon, and I can’t wait to meet her as well during our newborn session. During our session together, I was warned that Kate may not take too easily to strangers, but thank God she liked my smiley face. :) I love how this set of images turned out.

Grace Tan In Family + Children Portraits, Newborn, Portraits

Newborn family portraits: Nate

There is something beautiful about seeing a newborn nestling comfortably in his mother’s arms. Or how tiny his fingers look compared to yours. Oh how a child changes everything in your life! Definitely a milestone to remember. Nate was an easy baby to photograph… most of the time, he just slept and was oblivious to me clicking away! He must have gotten his easy going personality from his parents Owen and Ida. At the end of the session, we managed to even change him into a pilot’s outfit, suitable for a pilot’s son! That was just too adorable.

Grace Tan In Casual Portraits, Family + Children Portraits, Life, Musings, Portraits

Fugee School Documentary Videos

At the end of 2016, 4 of us from the Stories team made a special visit to Fugee School, an education hub for refugee kids in Kuala Lumpur. It was a time of getting away from our usual work to do other socially responsible photography and video related projects. In a way, it was something similar to what we did in Kelantan some years back with the flood victims. I met with Deborah Henry, co-founder of the school, to run through some ideas on what we could do for Fugee School, and we narrowed down our focus to a documentary style approach that would give some insight into these families and their life here in Malaysia.

We were blessed to have met two students, Yusra and Hafsa. Listen to their heartwarming stories in the video below, and support amazing organizations like Fugee School who work to make a difference to these children.

Credits:

Yusra’s Story
Photographed & filmed by Jamie & Chi Yin
Edited by Chi Yin
Creative direction by Grace

Hafsa & Hasan’s Story
Photographed & filmed by Grace & Jennifer
Edited by Chi Yin
Creative direction by Grace

Grace Tan In Family + Children Portraits, Newborn, Portraits, Studio

Newborn Portraits: Marieke & Maarten

Remember Maarten and Marieke’s maternity portraits that Jamie shot some time ago? Well, they have now delivered an adorable baby girl and we had the pleasure of meeting her! She is just so gorgeous, perfectly formed with that cute button nose and beautiful lips. We love photographing newborn babies because they are just tiny once… (and remind you of the sleepless nights you experienced as a young mother). But once they get older, you will wish they were much lighter, and you start to miss all those little moments again… holding those tiny hands, the first time bitter sweet experience of breastfeeding your child or even worrying about why she can’t sleep at night or during the day.

This quote I read in Gretchen Rubin’s Happiness Project book resonates with me, and I am sure it will with you too.

“The days are long, but the years are short”