Photography

Grace Tan In Family + Children Portraits, Portraits

Family Portraits: Jason, Peng & Leia

Leia is 17 months old. She loves music, dancing and playing on the slide. It took her a while to warm up to me, but in a short time, she was running around and having fun with her parents, Jason & Peng. And when Leia smiles, you just can’t help smiling along with her.

It’s obvious that Jason & Peng dote on Leia.

I love her second outfit, isn’t that super sexy for a little girl? :)

I enjoyed our little outing together, Jason & Peng! I had a great time chatting and getting to know the both of you during the shoot too! Thanks for the wonderful time!

Grace Tan In Chinese Weddings, Weddings

Wedding of Mak & Elsa

Photographers: Grace & Mark
5D Mark 2 Video: Alex & Shu Wan
Same Day Slideshow Editing: Shu Wan
Gown: Pretty in White
Make Up: Angie Ng
Dinner Reception: Jaya Palace Restaurant

Two days before their wedding, I spoke to Elsa, and she told me, “I am not sure whether we are going to have a tea ceremony in the evening or morning with my relatives… let’s play by ear and see what happens” That’s how laidback Mak & Elsa are when it came to planning their wedding. She told me that her friends fretted more than she did over the wedding! Despite all that fretting, things went well for Mak & Elsa, and their wedding day breezed along smoothly.

This was my first time at Balakong, and I am glad I didn’t get lost finding Elsa’s place! Thank God for google maps! But I think it is time for me to invest in a GPS.

Together with my team, we came up with this same day slideshow that was played that night at Jaya Palace Restaurant. Watch out for the cool ring shot thought up by Mark at the end of the slideshow!

[flv:http://www.stories.my/wp-content/uploads/2010/slideshows/makelsa.flv http://www.stories.my/wp-content/uploads/2010/slideshows/makelsa.jpg 700 394]

Here are some of my favourite shots from their wedding.

The lace on her gown is just exquisite!

For this shot, Mark had to hold a reflector next to me, not to reflect the light on Mak & Elsa, but to shade them from the sun!

This is kind of how the place looked like:

I didn’t know it when I took this teapot shot, but it seems that teapots were going to be the theme for the day!

Especially at Jaya Palace Restaurant, where they had large pillars filled with cool teapots like these! We were a little worried that we’d knock into these teapots as we squeezed between tables…

This restaurant had really really good food.

Thanks for being so welcoming and for taking care of my team, Mak & Elsa. Oh, and thanks for walking up and down the stairs a couple of times for us to get the ring shot, Elsa!! :)

Grace Tan In For Photographers, Musings

RedNinja.tv got Mojo? camp

After a few months of planning, our first RedNinja.tv event has finally taken off the ground! The got Mojo? seminar and camp was a huge success. We had a lot of fun with so many talented photographers in the country, some who are thinking of making the leap into full time wedding photography. Many photographers said they learnt a lot from Wiki Lee and his wife Ilona, who shared their hearts to everyone. On top of that, they felt the personal mentoring sessions by the team mentors (Jon Low, Mark Leo, Jenny Sun and I) were really beneficial.

I hope that after this camp, a lot of these photographers will put what they learnt into practice – whether it is regarding honing their style in photography, posing a couple, or about how they run their business. Here are a few behind the scenes shots taken at the camp in Corus, Port Dickson.This is Wiki doing some ninja impersonation with Ilona by his side.

Thanks to Canon, we had a few prizes to give away.

Things you learn at camp: As a ninja photographer, you need to be agile. Very agile – like being in this squatting position for hours.

Wiki giving tips to the photographers during the model shooting session.

I managed to take a few snaps as well even though I was there to mentor the team. Here’s Sonia & Reyhan looking really good! All model make up was done by Shinny Ong, who did an amazing job. The beautiful gowns are sponsored by Pretty in White.

The following photos were taken by Mark. He recently made the switch from Nikon to Canon. (yay!) Here’s a photo of Mark looking like he’s doing the macarena. On the right, Jon Low, who was one of the key organizers for the event and on the left, Ian Chong, who surprised us by showing up at the camp unannounced. Ian is one of the other photographers who I have worked with closely over the past few years.

These are Mark’s shots. Models are Rachel & Ser Young.

Shu Wan, Stories’ amazing digital artist was there at the camp as well. This time, she took up the camera and was shooting away instead of touching up images! Here she is in blue (her favourite colour!)

And these are Shu Wan’s shots.

And finally, a group photo of the team I was mentoring. I had fun with all of you!

Grace Tan In Portraits, Pre-Wedding & Engagement Portraits

Engagement Portraits: Mak & Elsa

He cracks a joke, and she laughs. And when Elsa laughs, the whole world smiles along with her. Mak & Elsa are a pretty laid back couple. They are willing to try anything and are pretty sporting even when I told them to sit in a cracked bath tub on the roof top of the Heritage Hotel!

It was a hot, humid day when we did this shoot but Mak was a sport. He willingly stepped out into the hot sun in his suit and smiled away. I sometimes wonder how is it that we’ve come to adopt this ‘style’ of dressing in Asia. The weather is HOT near the equator. Suits were made for cooler countries! Mak doesn’t really look like he’s sweating buckets here, but I am sure he was hoping for an air-conditioned room!

Elsa’s gorgeous gown is from Pretty in White, one of our recommended gown partners.

The lace details on this gown is intricate and beautiful.

A change of gown, location & flowers…

Another gorgeous gown from Pretty in White. I love gowns with bits of colour in them.

Shooting from sunset till night gives you lots of opportunity to play with lighting…

Looking forward to your wedding in May!

Grace Tan In For Photographers, Musings

Introducing… RedNinja.tv!

Years ago, when I first got into the whole art of photography, I didn’t really know where to turn for help or training. Everything I learnt about photography was through my own trial and error, reading the darn camera manual that I didn’t understand, or searching for information online. Other times, I had some photographer friends who helped explain technical concepts to me. And trust me, it took a couple of sessions for me to grasp all these concepts!

Over time, I took photography classes conducted by various Malaysian photographers, and that helped a lot. I am the sort of person that learns things hands-on, rather than just reading that darn manual (again!). This year, I had the privilege of learning from world class photographers at WPPI (Wedding & Portrait Photographers International) in Las Vegas.

After speaking to many Malaysian photographers, I realize that I am not the only one who craves good teaching material. Why should all the good speakers only congregate in the US or Australia? It was with this thought that the 5 of us – Alex Lam, Jenny Sun, Jon Low, Mark Leo and myself came up with the idea of bringing quality training to Malaysia; focusing on creativity, technology and business.

Hence, the birth of RedNinja.tv!

Our first event, called, Got Mojo? is happening on the 23rd-25th April 2010. We’re bringing in Wiki Lee, a renowned photographer from Australia. He will speak on finding your style in photography, techniques in developing yourself, including marketing and communications.

Photo taken by Wiki Lee

This is a 2 part event:

1. Seminar (23rd April) – RM50 at P1 auditorium, PJ

2. Camp in Port Dickson (24-25th April) – RM950 for individual registration or RM850 for groups of 3. This includes bus transportation from BU, hotel accommodation and food! There will be practical and theoretical sessions for this camp. And you get to be mentored by Jenny Sun, Jon Low, Mark Leo, Alex Lam and myself. This camp is designed to be more personal so that we get to spend more time with everyone. All of us will be speaking as well during the camp.

Look at the schedule here: http://redninja.tv/schedule-001/ There is limited space at the camp. Register for the camp or seminar here: http://redninja.tv/register-now-001/

I do hope to see you there!