Photography

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

Zoe’s 1st Birthday Party

Styled birthday parties are the rage nowadays, and we love all the little details that go into making it such a pretty event. Two years ago, we went to New Zealand to photograph Calvin & Queenie’s wedding, and now, we’re photographing their daughter’s 1st birthday! So much love went into planning this rainbow themed, colourful party. Queenie also went as far as to coordinate her shoes with little Zoe. As a mother of 2 myself, planning parties like these are fun, but can be pretty stressful. It definitely helps if you have a planner and decorator like Mint Events & Soirées to do the bulk of the work for you!

We also photographed their family portraits the next day. I’ll share more of that in a separate blog post! I’ve included lots and lots of detail shots as inspiration for mothers who want a similar theme for their parties.

Grace Tan In Family + Children Portraits, Portraits, Studio

Family Portraits: Andrea & Marek

I am pretty sure every Asian parent would be envious of this little kid, with her huge, gorgeous blue eyes. She looks so much like a doll and her smile can turn any blue day into a sunny, happy one. It’s days and sessions like these that keep us energised and excited. We love candid moments like these too… they are all part of the fun, and make a session memorable.

Grace Tan In Family + Children Portraits, Portraits

Family Portraits in Desa Park City: Ranjini & Rune

Rune is from Denmark and Ranjini is Malaysian. 10 years ago, they met by chance at the now defunct Bar Savahn in Heritage Row. It so happened that he was standing at Ranjini’s spot at the bar when she returned from the washroom. That was the first time she saw him and spoke because she wanted her spot back. He was happy to move a bit but stayed to keep talking. It took Rune 6 months to woo Ranjini because she was not into younger men. Rune said that he was the Danish national salsa champion (not true), and yet 5 years later they got married with the most awesome wedding! Two years after that they had Noah, and another 2 years later, Luna. We were privileged to have met this amazing family in a fun filled photo session in Desa Park City.

Grace Tan In Life, Musings, Relationships, Tips + Ideas

Everyday photos that you need to take

As a photographer, I have this innate desire and need to document my life. There are some important people, places or events that encompasses an essential part of who I am and the life I live. I believe that this process of documenting life is really important and I encourage you to think about your own life and how you can capture these moments because they become little windows into a memory that you once held dear.

1. Your house

It may seem trivial to take a photo of your house from the outside. But when you move and settle into a new home, you might find it hard to remember if there was a rose bush by the old gate or if your door was wooden or glass because those memories will fade. Just by looking at a picture of your old house on the outside can actually bring a flood of memories to mind of the times you spent pruning that rose bush and the barbeques you had on the porch.

My family home in Malacca where I spent my growing up years. This was the final goodbye as we packed the house to sell it in 2011.

2. The inside of your home

Just like the outside, you’ll want to remember the interior of the place you called home. Maybe one day your kids will want to see their old room, or the doorframe where you had their height measured every six months; and maybe even have a laugh at the type of furniture you had. They might even remember the time they spilled juice all over that carpet! They will be images that have far more sentimental value than you’d expect. This is one of the reasons I love photographing families in their own home, mess and all.

Grace Tan In Portraits, Pre-Wedding & Engagement Portraits

Pre-Wedding at MCKL: Nicolas & Cassandra

I have to admit, I haven’t really made the time to prep many of the images that the team has shot for blog posts. As the key person who handles our social media postings, I need to buck up a bit more to get things going. Most of my time has been spent on meeting potential business partners / clients, shoots, replying emails, helping coordinate other shoots, going for my BNI meetings, and then being a mother. So now that I’ve prepped and sent my kid off to school, I have time before my next meeting for a blog post!

Nicolas & Cassandra were wed recently in August, and we are planning to share their images from their wedding on our blog soon. But I wanted to first share their casual 2 hour pre-wedding session that was photographed by Jennifer. It was a really easy going session as the shoot was held at the place where they met… Methodist College KL. I love how much laughter these 2 share between the both of them. You certainly need huge amounts of laughter and fun to carry you through life as a couple!