Portraits

Grace Tan In Portraits, Pre-Wedding & Engagement Portraits

Engagement Portraits: Adrian & Stefanie

When Adrian and Stefanie came to meet me to discuss their engagement portrait session, Adrian told me that he loves high key shots. He couldn’t decide whether he prefers the photos to be taken in the morning or evening. And we talked about shoot locations at length. You see, that’s what happens when you photograph a photographer. They have all sorts of cool ideas and it usually takes a while to make a decision! Stef was the casual, relaxed one. Her only criteria: “Can we shoot on some windy road…?”

And so we ended up at their apartment in Kota Damansara where I took some photos in their newly decorated home.

When I arrived there, Stef showed me these notes that she had written. And I thought it was really cute!!

And so, I thought, why not take the idea a little further. So I got them to sit down separately and write down what they thought of each other. And then to reveal it to camera…

Well, Stef was quite tickled with what Adrian wrote!

After an hour or so, we went outdoors to continue our shoot. When we left their home, lightning was streaking across the sky… “Oh no, it’s going to pour!” And it DID! It rained so heavily that I wondered if we would have to postpone the second half of the shoot. But when we arrived in KL, it was nice and sunny.

The sky was really clear. Hard to believe that we had just gone through a thunderstorm to get here!

When the sun came out in the evening, it was golden…

And Stef got her windy road shot!

When we were about to end our shoot, it started to drizzle again… and that’s when we saw this tiny rainbow peeking out through the clouds! The colour of sky was so glorious!

Then the sun set, and it was blue for a while… :) I promise you, this sky is real and not Photoshop-ed in! I love colour!

Congratulations on your upcoming wedding, Adrian & Stef. Sorry I could not be there to cover your wedding day. I am sure it will be a day filled with lots of joy, topped up with God’s goodness!

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

Some Teaser Images

I have a number of blog posts lined up but I’ve been pretty busy so I have not had the time to upload photos here! Coming up soon…a couple of family portraits, weddings & pre-weddings to share…! Here are just 2 images from different shoots that I’ve done recently. Hopefully I can put up 2 blog posts by the end of this week!

Grace Tan In Portraits, Pre-Wedding & Engagement Portraits

Portraits: Eric & Debbie in Pangkor Island Day1

It’s always so exciting when a couple decides to go out of the way to get beautiful images. Malaysia has lots of wonderful beaches. If you are thinking of white sand everywhere the eye can see, well you have to visit places like Four Seasons Resort in Langkawi for that (that’s coming up in another blog post!). Pangkor is not really known for white sandy beaches, but it definitely has a charm of its own!

We stayed at the Pangkor Island Resort, and these pre-wedding photos were taken around the resort itself. Debbie’s brief to me was… “I want sunset shots by the beach, and something different!”. Oh, we definitely had lots of fun those 2 days.

Stumbled upon this cool truck on the beach…

Day 2 started at 5am, and we ended up in a fishing village and also a Dutch fort! Coming soon…

Grace Tan In Portraits, Pre-Wedding & Engagement Portraits

Engagement Portraits: Siva + Sumitha

The thing that strikes me about Sumi is how infectious her laugh is. She is so bubbly and always joyful. I am sure that is one of the reasons Siva is drawn to her! A few weeks before their engagement shoot, I met up with them at Starbucks in the Curve. Only one sandwich to be shared between the both of them for dinner. “Gearing up for the photo shoot & wedding” they said. Wow, such resilience.

Even though it rained half way through our shoot, Siva & Sumi’s spirits remained high. We continued the shoot in the rain, and in complete darkness, even after the sun had set. I love doing really impromptu things like this with my clients. Makes life more exciting! At the end of the shoot, Sumi said, “This is sooo much fun!” Well, Sumi, I had a really awesome time too. Looking forward to your wedding in March.

A quick change of outfit (at the Dataran Merdeka carpark toilet!) and a new location…

It started raining when we arrived at FRIM. Luckily the make up artist had this really cool strawberry umbrella in the car…

It’s so cute, I wish I could claim the glory and say that I planned it all. :)

In between intermittent rain, the sun came out for a short while – maybe 10 minutes?

And then the sun set, and it rained again…

This is where it got really interesting…

Since it was already raining, why not just go ahead and get wet? With so little light to play with, I decided to manoeuver two cars (Siva’s and mine!) into the best position for the shots below… (and Shu Wan holding one video light next to them)