Portraits

Grace Tan In Portraits, Pre-Wedding & Engagement Portraits

Pre-Wedding at Taaras Resort, Redang: Jonathan & Vanilla

This is a love story that spans across two countries… Malaysia and China. It was Vanilla’s best friend’s wedding in Penang and the 7th time she became a bridesmaid. So Vanilla travelled from China to attend the wedding, not thinking that she would ever find love on this side of the ocean. For the past 6 weddings, she had always rushed to grab the bouquet but this time, the couple specially presented the bouquet to her as a gift. As fate would have it, during her trip to KL after the wedding, she met Jonathan, who was her friend’s younger brother. Her first thought was that this boy was cute! They didn’t really have much time to chat until the day she was due to travel to the airport. Jonathan was tasked to send her to the airport and it was during that loooong ride that they got to know each other.

Vanilla was surprised that at the end of that ride, he expressed his love at first sight to her. He immediately hooked her heart that day, and soon, they were messaging each other everyday. Their relationship blossomed despite their age difference with him being younger.

I was privileged to travel with them to The Taaras Beach & Spa Resort on Redang Island for their pre-wedding photo session. Despite the rainy weather forecast, everything went really well and we had a beautiful day together. The couple’s family also came along for the trip, so we squeezed in some shots with them. All the best to the both of you as you start your life’s journey together.

Grace Tan In Boudoir, Casual Portraits, Musings, Portraits, Studio, Tips + Ideas

Glamour Up And Bring Out The Diva In You!

We’ve all heard of boudoir shoots… those somewhat risqué and sexy images in a bedroom or studio setting that wives take for their husbands. (They make great gifts for your spouse, by the way!) But what if you just want to keep it clean and still get some gorgeous pictures of yourself or with your girlfriends? We’d suggest a glamour shoot in this case.

Wait, what is glamour photography again? It’s all about celebrating and embracing all that makes you who you are… while having fun! The image of Marilyn Monroe laughing with abandon as she holds down her flyaway white dress comes to mind. Here’s how you can pull it off too: Continue Reading

Grace Tan In Family + Children Portraits, Portraits

The Happy Japanese family: Yuki & Aki

Last year, we participated at the 9th Private International School Fair in Midvalley and met Yuki there at our booth. We had a great time just chatting and connecting and on that day itself, he booked a photography session with us. This really cute Japanese family loves Malaysia so much, they are considering making this their 2nd home under the Malaysian My Second Home program! It always amazes me when I meet expats who love Malaysia so much they want to make it their home. Despite the challenges our nation faces, I am still proud to be Malaysian. This is a place where many opportunities abound.

Here are some of my favourites from Yuki and Aki’s session.

Grace Tan In Family + Children Portraits, Portraits, Studio

Graduation Portraits: Ghouse family

We photographed Corina and Andrew a few times through the years – once for their pre-wedding, then family portraits after the little one was born, and a few months ago, Corina’s family! It was her sister, Samantha’s graduation and we were so elated that we got to celebrate an important moment with her. It is really our pleasure that we get to walk through life with our clients, taking photos of key moments in their lives.

Just this thought came to me the other day… through the years, we have actually accumulated Gigs and Gigs of data in our hard drives. Even though we photographed a client 12 years ago, we still have their wedding or family photos till today! Crazy, isn’t it… but these images are as precious to us as they are to our clients. If anyone loses their images, they can always contact us as we have 2 copies of their photos or video stored away for them! Growing up, after developing the photos from negatives, I always imagined it was my responsibility to keep these images safe. I don’t know if my clients think we are crazy, but yeah, we have records of hundreds of family photos, all archived safely for them.

Grace Tan In Family + Children Portraits, Portraits

The Nasimuddin family: Raya portraits

When you add 8 young children below the age of 8 together in a large group portrait, chaos is sure to happen. Between threats, bribery, monkey calls (I was doing the monkey impression), we managed to get the attention of children. I even had to don my special lens accessory to attract them (look at the last photo to see what I mean). Between tears, shouts of “I don’t want to take a photo” and “Look here!”, we managed to get this…

We have a few versions of the group photo, but here’s what really took place behind the scenes of the Naza family’s Raya portraits.

We are really honoured to be part of their annual Raya photos for the 3rd year in a row, thanks to Datuk Wira SM Faisal. I also got to taste the delicious rendang made by his mum once again. This really close knit family is a joy to photograph. There’s just so much love and laughter in this family.