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Grace Tan
In Musings, News, Tips + Ideas

Vendor Highlight: Michelle Touche

VendorHighlightFrom personal experience, I can say with utmost conviction that having the right make up artist can ‘make’ or ‘break’ you. I have gone through good and bad experiences, and I know for certain that this art is never to be taken lightly. I have known Michelle for years now, and every time I see the work that she has done, it is truly amazing. She has transformed brides and also made those who are already beautiful even more beautiful.

Amazingly, this woman looks really youthful, and you can hardly tell that she has been in the industry for over 20 years! When she was in Form 2 in Secondary school, Michelle started to learn how to apply make up over her school holidays. And when she was in Form 5, she already started training others how to do it! Naturally, through the years, Michelle has built a strong team of make up artists who are also excellent at their craft.

The rate for their wedding make up & hair services starts from RM1,000 (senior). Pre-wedding rates start from RM500 onwards.

Here’s some tips and interesting facts that Michelle has given to me in our conversation together. Continue Reading

Diane
In Family + Children Portraits, Newborn, Portraits, Studio

Tips on Photographing Babies & Newborns

20141118_NEWBORN_PORTRAITS_SYDNEY_HARTMAN_38

It’s funny how it is through my career in photography that I get to handle infants. More so now compared during the time where I used to work directly with kids as a teacher! There’s truly a different set of skills to learn and be aware of with handling children and babies of different age groups and even with that, every child has different temperaments!

At Stories, I have had the wonderful privilege to photograph and document relationships between parents and baby. Every shoot is a new experience as every individual is different and more often than not, I rely a lot on my intuition to navigate through the differences. Just want to share with you some thoughts I have concerning photographing newborn babies and slightly older infants.

20141118_NEWBORN_PORTRAITS_SYDNEY_HARTMAN_77 Continue Reading

Grace Tan
In Casual Portraits, Chinese Weddings, For Photographers, Musings, Portraits, Tips + Ideas, Weddings

Behind the Scenes: Making the Most of Every Location

Sometimes I think of myself as not just a photographer, but also a furniture removal specialist, a clutter-free agent, and a lighting consultant. It’s very normal to find less-than-ideal situations at every wedding. Naturally, everyone would love to photograph at beautiful locations and resorts, but most times, I find myself in truly-loved family homes. Read: It usually includes lots of collectibles and objects that have accumulated through the years.

So, I’ve done all of these and more:

1. Moved furniture for the tea ceremony so that we can maximise on better light.
2. Packed clothing into cupboards, hidden rubbish bins, and the rogue red polka dotted mat.
3. Removed curtains because the colour clashes with the wall colour in the bride’s room.
4. Posed couples and families in the compound amidst shoe cabinets and vehicles. Just like these 2 photos of the bride and her bridesmaid were taken in what looked like a seemingly neutral background.

BTS-jon-priscilla1But in reality, was taken here:

BTS-jon-priscilla2I had two things that went through my mind when I chose this location: The beautiful light, and clean wall. 

Love the challenge! :)

Grace Tan
In Musings, Outdoor Weddings, Tips + Ideas, Weddings

Planning a Destination Beach Wedding

Langkawi-panoramaPlanning a destination beach wedding in Malaysia? Without a doubt, Langkawi is at the top of the list. It has everything – deep blue seas, white fluffy clouds, white sandy beaches, great 5-6 star resorts, duty free shopping and great Malaysian food. Of course the other famous beach wedding destinations like Maldives, Hawaii, Bali or Phuket has its own charm, but if you are hoping to have a beach wedding in Malaysia, Langkawi is the place.

As a team, we would take the one hour flight from Petaling Jaya to Langkawi pretty frequently to cover beach weddings there. Organizing a beach wedding can be relaxing and yet stressful at the same time. Everyone is away at an exotic location, just ready to have fun in the sun. But planning for a destination wedding from a faraway country on your own can be a pretty daunting task.

To make your life a little easier, I’d like to share some thoughts about how to best organize your day so that you can get the most out of your photography. Since I consider sunset as the focal point of the day, I’ll work backwards from there and give you a pictorial journey of planning a beach wedding from a photographer’s viewpoint.

1. Do check on sunset times for the date of your wedding. 

On average, the sun sets about 7.30pm in Langkawi, so a good time to start your ceremony would be 5.30pm. It will be slightly warm at that time, but starting this early would give you ample time for portraits and formals after the wedding ceremony. There’s always a rush to document all the dinner reception details too after the wedding, so if your ceremony starts too late, we will be running around like headless chickens trying to capture all the important shots before night falls. Ideally, I would like to have at least an hour for portraits after the ceremony ends. Continue Reading

Diane
In Musings, Tips + Ideas

Reusing old film strips

Relocating is such a difficult thing to do, for me at least. Not so much logistical hassle, but emotional. Leaving somewhere I know oh-so-well to another feels like I am leaving a big part of my life behind.

But that’s not what I want to talk about today.

You see, while packing for the move, I discovered a paper bag filled with old camera film strips my father has kept over the years. My mother was about to throw them all away, but being the sentimental person that I am, I knew I had to find a way to save it, for old memory’s sake.

So I’ve decided to use it to make a simple film decoupage. :)

If you are as sentimental as me, or if your hands are just itching to do something crafty, here’s something you can do too!

Continue Reading

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