Elfin Forest Maternity/Family Session | Trudelle Family

The Trudelle family was amazing. Little Titus always had a smile on his face, while Kyle and Randi were amazing. They are so much fun and we loved working with them. Here is a little glimpse into their shoot that we had with them at the Elfin Forest in San Marcos. 

Maternity Photographers: Be Still Photog | Ernie Padaon | Fiona Padaon
Location: Elfin Forest | San Marcos, CA

Elfin Forest Family Portraits | Sneak Peek w. Trudelle Family

This family is the best! We had so much fun with them during our portrait session out at the Elfin Forest in San Marcos. The area is so beautiful out there and when you have a wonderful good looking family like the Trudelle's, it is almost impossible to take a poor photo. 

Check out a quick sneak peek from the session below. We look forward to sharing more from the session soon. 

Family/Maternity Portrait Photographers: Be Still Photography | Ernie Padaon | Fiona Padaon
Location: Elfin Forest | San Marcos, CA

Craig + Stephanie | Family Portraits at San Juan Capistrano

We were recently up in Orange County at San Juan Capistrano to do a family shoot with Craig and Stephanie. It is always a challenge to get the little ones to smile in front of the camera, but after a little warming up we were able to get a few smiles. They were a bit shy to take a few photos, but even the "shy" photos turned out great.

Their daughter had an amazing dress and she loved showing it off by spinning. Of course we made the most of that when we could.

The bricks by the movie theater made for a nice color and texture to use for the family. Loved getting the shots there with them.

Since it is fall, there were a few leaves on the ground. There is not going to be a ton of leaves in Southern California, but when we were able to find an alley with a few, the kids were ready to toss it around. The train brings a nice color for the photos.

To go on train tracks or to not go on train tracks.... we seem to lean on going on the tracks every time.

Family portrait photographers: Be Still Photog | Ernie Padaon | Fiona Padaon Location: San Juan Capistrano

Family portraits at Stone Brewery

  Last week, we did family portraits at Stone Brewery. A brewery is not exactly the first place that you would think about doing a portrait session, but think about the close availability of brews right after the session.

You can even have a brew during the session. This is perfect for all the gentleman that are not stoked on having their photos taken (almost every guy).

Stone Brewery up in Escondido has a number of great locations to take photos as long as there is not a mass group of people sitting in the garden area.

At some point, I would love to do some engagement photos and a wedding there. It seems like a great spot if there is not a lot of people around.

We went at a random hour and had nice access to the area to have our portrait session with the family. Check out some of the photos of the little children with their Christmas lights and all:

Family Portrait Photographers: Be Still Photog | Ernie Padaon | Fiona Padaon Location: Stone Brewery | Escondido, CA

Here are some of the misc shots that I didn't even use on the blog, so I will just drop them right here for you. It just didn't feel right having a beer photo next to the children. :

Fun family portraits at Old Poway Park

Old Poway Park never seems to fail. It is just an amazing location to capture portraits. You have to be willing to work around the other photographers that are there and also have to be willing to have photos that have the same backdrop as everyone else, but it still is an amazing location. The train tracks and the red box car are always used for portraits. There is also a ton of shaded area that can be used to get some good looks. We will be back at Old Poway Park again soon. We know that we will get some amazing shots when we get back out there again .

We did a Christmas themed shoot with this awesome family and they were so much fun. We did their Christmas photos last year and it is so fun to see the twins grow up. They stole the show for the portrait session this year. They were so much more comfortable with the camera and loved every second of being photographed. Can't wait to work with them again next year for their Christmas portraits!

Family Portrait Location:  Old Poway Park Family Portrait Photographers: Be Still Photog | Ernie Padaon | Fiona Padaon

Capturing the extra details during portrait sessions

Something that we have been doing more and more of during our portrait sessions is taking photos of the surrounding area. It is just that added detail that can be used perfectly for blogging with the photos. It is not exactly something that the clients are going to purchase to put on the wall, but it is something that they will look over and remember what the trees looked like that day or to have that extra detail of a building or anything else like that. I think that extra detail is nice to have and I have seen some other great photographers add that detail to their blogging. It is something that we do during our weddings anyway and it is good practice to keep doing it during portrait sessions.

Even if you don't use them for your portrait sessions blog or anything else like that, you still have an awesome image that you can use for something else.

We just recently did some portraits at the Stone Brewery in Escondido. Since we arrived a little earlier than the family, we started taking some photos of the little details around the shooting areas that we were going to be at.

Here are just a few of the images from the details:

We will be posting that family shoot soon and you can see how we integrate some of these photos into the blog.

If we actually shot a wedding at the location, we likely would have added a lot more of the details around. It is an awesome location and we cannot wait till we capture a wedding there.

Photographers: Be Still Phtoog | Ernie Padaon | Fiona Padaon Location: Stone Brewery | Escondido, CA

Check out our main page here: Be Still Photog

Family Portraits at Old Poway Park

It feels like it has been forever since we were back at Old Poway Park, but we were back there again this week to take some family portraits. It is a photographer's paradise out there, except for all the other photographers that you have to work around. It is not a huge deal since we have worked in that area so many times and we know how to avoid all the other photographers. At Old Poway Park, the train tracks are a huge attraction for a lot of the people that choose that area. There is also a few shaded areas in which you can get some amazing captures.

Here is just a quick sneak peek in on some of the photos from our portrait session with these little twins. It is Christmas time, so we should have a few Christmas portraits coming through.

Here is a quick sneak peek from our shoot. We will have the full edits soon and will share it out on the blog! We can't wait to share this family shoot.

Location: Old Poway Park Photographers: Be Still Photog | Ernie Padaon | Fiona Padaon

San Diego Family Portraits | Macias Family

San Diego Portrait Photographer: Ernie Padaon | Be Still Photography

This was one time that I was at a wedding and was not shooting the photography for the wedding. Instead, I was running the videography for they day and some friends were in attendance. Right before I left for the day, I asked if they wanted to have a few photos taken since they were all dressed up and in Balboa Park. Just snapped off a few for the family and got these!

This family is amazing and are so much fun. They love to laugh with each other and they are perfect in front of the camera. When you have the opportunity to snap off some quick family shots in San Diego in the perfect location, you just make it happen. Everyone was dressed up and looking their best for the wedding, so we might as well get a quick portrait session for everyone that is out there.

We love this fam and we are stoked that we got some time to take some family photos for them on this day.

San Diego Family Portraits | Baby Announcement | Michele + Dominic Guerra | San Marcos, CA

San Diego family portraits with the Guerra family. These family portraits were used for a baby announcement to their friends.

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San Diego Family portrait photographers: Be Still Photography | Ernie Padaon | Fiona Padaon

We did some family portraits with the Guerra family at Jake's Pond in San Marcos. It was the first time that we had worked at this location, but I am sure that we will see more of it. There were plenty of great areas to take photos at and there was a big red barn to use as the background for photos as well. That always looks amazing for some family photos.

We were honored to be able to create with the Guerra family for their baby announcement. We had a great time and created some amazing images for their announcement.

We look forward to creating for the family again for the whole family session when their new arrival joins us all. I do wonder if we will be all denim again? We loved it!

This family did great in front of the camera. They were naturals at it and the camera loves them! We can't wait to do more photos with the family and create more magic with them.

Baby/ Family Portraits | Baby Charlotte at Walnut Grove Park, San Marcos

We always love getting referrals from our lovely weddings. We did a family shoot with the lovely Elmore's and baby Charlotte. They missed the opportunity to do some newborn photos, but still were able to get some beautiful shots with the family. What an amazing family to capture.

Family Portraits at Old Poway Park

Family Portraits Photographers: Be Still Photography | Ernie Padaon and Fiona Padaon Location: Old Poway Park, San Diego, CA

We had a great time at Old Poway Park with the Block Family. We were able to sneak away from the rest of the photographers at the park and found a little area near by to get some family portraits in. The session had a lot of props for Lillian's first birthday. We ended the day with a little smash the cake. Check out some of the photos from the day.

Family Portraits at the Beach in Carlsbad, CA

Family Portrait Photographers: Be Still Photography Ernie Padaon and Fiona Padaon Location: Carlsbad, CA

We were back at that beautiful location at the beach in Carlsbad and were running some family portraits for our neighbors. The sun has been going down earlier and earlier these days and it has been getting a little chilly out of late, so that made it easier to find spots where there were not random people hanging out in the background of photos.

It was great to hang out and capture some moments with the family. They have beautiful twins and there were some great moments with all of them. Here are some of the photos from their day:

Family Portraits at Poway Railroad Station

We just did a family portrait session out in Poway at this old school railroad station yesterday. It was the first time that we have ever been out to the station and found it by looking up poway and photography through google. Apparently everyone and their mother knew about this location for photography though. There were at least 4 different photography sessions going on at the same time that we were out there. It was crazy. We all had the same locations in mind to shoot and we even saw some photographers steal ideas on our posing.

Either way, the posing part of family sessions is the shots that we make sure to have because it is traditional and everyone has it. They definitely are a must to take, but the style that we will be pushing is more of the photojournalistic feel. Shots like the one above. Shots that show you the love and fun that the family have.

The shots are set up in a bit, but posing and popping hips out and smiling are not part of the requirements. We want real reactions and real movements. We want real laughs and real smiles.

We still have to edit through this batch, but we will share more of these types of shots from this weekend's shoot.