365 PORTRAIT CHALLENGE | 3 OF 365 | Caleb being Caleb

We are on Day 3 of the 365 portrait challenge that we put on ourselves and it has been a great experience already. So far I have gotten both of my kids in the portraits already and today we should be going outside of the house to get a portrait.

The portrait for Day 3 is of our son Caleb. We already know that he is going to be one of the funny kids in school. He loves to make people laugh and he can't sit in front of the camera and look into it without making some goofy face.

This is our son being our son...

Be Still Photographers san diego portrait

The more I thought of this challenge, the more I started to think that this could be a "Humans of New York" type of project. I don't know if we will get to that level, but it definitely will reach a number of different people that cross our paths. I know there will be some duplicates of people throughout this process, but the more we step out of our comfort zone and ask people for photos, the more fun this project can get.

Part of this challenge will be to take photos of as many different people as we can. Let's see how far we can reach!

To see our different blog posts on this challenge, click HERE. If you just want to check out the slideshow, click HERE.

Camera details: ISO 1600 | 35mm | f/1.8 | 1/100 sec Portrait photographer: Be Still Photog

365 Portrait Challenge | 1 of 365 | Self-Portrait

A 365 portrait challenge! We have challenged ourselves to create a portrait every single day for an entire year. Some days it is going to be easy since we will have clients booked and can use their portraits for our challenge and some days we will have to just create. We have seen that some people use this as a self-portrait challenge, but we want to create portraits. Portraits of any kind and of any person. At some point we will get sick of shooting the same people and will have to go outside the box to create more.

To start out this challenge though, we went with a self-portrait. Don't be surprised, but this is the first time I had used the timer feature on the camera before. I never found reason to use it in the past, but will probably use it a ton while taking some portraits for myself to get in.

Here is the first portrait in a long line of photos:

San Diego Wedding Photographer - Self Portrait - Family - Exist in Photos - Photo Challenge

I FREAKING LOVE!

We always go for that lifestyle type portrait in our work and it was great to actually see myself in a photo. Sue Bryce tells about "existing in photos." No matter what, people should exist in photos. I feel strong about that. I never have been a person that has liked sitting in front of a camera, but after the first self-portrait, I know how important it is to be in front of the camera and not always behind it.

These photos don't disappear and they will always exist. It is a piece of memory that you can always bring up and come back to. People need to exist in photos. Starting off on Day 1 of this challenge and we already have learned some great things. Can't wait to see what else we learn day in and day out of this challenge.

What are we going to create today?!

Follow along with us on this portrait challenge through our BLOG. You can also see some of our photos on our Instagram and Facebook and can see some of the behind the scenes work on our Snapchat.

This should be fun!

San Diego Wedding Photographer - Self Portrait - Family - Exist in Photos

Self-Portrait: Be Still Photography | Ernie Padaon

Portrait Session in Carlsbad Beach

Portrait session in Carlsbad, CA Photographers: Be Still Photography | Ernie Padaon & Fiona Padaon Location: Beach in Carlsbad, CA (Won't tell all the secrets since it is nice to have this spot without a ton of people around)

We were doing a family shoot with these two and had an amazing time with them. We were able to take them away from the kids for a bit to get some shots of them as a couple. Loved the light that we wer able to get. They were a great fam to work with and the location is dreamy. Love how you can get a beach without many people walking around it.