San Diego Photography: The most important part

  San Diego Photography by Be Still Photog: Ernie Padaon | Fiona Padaon

This morning, I opened up a post from Chase Jarvis that he originally posted a few years ago, but he tweeted it out again today.

The simple tweet read "This is the most important part"

https://twitter.com/chasejarvis/status/631140534766047234

THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT PART! It is all about the love of photography. We know that the business part of photography is hard and takes up a lot of time. but the love of photography is what keeps us rolling. I could go out and just take photos on any day. It is my love!

If I didn't have to worry about paying off houses and putting food on the table, I could shoot a wedding without getting paid. I often tell my friends that book us for weddings that they don't need to worry about us having fun during their wedding day because we will be doing things that we love during the day. We love being able to capture the day for our friends since we know their personalities well and we would be able to capture their day even better because of that.

The business part is what makes the photography portion a job. That is how we have to pay the bills at the end of the day, but the love of photography is what makes it worth it.

How do we use Pinterest in the wedding world?

  Pinterest. One of the goals that we have is to get better at posting our own work through Pinterest. Why have a Pinterest for our own company if we are not going to share our own work>

We ask people to create mood boards all the time for their engagement photography or for their wedding photography and they get images from other places that are on Pinterest, but our latest work is not always up on there for people to search through. We are going to begin to process all our stuff on there in order to reach that market. We need to be in that market.

The Pinterest world is big and there are a lot of brides that are planning their wedding through there. We need to get into that part of the world. At first we had just dropped in images in there without writing a description on them. Without a description, they would never be found unless they personally went onto our page. It is just like SEO for Pinterest. We have to add keywords for things to be found on there.

Just like all avenues of social media, it seems that you have to be active in the community in order to get any attention. We don't have it all figured out yet on Pinterest, but we will be working our page to make it better and to get it out to everyone. The world of pinterest seems to important in the wedding world and we cannot miss out on that opportunity. We will be building up our Pinterest page as a way to market and believe that it will be a smart move for us. We will find out.

As far as our clinets, we love to see them go through pinterest and adding boards on their page. We look through those boards to get an inspiration on what they like. When we ask clients to create a mood board, we ask them to pin photos on their board and to also put a note on what it is in the image that they like. Sometimes they like the background. Sometimes they like the pose. Sometimes they like the light. There are a number of things that they could like from the photo and we just want to see exactly what they were looking at when they hit the pin button. Pinterest is a powerful tool in the wedding world and we look to get more involved with it.

Follow our pinterest page at pinterest.com/bestillphotog

San Diego Sports Photography | San Diego Chargers Fan Fest

San Diego Sports Photography: Ernie Padaon Location: Qualcomm Stadium Event: San Diego Chargers Fan Fest

We were able to sneak down to the San Diego Chargers Fan Fest earlier this morning to see some of the players running around. We also saw a few of the new additions to the team running around on the field as well. We didn't stay long, but we saw plenty of Eric Weddle getting some work. We also saw a lot of the secondary with Jason Verrett leading the charge.

Weddle even tossed a ball right in our direction. I wasn't sure if I should keep taking photos or to look up and snag the football. If I wasn't shooting weddings, I would love to be capturing events for my favorite sports team. It would be amazing to get an opportunity to do that. I have gotten some media passes in the past for the blog that I write for the San Diego Chargers, but getting the opportunity to take photos would be freaking amazing.

Check out some of the images that I took in our short stint in the field level seats. Maybe next time I can get onto the field to take some of these photos.

San Diego Engagement Photography | Beautiful day at Del Mar

San Diego Engagement Photography: Be Still Photog | Ernie Padaon | Fiona Padaon Location: Del Mar, CA | 5th Street Beach

What an amazing day at Del Mar with Tony and Karla a month ago. We did this engagement session with them a month ago, but had not posted to the blog till now. We already have shot their wedding on July 4 and already shared that on the page, but we didn't get to share the great moments at Del Mar.

We went down to 5th Street at Del Mar and found a number of locations to get some amazing moments. Tony and Karla were amazing in front of the camera and they proved that on their wedding day as well. They are such a fun couple to be around and we loved being around them.

Being around the beach created an awesome vibe with the couple despite the number of people that were running around in their bathing suits. It was fun running around with them throughout the day.

We were excited to be their photographers for their big day and for their engagement photos. They are such an amazing couple.

Check out some of the images from their engagement session below. You can also see some of their wedding photos here.

San Diego Baby Portrait Photographer: Charlotte

  San Diego Baby Portrait Photographer: Be Still Photography | Ernie Padaon | Fiona Padaon Lovation: Kit Carson Park | Escondido, CA

When you get into the business of photography, everyone wants to have baby portraits or family portraits or any other type of portraits done. We mainly focus in on wedding photography, but we still fill the week with different portrait shoots with peopl. We do baby portraits, senior portraits, family portraits or any other type of portraits during the week.

After people get married, the need for photography doesn't go away. They will want portraits for all the other occasions in life and we love to provide that out with people.

We have worked with the Elmore family on a couple of shoots now and their beautiful baby girl wasn't even able to lift her head during our first shoot. Now she is sitting up and doing all kinds of things. She isn't even a year old yet.

The Elmore's asked us to be their photographers for their family portraits last week and the light was beautiful. It was great to have the whole fam out for the shoot. We were able to capture a number of great moments with the family out. 

San Diego Engagement Photography | Beautiful couple at Sunset Cliffs

San Diego Engagement Photography: Be Still Photog | Ernie Padaon | Fiona Padaon Location: Sunset Cliffs | Sunset Cliffs Natural Park

How freaking amazing is Sunset Cliffs? It is even better when you have a beautiful couple to work with for their engagement photos.

We went down to the beach and it was high tide, so we couldn't get down to the shore, but we were able to stand on the rocks at the bottom of the stairs. The waves were still crashing on us, but it made for some amazing photos. The sky cleared up just enough to get some blue in it as well.

Check out some of the fun photos with Joe and Tristanne during their engagement photo session. They are an awesome couple and we look forward to their wedding at the beginning of September. It is going to be a great time!

Will we get that awesome tide again for our portrait session or will we actually get down to the beach and get our toes in the sand? We will have to wait to find out.

San Diego Engagement Photography | Tide was just right at Sunset Cliffs

San Diego Engagement Photography with Joe and Tristanne at Sunset Cliffs. The tide was just right over the weekend to capture some amazing images.

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San Diego Engagement Photography : Be Still Photog | Ernie Padaon | Fiona Padaon Location: Sunset Cliffs

We just finished up an engagement shoot over the weekend down at Sunset Clfifs and captured an amazing location down at the shore line. We didn't expect the tide to be as high as it was, but look at the beautiful shot that we were able to capture.

There was a little bit of hesitancy going down with the water crashing up on the rock, but after getting a few splashes on them we were able to capture some beautiful images like the one that is seen above. We still are going through some of the images that we took with Tristanne and Joe at the cliffs, but we had to share this great moment down at the shore line.

As long as they were willing to go down and get a little wet, we were going to get down there with them to capture the moment. Looking down from the top of the cliffs, it didn't look as if we were going to find an area to shoot at the beach. We decided to walk down the stairs anyway and came upon the perfect location. We will have the rest of the session completed soon and will share the images with everyone.

Fall Forward - Empower Yth Motivational Video - San Diego Videography

https://vimeo.com/134630880  

San Diego videography - We created a motivational video for our youth conference and put together this piece. 

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We created a motivational video for our Empower Youth conference that we took part of over the weekend. The video contains a speech that was cut up from Denzel Washington during a commencement at Penn.

I guess we would title the speech "Fall Forward". There are a few different cutup versions of this speech around the internet, but we decided to create our own for the conference.

We added the track Heart of Courage from Two Steps from Hell to the background to bring a bit more drama into the video and we just needed to collect some footage on the first day of the conference and get it all prepped for the 2nd day.We got those portions of the video set first. All the audio was created first, then we just place captured clips on the video.

I feel like I want to create more pieces like this in the future. It is awesome to share a great message to help motivate some people.The conference was amazing and we had a blast creating and capturing for it.

We look forward to doing more editing and San Diego videography in the future.

San Diego Videography : Ernie Padaon (Be Still Photog) | Eithel Krauss

Do you want to be a wedding photographer?

What does it take to be a wedding photographer? There are so many hours that go into it and the least of those hours are behind a camera. 

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Recently, PetaPixel released an article that read "You sure you want to be a wedding photographer?" I thought the article was brilliant and explained how hard it is to make it in this world.

There are so many hours that go into being a wedding photographer that people do not see. There are so many hours that go unnoticed. I love every part of this job. I love being in that big moment and capturing the best day of someone's life. I will take that responsibility in my hands all day!

It is not a job that everyone can make a living off of. It takes a ton of time to build a brand and to build a reputation. It takes a lot of determination. I admire the rockstar photographers that are out there. They have put in the time and effort to get to that level. We want to get to that level. We will get to that level.

If you are an up and coming photographer that is looking to get into this world, know that the time spent behind the camera is only a small portion of the job. It is the portion of the job that you love the most, but there is so much time spent behind a computer editing, marketing, emailing, budgeting.... The time back there doesn't end.

Then there are the moments of meeting with potential clients, that will turn you down since you are out of their price range. Then there is the nervousness that never seems to go away when you deliver the final product. All the thoughts that run through your mind in hopes that they get what they were hoping for.

Here are the questions that were asked at the end of the article:

• Do you love people, a lot, even the un-lovely ones?
• Do you believe in yourself, even in the face of regular rejection?
• Do you love the process, even if the results don’t come for a long time?
• Do you love to work for no money and long, thankless hours?
• Is accomplishment itself enough compensation for you?
• Are you willing to work 7 years for your ‘overnight’ success?
• Are you willing to pull an all-nighter because you love your clients?
• Are you motivated by your own creativity?
• Is your happiness unshakeable in the face of repeated defeat?
• Do you own a camera and a comfortable pair of shoes?

And if we said YES to all of them, then we MIGHT be the next rock star photographer.

Why should I get a wedding videographer?

https://vimeo.com/133355603 Why should people invest in getting a wedding videographer? What can they provide that a photographer cannot bring to the table? 

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Why should brides get a wedding cinematographer/videographer? There is something that movement and sound can capture that still images cannot capture. This post is not to diminish the need for photographers. We do both at Be Still and we believe that people should have both during their biggest day.

There is greatness in both stills and cinema, but we are writing this post to convince you on the video portion. The idea of seeing that first dance come to life again is incredible. You can see the look in each other's eyes and also can see the mood in the room.

The biggest benefit is getting the audio from the day. The audio from the speeches and the vows placed onto a movie type documentary will make tears come down your eyes. Those words will be preserved forever.

Trust in a professional. Trust in someone that has been to weddings and understands the height of the occasion. Look over their previous work and see if you like their style. That is what your final product will look like.

The wedding videographer that you bring on will be looking for all the details that your Uncle Bob would not be looking for. The wedding videographer will capture scenes in a way that your Uncle Bob would not be looking for and your wedding videographer will put it together in a final product that will take your breath away. Trust in a pro.

San Diego Wedding Videographers: Be Still Photog | Ernie Padaon | Jason Padaon | Simon Xaisongkham

Wedding flowers: Bridal bouquets... make them huge

 

If you are prepping for your wedding, there are a number of different things running through your mind. Creating a huge bridal bouquet should be one of them.

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Every bride has to have a bouquet as they walk down the aisle on their wedding day. Everyone has their choice of what flowers that they want to put into that bouquet to make it stand out.

A great way to make that baby pop is to make it huge! Create a giant bouquet. It is something that I have loved seeing lately through pinterest or instagram, but I absolutely love giant bouquets. They just pop and they make for amazing photos.

Go big or go home... right?

Let that thing stand out from the rest. You won't have to carry for very long and when it comes to the bouquet toss, you will be tossing a different set of flowers anyway. Fill that bouquet up and walk down the aisle with an amazing assortment of flowers in your bouquet.

Just go through pinterest right now to see if this is your style.

San Diego Flowers: Anika Aguirre Southern California Wedding Photographers: Be Still Photography | Ernie Padaon | Fiona Padaon

San Diego Wedding Photography | Eastlake Country Club | Tony + Karla

 

San Diego Wedding Photography with Tony and Karla Rivera at Eastlake Country Club. What an amazing day for the two of them!

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What a fun 4th of July we were able to have this year! We were able to spend our 4th with the amazing Tony and Karla Rivera down at Eastlake Country Club. Everything was put together so beautifully for their big day. The decor was perfect and the venue was awesome. The views at a golf course always seem to be stunning, especially when you have a bride and groom that can light it up like Tony and Karla.

The color for the wedding was purple. The color of royalty and they all made it stunning. Here is a quick glimpse into the dress and a slight look in at the bridesmaids dresses.

Before the wedding ceremony, Tony and Karla wanted to meet up for a prayer for the day and for their marriage. They didn't want to see each other until she walked down the aisle though, so we found a pillar to separate the two of them for their prayer.

 

You can just tell that Karla's dad was so happy for the occasion.   The scenery at the Eastlake County Club was gorgeous. Everything about the day was amazing. Check out some of the photos from the ceremony. 

Afterward, we went around the course with both Tony and Karla to capture some portraits of the two of them. It is always a nice breath of fresh air to step away from everyone else for that moment.

It is always fun to see the bride and groom let loose with all of their friends. After the ceremony is complete, the reception is always a good time with their closest friends.  San Diego Wedding Photographers: Be Still Photography | Ernie Padaon | Fiona Padaon Hair: Savannah Turrietta Venue: Eastlake Country Club

The ultimate snack bar for the kids at your wedding

If you are planning a wedding right now, then you can see one of the great ideas by one of our recent brides. She had an amazing snack bar.

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We were shooters for a wedding recently and it had one sweet snack bar that you should consider for your wedding! This thing is perfect! It had all kinds of treats for everyone to get to. 4 tables full of snacks all over that was ready to be taken at any time during the reception.. I loved it and the guests loved it . You could tell since it was almost bare by the end of the night.

This table was filled with Rice Krispies treats, candies, some healthy trail mix and so much more. I am sure that the kids were back there over and over again to take some of the sweets off of that table. If you have a wedding that will have a few kids running around, this is something to consider.

I remember going to weddings as a kid and thinking that the food was terrible. If there were some snacks laid out like this, then I would have been in heaven!

If you are looking to add some sweets out for people to pick up throughout the night, this is something that you should consider. If there are going to be a lot of kids, then definitely set something like this up.

Check out more photos from that little snack bar.

San Diego Wedding Photographers: Be Still Photography | Ernie Padaon | Fiona Padaon

San Diego Wedding Photography | Del Mar Powerhouse | Robert + Miriam

 

San Diego wedding photography by Be Still Photography (Ernie Padaon) with Robert and Miriam at the Del Mar Powerhouse.

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I had the pleasure of taking the photos for this wonderful couple at the Del Mar Powerhouse. The venue is absolutely amazing as it is footsteps away from the beach. It does not hold the most amount of people. but it still is an amazing beach wedding location.

Our wedding with Robert and Miriam took place right at golden hour and was absolutely beautiful. You could see so much love within the family that was their to support the two.

The biggest struggle for photographers and I would imaging the bride and groom for the Del Mar Powerhouse is the lack of space for preparation. The groom had to get prepped in a bathroom, while the bride had a small powder room to work with.  Just have to get creative in order to make it work out.

The details of wedding dresses are always amazing. They always require a number of images to capture all of it's glory. Here are a couple of the details of the fabulous dress that Miriam was wearing.

"I DO" on the shoes!

That prayer before they actually see each other. Well, Miriam did get a sneak in on him.

This location for the ceremony is still AMAZING. Right on the beach and that light coming through.

They ended the ceremony with the groomsmen and bridesmaids holding some long stem roses for Miriam and Robert to walk under. 

San Diego Wedding Photographers: Be Still Photography | Ernie Padaon Location: Del Mar, CA Venue: Del Mar Powerhouse

Empower Youth 2015 Promo Video

https://vimeo.com/133355602 San Diego Videography.

We just created a promo video for our Empower Youth conference that will be going down next week in San Diego. When we created it, we showed it to the youth at church and kept it as a little surprise for some of the leaders that are on the video.

THEY LOVED IT!!!!!

We are so excited for the conference and are looking forward to the amazing speakers that will be rolling through. We know that there will be a number of youth that will have their lives rocked because of the conference. We can't wait to see the movement that happens because of it.

San Diego Photo Booth | Breezy Baby Shower

San Diego Photo Booth for Breezy's Baby Shower. Just some fun in front of the camera by the ladies. 

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Over the weekend, a photo booth was set up during our friend's baby shower and we allowed everyone to take their photos with the sweet backdrop that was created. We set up the lighting with a couple of flashes and placed a camera on a tripod and allowed people to fire away. Sometimes it is easier for people to have fun in front of the camera when they know the person that is behind the camera.

We brought the images back and put our flavor of editing on all of them and we got these great images.

San Diego Photo Booth: Be Still Photography

For booking, please check out our portfolio at bestillphotog.com. We would love to be your photographers for your event.

The Proposal at Coronado Beach - Jim and Isa - San Diego Engagement Photography

 

San Diego engagement photography with Jim and Isa at Coronado Beach. It was more like proposal photography though.

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I absolutely love getting the opportunity to capture these events! The emotions and everything that is involved is what drives me. It drives me to get better and better at capturing these moments. You can't fake that emotion and we, as photographers, get the opportunity to freeze that moment in time and save it forever for everyone!

Jim asked us if we would be available to capture this moment for them and we would not turn down that opportunity. He had a plan all laid out to propose on Coronado Beach. He had Isa's daughters and his sister come out early to set up a nice setting for them to come upon. Jim then gave Isa a massage and when it was all down he dropped down to one knee.

As this was happening, I was in the dunes hiding in a tiny bush while my little brother was near by sitting in some chairs with a camera that was on a tripod that was faced toward them hidden in between some chairs and was recording all the action.

Here are some of the great images of the proposal and the moments after: 

The beach was pretty empty and for some reason there was a couple of beach chairs near them with a camera on a tripod. We did our best to not give anything away, but there was no place to hide on a beach and still get images and video. :) 

Here is the video that we put together. I freaking love these guys!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0aFb7900D2k

San Diego Engagement Photography: Be Still Photography | Ernie Padaon San Diego Engagement Videography: Be Still Photography | Ernie Padaon | Jason Padaon

MyCity Special Item - Macklemore - Can't Hold Us (video)

The special items for our MyCity Youth Group have been getting better and better and better. These are ran once a month and we needed to start capturing the greatness of our team at church. Here is Thomas, Nicole and Bernie rocking out to some Macklemore to get the youth hyped for the start of our Friday night service. I love Friday nights for the youth of San Diego.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWdf-YmVEwg

San Diego Wedding Videography | Same Day Edit | Juan Carlos + Aprille

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZyc7AJagjo San Diego Wedding Videography done by Ernie Padaon of Be Still Photography.

Be Still Photography is starting to get into the world of videography. Many people told us that we would be getting into that world soon and we are making the steps in that direction. It has moved quickly and this was the first wedding that we had the opportunity to film. The wedding took place in Balboa Park in San Diego and was a short reception, but we were able to capture the amazing moments of the day.

You can see the love that the two of them had for each other and for their family. Family has been a big priority for them and everyone had a great time out there.

The venue is absolutely gorgeous in Balboa Park in San Diego. The architecture is amazing and The Prado is an amazing location for a wedding.

This was a same day edit of the event. We will also be creating a longer documentary of the wedding, but wanted the couple to have something in front of their eyes on the same day. We already love the ability to tell a story with video and look forward to many more opportunities to do this.

San Diego Wedding Videographers: Be Still Photography | Ernie Padaon Venue: The Prado | San Diego, CA

San Diego Senior Portraits | Bianca

 

San Diego Senior Portraits: Be Still Photography | Ernie Padaon | Fiona Padaon Location: Carlsbad, CA

Congratulations to Bianca on her accomplishments in high school! Today is graduation day and we were honored to do her Senior Portraits. She is an amazing young woman that has the brightest of futures. Congratulations!

These senior portraits were done at the beach in Carlsbad. We always love the beach locations. There is reason why we live in this awesome city and we like to show off it's beauty. We love to show off the beauty of the teens and the city and bring it all together.

We love creating portraits for seniors. It is one of our favorite things to do. Running around in some beautiful places in San Diego is always a blast. With the summer coming up and a new crop of Seniors for 2016, we look forward to doing many more Seniors Portraits for the San Diego high schools.

If you are interested in our Senior portraits, then let us know and we can set you up for your session. Also, you can ask us about our ambassador program that will get you a free senior photography session.