Class of 2016 Senior Representative Program | San Diego Senior Portraits

This will be the first time that Be Still Photography will be running anything like this, but we are going to start up a Senior Rep Program. People that are selected for the program will get an incredible discount on a shoot and will also get the opportunity to get cash back or other incentives for anyone they are able to refer to our services. We will see how this works out for the Class of 2016 and will likely bring it around for the Class of 2017 as well. We believe that it will be a hit.

We are hitting the Senior Portraits season a little late, but I am sure that we will still bring in some clients. We started working with seniors last year and believe that it is a fun population to work with.

Class of 2016, if you are interested in Senior Portraits or being a Senior Representative, please contact us at photo@bestillphotog.com. We would love to be your photographers.

Senior Portrait Photographers: Be Still Photog | Ernie Padaon | Fiona Padaon Location: Terra Mar | Carlsbad, CA

Blog post on the senior portrait session of the photo above can be seen here.

San Diego Wedding Photography at Rancho Bernardo Inn

  Over the weekend, I got to work with Cary Pennington photography as his second shooter. This was definitely a new experience since I usually work with Fiona during weddings, but it was fun to see how others work during a wedding.

The reception took place at the Rancho Bernardo Inn. It was absolutely gorgeous there and there were a number of weddings ceremonies there at the same time. It is a great venue for a wedding and provides great areas for portraits.

During the day, I got to hang out with all the fellas as they prepped for the wedding. They prepped at home and then jumped in a limo in order to get to the church. Then after the ceremony, I had to run off to the Rancho Bernardo Inn to take photos of the location.

The church didn't allow for any flash photography and was a little on the dark side, but we made it work out .

It was a great wedding with some beautiful people. Was happy to help capture the day over the weekend.

Check out some of my images from the day.

2nd Shooter Wedding Photographer: Ernie Padaon of Be Still Photography 2nd shooting for Cary Pennington Location: Rancho Bernard Inn

San Diego Maternity Shoot at Marian Bear Park | Kirsten + Amare

Last weekend we got the opportunity to take photos with Amare and Kirsten for their maternity shoot. We decided to go out to Marian Bear Park to have the session with them. We had been at that location for 2 straight weeks and we still could not get enough of it. These two were hilarious to hang out with and the light was amazing. We walked up and down the area to find some gorgeous locations to shoot our photos. Both Amare and Kirsten were great in front of the camera. They fed off of each other and made it an amazing day to work with them.

With the conditions perfect for photos, we turned up with some amazing moments between the two of them. We can't wait to meet baby Kyrin. We know that these two will be amazing parents for that little one.

Check in here for some of the amazing photos from their maternity shoot session at Marian Bear Park: 

San Diego Maternity Shoot photographers: Be Still Photog | Ernie Padaon | Fiona Padaon Location: Marian Bear Park | San Diego, Ca

San Diego Portrait Session at Marian Bear Park | Natalie Miller

  We did a portrait session at Marian Bear Park in the La Jolla area with Natalie Miller. This location was beautiful and the portraits turned out amazing.

The photoshoot was done to promote her new show that she will be doing that has an Alice and Wonderland theme. You can see on the bottom of her shoes, there is some art that was done by the amazing Kyle Trudelle.

Natalie is an amazing ventriloquist and the photos will be used to help promote her show. This was a different shoot for her since she was used to sitting in a studio and looking directly into a camera. We ran it more as a lifestyle type shoot and let her have fun in the atmosphere.

We love shooting at this location. It brings such a great background for portraits and the light is amazing when it comes through the trees. We have shot here a number of times and will do it often.

Check out some of the images from the day. 

San Diego Portrait Photographer: Be Still Photography | Ernie Padaon | Fiona Padaon Location: Marian Bear Park Shoe Artist: Kyle Trudelle

Kirsten + Amare Sneak Peek | Maternity Session at Marian Bear Park

 

I know we specialize in San Diego wedding photography, but it is not the only thing that we do. We just love capturing moments and capturing people. We love being able to share emotions and personalities in a photograph.

Yesterday we went out with Amare and Kirsten for a maternity session at Marian Bear Park. The location was beautiful. We have been here twice in the last week. Both Amare and Kirsten made the photos come alive though. They are a fun couple to be around and we shared a lot of laughs. We can't wait to share more from this shoot.

We still remember the excitement of having our bundles of joy. Our kids are the greatest gifts ever and we love every moment with them. We love that we get to capture these moments in time for other families and that it can be something that they can look back upon over and over again.

San Diego Wedding Photography: Be Still Photog | Ernie Padaon | Fiona Padaon Location: Marian Bear Park

UPDATE: Here is the link for the new blog post with Amara and Kirsten. Click in to see some of their photos from their day.

Wedding Photography: You do what you gotta do to get the shot

Sometimes you just do what you gotta do in order to get the shot... even if you are wearing heels. That photo above is of Fiona during one of our wedding shoots and she is working to get the angle that she wanted for the wedding dress. She is standing with one foot on a chair and another foot on the picnic table and she is looking to get that shot. What did I do to help her out? I took a photo to share the moment with her later. Isn't that what I was supposed to do? I did have a camera in my hand/ :)

These moments happen with both of us often and there are a number of shots that each of us take of each other during a shoot that shows some of the mess that we do get into.

There was one time when I tried to walk across the marsh of a lake and ended up standing knee deep in mud. I almost lost my shoe that day!! I don't know how many times that I have ended up knee deep in water during a beach shoot. We have never been afraid to get a little dirty in order to get that shot.

Next time I might just help Fiona out when she decides to climb on some tables for a shot. That would be after I take a photo of her first.

San Diego Wedding Photography: Be Still Photog | Ernie Padaon

San Diego Wedding Photography | San Diego Air & Space Museum | Joe + Andrea

San Diego Wedding Photography: Be Still Photog | Ernie Padaon | Fiona Padaon We had the pleasure of capturing a gorgeous wedding at the San Diego Air & Space museum. Joe and Andrea are an amazing couple and everything was planned out beautifully for the wedding day. The venue was gorgeous and unique. It took place at the San Diego Air & Space museum in Balboa Park. It is not everyday that we see a bride and groom getting married under a helicopter.

Balboa Park has so many beautiful locations to photograph and we were able to capture our portrait sessions with some of the great architecture that is around there.

Everything on the day was picture perfect. We had such a great time with both Joe and Andrea on their day. They are an amazing couple and they made are job easy.

Here is just a quick look in at their wedding photos from the day:

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

San Diego Wedding Photography | Joe and Tristanne

San Diego Wedding Photography: Be Still Photography | Ernie Padaon | Fiona Padaon We had the pleasure to capture the day for Joe and Tristanne's wedding a couple of weeks ago. The ceremony took place at Sunset Cliffs and the setting was beautiful. The skies were clear and both of them looked amazing.

Both Joe and Tristanne got ready at separate locations, but they wanted to meet up beforehand to pray and for us to capture that moment for them. We found a nice little spot where they could pray for each other before the wedding, but not see each other.

Joe then hustled down to the ceremony location to make sure that everything was set up right. He also surprised Tristanne with a limo ride down to the site. The location was fantastic!

The parties then went back to the house to celebrate with all their friends.

These two are an amazing couple and they are so much fun to be around. We were happy to be able to capture their day for them.

Check out some of the photos from their big day.

Location: Sunset Cliffs | San Diego, CA MUA: Mikala Hubbard Hair: Sonovella Cake Artist: Natalie Miller

Wedding Photography | Black and white remains timeless

There is magic in black and white photos. The images are timeless. They remain amazing and will always remain amazing. If I had the opportunity to, I would shoot a whole wedding in black and white. If there is a bride that was interested in that, I might give her a little discount to have that opportunity.

When you shoot in black and white, there is a little different look that I go for. There is a little difference in contrast that I am shooting for. Everyone sees the world in color, but can you imagine what you will be taking if it were in black and white?

Wedding photography would be amazing in black and white. In a lot of cases, there is the white dress and the man is where a black tux. We already have black and white set up to perfection with that set up, now you just need to work in the rest of the world with it.

The book and the online gallery would be so fun to look at. When you look at an image in black and white, you try to imagine the colors that were in the day. There are no distracting colors that take away from the image. It is all black and white. Timeless and beautiful.

Revolution Tour Highlight Video

The Revolution Tour is out in San Diego. The group is from New Zealand and they spread the word of HOPE around different schools and this is their first time in San Diego... basically their first time in the United States. They have been going around New Zealand and other areas for some time sharing their word. They teach against bullying in schools and their fresh word was brought out to the city of San Diego. We were able to follow them around and see their impact in the schools and with the different students.

Tonight will conclude their tour through San Diego with a Night Rally at C3 San Diego. We put together a quick recap for the tour that went through San Diego schools to show how much fun and how much of an impact it made for people.

https://vimeo.com/138990352

At the end, you can see how many people would like to make a stand. We look forward to seeing what tonight has in store for the Night Rally concert.

San Diego Wedding Videography | Slideshow on the same day

San Diego Wedding Videography: Be Still Photog | Ernie Padaon | Fiona Padaon Over the weekend we filmed a wedding at the Thursday Club at Sunset Cliffs for Edgar and Holly. The wedding was absolutely beautiful and we will have their highlight video to share on here very soon. For a lot of our weddings and shoots we like to have one goal when we walk up to the job. For this wedding, we wanted to be able to put out a little sneak into the wedding video for all of the people in the wedding to see.

We weren't looking for a "same day edit" that had audio and all. It was more of a slideshow of videos for the day. We do the same thing for our photography work and wanted to be able to incorporate it in for our videography. We know that the impact and the power that it has for the clients and for marketing our own work.

We knew that the wedding would be a little rough since we didn't have a lot of time to put it all together. We dropped it all in during dinner and shared it on an ipad for everyone to see at the dessert table.

IT WAS A SUCCESS. The maid of honor asked how we were able to get that done so quickly. The bride LOVED it and couldn't believe that she was watching her own wedding, while she was still at the wedding.

We are going to continue this madness and eventually jump into the world of a SAME DAY EDIT.

Proposal Photography | Proposal at Stone Brewery

 

San Diego Proposal Photography: Be Still Photog | Ernie Padaon | Fiona Padaon Venue: Stone Brewery | Escondido, CA

We were asked to capture this awesome moment for Jake and Stephanie. Jake had it planned out that he would ask his now fiance to marry him at the location that they spent hours at. They literally shut the place down when they were sitting on this bench talking to each other for hours. They were in the garden at Stone Brewery where the two of them hit it off and Jake wanted to bring her back there a year later to get down on one knee and propose.

Jake had it all planned out and shared with us his vision. He took some candles from Stephanie's house and wanted it set up on the bench. He made a custom-made ring box that matched the candles and he wanted it laid out on the bench.

Jake would lead Stephanie out to a walk in the garden at Stone Brewery and get to the bench. When he comes around she was going to see the bench and he would then ask her.

Everything went according to plan and here are some of the captured moments from the day: 

Instagram adding portrait and landscape orientations

Instagram has released a new update that will allow for portrait and landscape orientation for photos. I think it will be cool to allow everyone to post a photo in those different orientations and will be awesome for photographers.

Here is the official release from Instagram:

“Square format has been and always will be part of who we are. That said, the visual story you’re trying to tell should always come first, and we want to make it simple and fun for you to share moments just the way you want to.”

We were already posting most of our photos with the landscape orientation to be a little different from the rest. I do like the idea of using the portrait option though more. I didn't like posting portrait shots in the past since it would add white borders to the sides and would make the photo look strange and small. Now the portrait option will take up more space on a timeline and grab an extra millisecond of attention for people.

Make sure to follow our work on Instagram: @bestillphotog

Time to give this new update a test drive to see how we like it all. I think it will be an overall great thing for everyone. I did like the clean look of squares everywhere though.

San Diego Fashion Photography | Backyard Session

  San Diego Fashion Photography: Be Still Photog | Ernie Padaon | Fiona Padaon Models: Blyss Macias | Audrey Aitchison | Casie Germonto

It started to rain a bit on Tuesday morning and it gave us a little itch. We never really had the opportunity to shoot in the rain and have always loved seeing some of the beautiful shots that people post. We wanted an opportunity, so we let peeps on facebook know that we would run a shoot if it were raining later in the day.

As interest perked up from people we decided that we would just fake the rain ourselves if the skies were not going to cooperate. We have sprinklers up on the hill in our backyard that needed to get some good use. We decided to MAKE IT RAIN.

This is what a dress-up day at our house turns into. Fiona was loving the idea of prepping the makeup and hair for everyone. Since we had two hair dressers and makeup artists in the crew, they just spent some time getting prepped and we had a photo day in our backyard.

Here is just a quick sneak in on some of the photos that we got. Can't wait to share more from the backyard session.

Special shout out to Brad Jones for being the powder guy!

San Diego Wedding Proposal photography| Stone Brewery

 

San Diego Wedding Proposal photography: Be Still Photog | Ernie Padaon | Fiona Padaon

We have done a few wedding proposals now and this one was definitely going to be the most challenging. When we were asked to capture this moment, we knew that the situation would be a challenge. It was going to be late at night and the lighting at the location was little to none.

For the proposal, we had to set up the location with some candles and a custom made box that he created and place it out on a bench that they spent their first date on forever at Stone Brewery. They would walk up on the bench and he would pop the question there.

Since the lighting was tough, we brought a video light and guessed a location that it would all go down and lit it up. Since this was supposed to be a surprise, we chose to sit back and hide and didn't want to pop off a bunch of flash. We had to open up the lens real wide and increase the ISO, but this was all about the moment. We didn't want to change up the moment and the reactions with their awareness of being on camera, so we kept the flash down.

Here is just some from the day. We will get them all fully cleaned up this week: 

San Diego Photography | Purple hair style

San Diego Photography: Be Still Photog | Ernie Padaon | Fiona Padaon Hair Stylist: Casie Germonto

There is always some sort of art project happening at the house. This time around, our roommate got her hair colored in the kitchen by Casie Germonto. Our roomie was looking to get some purple in the hair and of course we had to pull out the cameras and the light to take some photos.

While it was great to get some images for Casie to use for her portfolio, it helped us understand what some of the hairstylists are looking for in these shots. We try to provide some of these shots to the stylists after the wedding. We all are in the same industry and we will try to keep as good a relationship with all the people in that line of work. It could lead to a referral of some sort.

In our last wedding, we took some photos of the bride's and bridesmaid's hair and the stylist said that a photographer had never offered that for her in the past. We will take every referral that we can get.

Check out some of the colors in this hair though:

San Diego Videography: Be Different | MyCity Youth new series

San Diego Videography: Be Still Photog | Ernie Padaon | Fiona Padaon Our church youth group is doing a new series that is called Be Different. It is a series that is calling the youth to stand out and to stand up. Instead of walking with the world and doing everything that other high school youth are doing, we want them to be different. We want the youth to go into schools on their first day of school and BE DIFFERENT.

Here is the video that we used to preview the series.

https://vimeo.com/136662786

Schools will be opening up in the next week. They will be going back and dealing with the pressures of high school. The pressures of fitting in. The pressures of doing all the things that high school youth do.

Instead of doing what the youth and the world does, they should lean on the word of God.

The voice-over is a poem that was written and read by Destiny Macias. She is a phenomenal talent and we look forward to the amazing things that she does.

We loved creating this video with the 3 students and can't wait to see the movement that will take place with the youth in San Diego.

Be a world changer. Be the chosen one. Be the light on the hill.  BE DIFFERENT!

Commercial Photography in San Diego for Designer Protein

  Commercial Photography: Be Still Photog | Ernie Padaon | Fiona Padaon Model: Kelly Ewing Location: Lake Poway

Back in January, we got the opportunity to shoot a styled type shoot as advertising. We did commercial photography for Designer Protein and we looked on their page today and saw a couple of the images go live on their front page. It is pretty awesome to see some of the work go up on their front page. It is great to see what they did with the images and what images they chose for certain pieces.

Here are a couple of images that we took that they placed on their front page.

We shot the whole day at a few locations with a few different type of themes. We had a hiking, running, SUP and yoga theme during the day with Kelly Ewing. She did amazing throughout the day as the model. The cloud cover on the day was unreal, but we made it all come together and we are happy to see some of the photos get published with them.

We will be looking out for other advertising pieces that they use around. It will be great to see them around.

That photographer's itch

From time to time, I can't help but get an itch that I just have to scratch. I am not talking about a physical itch. I am talking about the photography itch. The creative itch. The itch to create something. The itch to create art! I tend to get this itch often. I want to create all the time and luckily I get the opportunity to do it often as a photographer, but when there is a bit of a lull in the action that itch starts to creep up. If a few days go by and I have not been able to stretch out that creative muscle, then I get that itch to create something new.

I have that itch right now, since I have not shot in a week. I need to get out there and create something. Anything! This is the best time for some of my friends to get in a shoot, since I just want to stretch out that muscle. I would just ask them to come out and take some photos.

It is time to create. It is time to make something awesome. This is why photographers are always looking to create something different. Creating the same image over and over gets a little boring. This is why we sometimes challenge ourselves with different ways to get better.

We work with flashes more. We work without flashes. We only use prime lenses. We stick to one lens. We are always looking to create something fresh and different. We know where we will get our wins, but we will always look to stretch and reach a new place.

I can't help but find ways to get better or get more efficient with what we do. I started looking into some new presets and am testing out the Mastin Labs. Instead of shooting to create at the moment, I am working on some new editing looks that we can push out. I don't think it is possible for my brain to stop pushing in this type of manner in the creative world. That is where I will get my win on creativity today.

Coloring books to encourage creativity?

I can't believe that I am looking to buy one of these at the moment, but Creatlive Live got me thinking about it already. I am looking through Amazon and wanting to buy a coloring book. Yea I have a 2-year old and a 4-year old, but I want to grab it for myself. I must be crazy! Check out the post from Creative Live about coloring books and the benefits of creative thinking and stress relief that it brings. That is all they have to tell me! If it is good for me, then I want to jump in on it, because I still love coloring. When we go to restaurants, I am the one that takes the crayons and tries to color in the things with my kids. I can't help it. Coloring is still fun and if there is an adult version, then I would be all about it.

I can only imagine that the designs would be much better than the cartoon characters that my kids watch. I can only imagine how cool it would turn out when every page is colored. I really am all about this!

Here are some of the points on why Creative Live said that coloring books were awesome: creative exercise, digital detox, it's just fun, stress relief, free thinking. Sounds all good to me!

https://instagram.com/p/5_V-SHFYme/

I am pretty sure that I am going to get laughed at for this, but I am going to go in on a coloring book:

https://instagram.com/p/58Rd-0opIZ/

Don't hate!