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!

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.

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.

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

Wipeout Run | Del Mar, CA

I got the opportunity to take photos at the Wipeout Run on Saturday. Carrying a 70-200 lens the whole day and shooting constantly is MADNESS. My arms feel like they are going to fall off. It was a great time though to see all the runners coming through. I was placed on the rope section and had a blast out there.

MyCity Youth Stadium Night

This is MyCity Youth Stadium Night. What an epic night!!! All kinds of madness going on.

Pat and Nat Wedding | Encinitas, CA

Be Still Photography: Ernie Padaon | Fiona Padaon

We have this awesome wedding today in Encinitas. We can't wait for the amazing captures that we will have today

Baptisms | February

Photographers: Be Still Photography | Ernie Padaon | Fiona Padaon

Fiona and I have been given the opportunity to capture baptisms a few times now and we love every part of it. This is a huge day for everyone that is getting baptized.

Baptism is an outward sign of an inward change.

MyCity

This is what our Friday nights usually look like. This is MyCity. We have an awesome time!

Rest in Peace | Memorial | Mt. Palomar

Be Still Photography | Ernie Padaon

We had a celebration of life. Fiona's grandfather had passed away a couple of weeks ago and the family got together on a camping trip. That is what grampy loved to do and that is how the families bonded together. Everyone gathered around the fire to tell great stories of the man that everyone loved and looked up to. He was a hero.

There were laughs. There were tears. The memories of the great man could have been talked about forever and they will be.

We found a majestic area to spread his ashes and said a prayer.

Rest in peace Grampy. We will miss you.

New Years Eve | C3 San Diego

Photographers: Be Still Photography | Ernie Padaon + Fiona Padaon Location: C3 San Diego

What an amazing way to open up the New Year. We served at church and were able to capture the baptisms of many people at church. Such a great way to start out 2015!

Here are a few sneak peeks from the day. Will post a few more when they are all complete.

Engagement Photos | Bantiquitos Lagoon, Carlsbad, CA | Patrick + Natalie

Photographers: Be Still Phtoog | Ernie Padaon + Fiona Padaon Location: Bantiquitos Lagoon, Carlbad, CA

What an awesome engagement session. We were able to work with a Rolls Royce during the shoot. The couple won the right to use the car during their engagement session at a bridal show that they attented. It was great to work with the beautiful car with the beautiful couple on the shoot.

We look forward to this wedding in February. They are a great couple.

Surf Photography Session from last week

It has been some time since I was able to get on here to write about the photography adventures. It has been a bit busy the last few days though. I was able to get in on a surf session last week right as the sun was going down and it made for some phenomenal photos. The surf was a little junky, so there wasn't a lot of great "surf" shots in the set, because the surfers weren't able to do much, but the sky was amazing.

After shooting the surf and the beach for the whole day, my favorite photo from the night may have come on my walk to the car. I saw this runner headed toward me with headlights and the beautiful sky. I focused in as quickly as I could and snapped off this gem.

Ever get asked how much photoshop it took to get that image? SIGH. Was asked that about the image above and the truth is that I barely touched that photo out of the camera. People think that they are complimenting your photoshop skills when they say such things, but they do not realize that photographers are insulted by such chatter.

Happy, Happy Birthday!

  Birthday parties. Birthday parties. Birthday parties!!

I was just running though our galleries and noticed how many birthday parties we have been a part of.

Having our own little rascals running  around means invites to more and more birthday parties. I remember growing up and having a birthday party every year when I was a kid. I love seeing "the littles" run around with other littles and enjoying the sweets and the games and all the other things at birthday parties. 

Fiona and I enjoy taking photos for little kid birthdays. Kids are full of emotion and they are always great for the camera. They are so photogenic.

The best part is when the kids get all the cake all over their faces. I am pretty sure the parents want that shot at the end of the day. I have seen the parents just force the cake all over their kids in order to make it happen.

Check out little Benton and his birthday donut face.

Fiona and I were asked to shoot this birthday party over the weekend and had a blast. We get so much joy in taking photos for friends and saving those memories for them.

Running around Hollywood over the weekend

The fam and I took a little field trip to Hollyweird over the weekend to see all the people doing their thing in the streets. The streets were packed with onlookers and all the performers were out. We saw Michael Jackson running around the streets doing his thing.

Some people were sitting and enjoying the sun. I found this guy staring at the Hollywood sign creating his own masterpiece. I probably should have peaked over his shoulder to see what he actually was drawing. He had all the pens ready to go. He also had a couple of baby bottle nipples pinned to his shirt. <shoulder shrugs>

The street performers in Hollywood were on their game. This robot had a ton of attention from the crowd and put on a great show.

Every time that I have gone out to Hollywood for a field trip, I tend to be interested in taking photos of the people more. I still get the architecture, but the people is where I get drawn in. The performers are working hard for that dollar. The people stand out. One day I will go out there and actually take pics of the stars on the ground, but the people on the streets grab my attention every time.

Dance Photography

 

I recently got the opportunity to take some shots for a dance event and was reminded my love for the arts and for dance. I love music and the different movements.  I enjoyed my time out there and loved getting the opportunity to shoot something new. 

While shooting the event, I started out with my 50mm prime lens and took a few shots, then I knew I wanted to get tighter on the shots. I only had my kit lens in the bag, but I went for it. Even with a kit lens, we can make some magic happen.

It is all about knowing the capabilities of your gear. There was enough light to get some solid shots of all the dancers. I brought up the ISO more in order to compensate for the smaller aperture on the kit lens, but it wasn't a huge deal. The grain wouldn't even be that bad for people to hate the picture.

In the end, it is about capturing the moment and freezing the action. If people were shooting out of manual mode, they would have had some issues with the black backgrounds. Their camera would have blown out a few shots or they likely would be blurred out of their mind.

We delivered some quality shots on the night. What we felt was a great shot, wasn't necessarily a great shot to the studio. The studio was looking for form in the dancers, while we were looking for composition, exposure and capturing the moment. I think we found a good group of photos that we all thought were great.

For anyone that usually shoots these type of events, do you shoot out wide and then just crop it in post? I like to get things cropped right in the camera, but all the movement led to some cut off body parts. Just wondering how you all would shoot for something like this?

Last Day of the Del Mar Fair

The races at Del Mar will be opening up today, but I was recently able to go over a couple of shots from the last night of the Del Mar Fair. The sun was going down and there was some perfect shots to capture with the silhouettes of the carousel and such.

The skies were absolutely perfect to show off the beauty of the fair. This was all shot before I got my new cam, but still was able to make the sky pop.