Anna and Jose's wedding

Meet Anna and Jose. A very fun couple, great sports, and great sense of humor. We did this photo shoot at Wilson Park. It wasn't too hot that day, so it was perfect for a shoot at the park. And the newly built tree-house was lots of fun.
According to Anna, Jose made all the bouquets and boutonnieres. We think he did a great job! If you guys need flower arrangements, we can hook you up!

Harry's Oklahoma Style BBQ

We went to Wilson Park in Torrance today for a 2 hour photo shoot. The couple had just gotten married, and wanted some photos. So we met with them, their wedding party and their happy moms.

After the shoot, we were hungry, and decided to go to Harry's Oklahoma Style BBQ in Lomita. We had read great reviews about it online, and couldn't wait to try it. Apparently, we didn't read the reviews closely enough, so we showed up having no idea that it was a take-out only place! No matter, though. We ordered their #1 combo, which included a full rack of smoked bbq baby back ribs, 1 lb. of smoked bbq tri-tip, 2 smoked bbq half chicken brests, 1 quart of molasses baked beans, 1 pint of coleslaw, 1 pint of potato salad, and 4 dinner rolls.

We left the restaurant as Julia giggled with anticipation. It's no surprise that Julia loved the food, but even Eddie, who has a slightly harder-to-please palate, had to agree that it was very good. All the meats were tender, juicy, and cooked to smoky perfection!

If you haven't been to Harry's yet, it's easy to miss it. It's at the corner of Narbonne Avenue and 255th in Lomita. Here's the exact address: 25501 Narbonne Avenue, Lomita, CA 90717. We recommend you call ahead to order then just drop by to pick it up. That way, you don't have to sit there, like us two silly ducks. Their number is (877)HARY-BBQ. You can thank us later.

Savory Mini Tuna Danish

Julia made these tonight. She got the recipe from a website, but ended up making so many changes that it became an entirely different thing. Julia named them Savory Mini Tuna Danish. She's not particularly fond of the name, but it's the most fitting name she could think of... Eddie's not going to argue. She makes them, he eats them.!

Lori & David's Wedding

Yesterday we did Lori and David's wedding. It was a beautiful outdoor wedding, and the weather could not have cooperated more.

Here, the happy newlyweds dance to Rascal Flatts.
Congratulations, Lori and David!

New Website??

Can't believe this is happening!
Eddie is thinking about updating our website... again! Julia thinks our website looks great, but guess Eddie didn't think so...
We will keep you updated on this one... -_-

Focaccia

Focaccia!!

Lisa and David

Even though we have done so many engagement photo shoots, we still think every couple is so different and very interesting. We have met so many lovely people that are so much in love...
Here is another reason of we love what we do: another lovely couple, Lisa and David. Very good sports, and fun to work with.

Mylene & Marnie's Wedding

This is Mylene getting ready for her big day. The make up artist you see here did a pretty good job, in our opinion. The bride looked good, but still looked very much like herself. Not too over the top. Simple, but elegant, just like the happy couple!


The wedding was beautiful. It was aboard the Queen Mary, and there were lots of places for good photos. Like this one, overlooking the Long Beach skyline, while the couple steals a kiss.
Mylene and Marnie take a shortcut through the ship to get to their reception.


Congratulations, Mylene and Marnie!

Lily and J.C.

We met with this very nice couple today, fellow Long Beach alumni Lily and J.C., who have hired us to photograph their wedding. We met at their wedding location, which is a really nice location with a great view of the ocean. They were a little concerned it might be too dark for good photos since it's a December outdoor wedding.

We are grateful to them for pointing this out to us so that we can have a chance to think about how to deal with the situation. Most customers we meet don't have the kind of insight that this couple does, and they have made our jobs a whole lot easier by letting us know exactly what we are dealing with.

Hooray for Lily and J.C.! Yes, we know. We are lame...

Mylene & Marnie's Wedding

Just got back from Mylene and Marnie's wedding on the Queen Mary, and we are a little tired...
But there are a lot of great photos. We will keep you updated...

This is a first!!

We met with a couple today, Mylene and Marnie. They are a little stressed out... Their wedding is this upcoming Sunday, and apparently, the photographer they had booked fell ill. Not exactly sure what happened, but seems like he was hemorrhaging from the nose! So they were looking for a replacement with less than a week to go!

Luckily, we were available, and we were more than happy that we could offer our services to this couple. We are sure it will all work out, and afterwards, they will have a good story to tell people and be able to laugh about it afterwards. This is a first! And now, we have another interesting story to tell too!

We look forward to working with this nice couple. Despite the stress they must be feeling, they were still very respectful, polite and considerate people.

Kathryn and Will

We just finished editing Kathryn and Will's photos, which we shot at the beach a couple of days ago. What a lovely couple! We are glad to have met them; they were such a pleasure and so much fun to work with!
They were such great sports, especially Will, since he was kept in the dark about the whole thing until we were actually at the beach. There he was, dressed in shorts, which he claims that he usually doesn't wear, driving to an unknown location, but completely trusting Kathryn and just going along with it.
They are one of those few couples that you can just look at and not only see, but also feel their genuine love for each other and feel inspired by it. A truly picture perfect couple to boot! It's rare for us to finish a photo shoot and come out of it feeling more energized than we did before the shoot, but that's how much fun this couple was.
Here's to you, Kathryn and Will! To many more years to come!

An interesting email

Today we got an email from Iowa. It was from a lady called Kathryn, who sounded (or read, actually) very lovely. She and her husband are coming to Los Angeles this week to celebrate their wedding anniversary, and she would like an engagement-style photo shoot at the beach.

We look forward to working with them... They sound like a lovely couple!

Lori and David

We met with Lori and David for the second time today, and they have decided to hire us for their wedding. At our first meeting, we got the impression they were very genuine people, and they were very easy to talk to. So we are glad for the opportunity to work with them. It should be a beautiful wedding, in an outdoor, garden setting.

Meatballs with Sticky Rice

Here is a recipe for a simple Chinese dish that we enjoyed. It's steamed and on the lighter side, for those of you who care about that kind of stuff. We don't know how authentic it is, but it seems pretty "Chinese". Julia found this recipe somewhere, she can't remember where, but it was done with beef, which tasted a little funny to us. This time she made it with pork, which we all agreed tastes much better. We hope you enjoy it. (Recipe under the photo)

Meatballs with Sticky Rice

-1 cup glutinous rice

-1 lb. lean ground pork

-2 tsp. minced ginger

-1 small onion, chopped finely

-1 egg

-1 tbsp. soy sauce

-1/2 tsp. cornstarch

-1/2 tsp. sugar

-1/2 tsp. salt

-1 tsp. rice wine

1. Place the rice in a bowl and cover with water. Let it soak while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.

2. Mix all the other ingredients thoroughly, making sure the onions are chopped finely, or the meatballs will fall apart.

3. Roll meatballs into walnut sized portions and set aside.

4. Drain the rice. Roll the meatballs in the rice, gently pushing down so the rice will stick.

5. Steam the meatballs for 20 to 30 minutes.

Finished Odd Thomas!

Yesterday I finished reading Odd Thomas. I couldn't put it down, and finished it in two days... It was a pretty good book, and I was sorry that it ended. I can't really go into details because I don't want to give the story away and spoil it for anyone out there, so i'll just say that if you are a fan of Dean Koontz, this is a good, not-too-creepy read.

Odd Thomas

Odd Thomas, by Dean Koontz, is not a newly released book or anything. It's just one of the many books that I got from my book club and it's been sitting around forever. I just never got the chance to read it. Today, I finally found the time to pick it up and read it, and I'm already hooked! But of course, that doesn't surprise me, since I'm a Dean Koontz fan and most of his books have a way of grabbing your attention right from the first chapter.

Odd Thomas is the main character's real name, and he is, true to his name, an odd person. To me, he seems like an awkward, but still very likeable character. I can't wait to continue reading it!

Chocolate Flan Cake

Julia found this recipe online quite a while ago, and this has been one of our favorites. It's easy to make, takes no time to prepare, but still looks impressive. Not to mention yummy! The recipe is under the photo.

Chocolate Flan Cake

-1 box devil's food cake mix

-1 jar (11 oz.) cajeta or caramel topping

-1 can condensed milk

-1 can (12 oz.) evaporated milk

-1/2 cup milk

-1 pkg. (8 oz.) cream cheese, at room temperature

-2 tsp. vanilla extract

-5 eggs (plus extra for the cake mix)

1. Preheat oven to 350F.

2. Soften cajeta in the microwave and pour into a greased bundt pan.

3. Prepare cake mix according to directions and pour over cajeta.

4. Pour condensed milk, evaporated milk, milk, cream cheese, vanilla and eggs into a blender and mix well. Pour batter slowly over cake batter.

5. Spray aluminum foil with non-stick spray and cover pan lightly.

6. Set pan in a bigger baking pan with deep sides, and add hot water to 2-inches deep.

7. Bake for exactly 2 hours. No peeking!

8. Remove from oven, and the water, and let set for 15 minutes before inverting.

Note: when inverting, remember to use a deep plate that is at least 1-inch deep and 3-inches wider than the cake all around, or the caramel will run off everywhere!

Alexis' Sweet 16 Party

We have a little downtime today, so we thought we'd update you all a little on what's going on. We just did Alexis' Sweet 16 last night. She had a great blue and white themed party at Delzano's by the Sea in Redondo Beach.

It was a fun event to cover, and her parents are absolutely wonderful people. They were friendly, easy-going, and great to work with.

The party itself involved a lot of dancing at the end. Going to an event like this really makes us feel old, though! Songs like "chicken noodle soup" just make no sense at all to us, and we could hear our parents' voices in our heads, asking us what in the world we were listening to... Are we becoming our parents??

So, I guess we better get to work. We have lots of photos and video footage to edit. We'll probably spend the rest of the week in the editing room!

Julia's Sister

Here's a picture of Julia's sister, brother-in-law and nephew. They made some time, and we set up a family shoot for them. It was a pretty interesting day. We were at home, getting ready for the photo shoot when a girl came to the door, asking if we knew where the next door neighbors were. It turns out that she was an exchange student who had just arrived from Germany, and knocked on the door of her host family only to find out that nobody was home. She got very nervous, and started walking around with her luggage, trying to figure out what to do. We still don't know what happened, but it was just a misunderstanding, or last minute change in flight schedules. Long story short, she came in, had a Coke, the neighbors came home, everything was straightened out, and the shoot went on without a hitch!


Look at that happy family! And isn't that boy a cutie? If he could only stay still for more than 2 minutes...


Don't know what happened to his hair here, but he's still a cutie-pie, isn't he?

Ensenada, Mexico Tour

We just came back from an overnight tour to Ensenada, Mexico. It was a relaxing getaway. To those of you who have not been on a bus tour, this would be a great way for you to "break into it". We have been on plenty of trips, getaways and road trips by ourselves. It's always involved a lot of time doing our own research, mapping out routes, and booking hotels and tickets. This was a different experience.

For those of you who have never taken a bus tour, this is basically a non-stressful way to go somewhere, visit a new place, but with none of the hassles of driving, calling, researching or even any planning at all. You just book the tour, make sure you are available on those days, and show up by the time the bus is leaving with change of clothes, and you are on your way.

We booked our getaway through www.traveldesignusa.com. It's the 2-day Ensenada, Mexico tour. Since we live nearby, we just showed up in person, paid for the trip in advance, and were told where and when to board the bus. All we needed to do then was bring our clothes and toothbrushes. The trip cost us $95.00 per person, not the $89.00 the website says. But still a pretty good deal, since it includes the one night hotel stay in Ensenada.

After a brief stop in San Diego's old town and a casual lunch, we headed to our first Mexican destination: Tijuana.

To us, Tijuana was just that one street. We don't even remember the name, but it's that one street where all tourists apparently go to for shopping. There are a lot of pharmacies, leather-goods shops, restaurants, and colorful photo op stations with burros and sombreros, waiting for tourists. By the way, those of you that are worried about the language barrier, the locals that work in the area speak much better English than a lot of immigrants in Southern California!

Next, we drove by Ensenada. This was the first time in Ensenada for both of us. Our first impression of the place was not that great. There was dirt everywhere, and poorly constructed little shacks that looked ready to tumble down the hill.

While on the bus, going through winding hill-side roads, Eddie even looked up at the hill side and commented on how scary looking the loose dirt on the sides of the hill were. (Not long after we came back from the trip, we saw on the news that there was a landslide in Mexico, which buried a tour bus, killing everyone aboard!) But we are sure that was just one incident, nothing to worry about. There are millions of tour buses going all around Mexico every year, and this was a fluke. We hope. Needless to say, we made it back safe and sound.


Even though our stop for the night was Ensenada, we had another destination before retiring for the day: La Bufadora. Translated, it means the "buffalo's snort". Along the highway, on the way there, we saw a lot of big, beautiful mansions on the top of the hills along the ocean. A huge contrast to the poverty we saw not far behind.

If you are even in La Bufodora, allow yourself some time to not only look at the "snort", but also to shop a little along the interesting little shops stationed along the walk down to the main attraction.

There were souvernirs, silver jewelry, and of course, leather goods. Julia was drooling over the sweets that they were offering, but was chased away by the bees that showed equal interest...









The "Bufadora" itself was a semi-under water cave formed by the crashing tide. And everytime a wave came in, the water would hit the rocks and come up in a mist, thus forming the "snort".

We gave in to the temptations, and bought two small bottles of tequila covered with leather and branded with "Mexico". We know, these are tourist traps, designed to make money off of tourists who don't know better. But we were tourists after all, so what were we supposed to do?
We also gave in and bought keychains to add to our collection. Those of you who have been to our office, have seen our collection of keychains hanging on the wall. Everytime we go somewhere, we try to get a keychain of the place we visited. We have some very interesting keychains, if we do say so ourselves. One of Eddie's favorites is the little Space Needle replica, that we got on a 9-day road trip to Seattle last October. One of Julia's favorites is an angry, but silly looking tikki that we got on our honeymoon in Maui.

But, back to the story. La Bufadora, was a beautiful, sunny place, not too different from what we expected to see. But around every corner, there were things that reminded us that we were not in the luxurious surroundings that we have grown used to in southern California. Which, we suppose was not entirely a bad thing.

The stop in La Bufadora was not very long, and soon we were back on the bus to make the 2 hour drive back to Ensenada, where we would stop for the rest of the day and spend the night. After we were checked into the Hotel Santo Tomas by our tour guide, Phillip, he told us that those of us that wanted to go have a seafood dinner at a local restaurant were welcome to meet him at the lobby in half an hour and walk over together. We decided that we would skip it.

We were not that hungry, and having heard that it's not safe for tourists to wander the streets alone after dark, we wanted to go out and explore before it got too dark. We figured we'd get the most out of our time by going out and nibbling on local street food while we looked around the port city of Ensenada. And of course, we had to go to a local bar and have a genuine Mexican margarita.




Ensenada was like many other port cities. Cruise ships, restaurants, bars, and plenty of gift shops. We do want to emphasize that while we walked around and went back to the hotel safely, it is not to say that tourists should wander around and forget their surroundings. If you find yourself walking around Mexico after dark, do be smart and aware of your surroundings.


The hotel room was simple, nice, and clean. We slept with the air conditioning on all night to fight off the Mexican summer heat. We got a good night's sleep, and were rested for the next day.

The next morning, we headed for our only stop before we would cross into the US again: Hotel Calafia. On the way to the hotel, we passed by a Fox movie production site that was built especially for the production of the movie "Titanic".

Our tour guide informed us that this sea side hotel was the site where the dinner scene from Titanic was filmed. Eddie had his doubts and was not entirely impressed with it... The breakfast buffet was average. Not too shaby or too impressive, but there was one interesting item that we never had before, which was a tortilla topped with some kind of stew that we were informed was "nopalitos", which was cactus strips. The best part of the experience, was that the manager kindly allowed us to eat in the "Titanic Room", which was usually off-limits. But that day was unusually chilly, and we didn't want to sit outside, which is where half of the seats are.

After that, it was time to head back to the US. Crossing the border took quite a while, but to us, it was all part of the experience. Those of you planning on going, please remember to pack your patience. Luckily, nobody in our tourbus decided to bring anything suspicious back!

The rest of the day was spent driving back to LA, with a brief stop for lunch in San Diego, and another brief stop in Hotel del Coronado.

This trip is not a wonderful, magical and unforgettable place that will leave you in awe. That is not what this trip is about. This trip is about relaxing, not having to plan anything yourself, and still being able to go and enjoy the beautiful scenery, look out at the ocean, feel the vibes of the local people, and just take in something entirely different.

Sweet 16 Invitation Design

We recently met with a very nice customer who is looking for photographers and videographers for her daughter's Sweet 16. She was very friendly, and we hit it off right away. We reached an agreement, and have set a date for the event. Eddie offered to design a blue and white invitation for her after she inquired about it, and she said they really liked the invitation, so he wanted to post it up to show everyone.

Chocolate Lava Cake

Those of you who haven't gotten the "hints" from our posts yet, here it is out in the open: Julia is a glutton. She loves to bake, cook, and eat. Not necessarily in that order, but even she can't make up her mind which part of it she likes best.

Anyway, here is a Chocolate Lava cake that she prepared tonight, and the family seemed to really like it, so we thought we'd share a photo with whoever might be interested.
Enjoy!

Our new website

Eddie's been working very hard these past few months on updating our website. It is finally completely done! We hope you all enjoy it and like the look!
For those who haven't been to our website, it's www.southbaystudio.com
Go check it out!

Big Bear Lake, California

Today is a good day. We just came back from our much needed vacation. Pretty much our first one since 2001. We've been busy running the studio for all these years, and for the first time in 10 years, we don't have to get up at 8 am to go open up the store!

We just spent the last 3 days and 2 nights in a cozy little cabin at the Three Pines Lodge in Big Bear. Those of you that are not in the area, it's about 2 hours from downtown Los Angeles, up in the San Bernadino mountains.

We drove up the mountain, and went straight to the Big Bear convention center, where they just happened to be holding their annual Oktoberfest.
We drank beer, (which we both hate, but did it anyway) listened to music, watched them do the chicken dance, ate Bratwursts, heavy potato dumplings with rich gravy, and one of us, (we'll leave it up to you to guess who) passed out in an alcohol and starch-induced coma. Next, we headed to the lodge to check-in.

The folks at Three Pines Lodge were great. If you are ever planning a vacation to Big Bear, we recommend this place. We arrived a little late in the day, and they had our key waiting, with a nice little letter saying that they had upgraded us for no additional charge.
We had booked a one-room cabin, but they upgraded us to a one bedroom, cabin with a separate living room and a kitchen. It was pretty chilly up there, and we built a fire with the endless pine cones we found just steps from our door.

We didn't want to do anything during this vacation. The only thing we had planned was to relax and nothing else. We just wanted to eat and sleep like bears going into hibernation. What we learned during this trip, was that Big Bear businesses close pretty early. Since we just wanted to stay in and watch tv by the fire, and everything was closed at night, we found a Big Kmart and bought some ramen noodles. The cold weather was such a contrast to the temperature below the mountain that we were thrilled with the MSG filled hot soup packet.

The second day, we headed down to the Big Bear Discovery Center. We learned some interesting info, but it was not very big, and we didn't spent too much time there. We then headed down to the lake for some sightseeing. We took a long walk along the water, watched the boats, and picked up some twigs to use for firewood at night.

The other reason for our trip, was October 2nd is our wedding anniversary.
And after a day of walking around, shopping in their tiny little "Village" twice, buying some sourvenirs and a pack venison jerky, we headed over to Cowboy Express for what we had been looking forward to all day: a big Texas steak dinner. As usual, Eddie's eyes were bigger than his stomach, and Julia polished off this steak...

The third and last day, we decided we had seen all there is to see in Big Bear, and decided to head over to the neighboring Lake Arrowhead before the drive home. There was a big shopping center in Lake Arrowhead, and also a boat tour, which we happily took. It was interesting to see the lakeside homes of the rich and famous, including one big house with two boats parked in the water, one of them called "California Girls".
If you are thinking Beach Boys, you are right. The home is owned by Brian Wilson. An interesting fact we learned during the tour... The owners of the homes were tired of being regulated by the government, so they all got together to pitch in and buy out the land from the government. So in a way, one could say that Lake Arrowhead is private property!

In short, Eddie's thought on Lake Arrowhead: a very nice and luxurious resort town. We might head back for a weekend there some day in the future. Julia's thoughts on Lake Arrowhead: looking forward to that weekend there some day in the future.

So, it may not sound like the most interesting vacation ever to some of you out there, but after 10 years couped up in a studio, this was a much needed rest, and a time for us to get our sanities back! Three days may be a bit much, but Big Bear would be perfect for a regular weekend getaway. There's skiing in the winter, and water sports during the summer. But, we were too lazy to do anything but lift our forks to eat steak. So there you go.

It's finally here!

We've been thinking about doing this blog for a long time, and finally got around to doing it. Some customers asked about posting comments online about their thoughts on our service, and this blog will allow them to do so.

It is also a place where we can share some of our experiences, and the wonderful people we've met. This blog will be not only about our work, but to those of you who may be interested (or not!) a peek into our everyday, non-work related lives.

Hope you enjoy!