Betty White Event at L.A. Mart

We were recently hired by L.A. Mart to do a two hour set-up shoot with Betty White. They were having a special reception and fundraiser in conjunction with Joy to the World, Betty White and the Morris Animal Foundation.

Above is Betty White with Pinkie, a three-legged service dog.
Eddie taking photos...

Here we are, with Ms. White.
Here is Julia chatting with Betty White... And below, Ms. White hands over an autographed ornament, which were being sold on site for fundraising.

We had a great time at the event. Ms. White was an absolutely adorable, and very kind. We'd like to thank Karen Bowes for giving us the opportunity to work at this special event!

Irish Wedding

Therese and Nathaniel's wedding this past weekend took place in the Santa Monica Catholic Church. It was a small, but very nice and intimate ceremony that we are sure many of the guests will remember fondly.
Here is Therese, walking down the isle with her parents.
The reception was held at Le Merigot Marriot in Santa Monica. The entire staff was extremely courteous, and the service was second to none.
Below is the happy couple's fondant-covered wedding cake.
Some of the guests dance to "It's a Great Day for the Irish" around the newlyweds.
Congratulations, Therese and Nathanael! We wish you many years of happiness!

Happy New Year!

It's been a pretty good year for us. We thank all of those out there who have given us the chance to work with you. We've been very lucky that all of our customers have been wonderfully kind to us, and we wish you all a very happy 2008! May you all have peace, love, happiness, friendship and most importantly, health! Happy New Year to everyone!

Lily and J.C.'s Wedding

Lily and JC's wedding was a little bit of a surprise to us. They are both very witty and humorous. So it caught us a little by surprise that their ceremony turned out to be really sweet and emotional for everyone.
This shot above was taken at their ceremony location, The Reef in Long Beach. It got dark pretty fast, so we didn't get to take any sunset shots during the ceremony. But the lights reflecting off the Long Beach shoreline in the background came out beautiful, too.
A photo of the beautiful cake from outside the reception room.
Lily and JC enjoy a cigar with family in the outdoor patio at The Reef.
Congratulations, Lily and JC!

Redondo Beach Pier, Crabs and Hats!

We spent some time in Redondo Beach today. We got two Santa Barbara female crabs, and while we were waiting for them to get steamed, we wandered around the arcade. Julia couldn't resist an old childhood favorite and put some quarters into those machines where you aim and drop a quarter in and wait for the "hand" to push the quarter into slots to see if any fall off the edge... She got zilch. Eddie had better luck and actually managed to push 4 quarters off the edge! But sadly, no quarters came out; only tokens! Unsure of what to do, we went to the token redemption center looking through the useless knick-knacks... We were about to head back to the games to see if we could score some more tokens for a decent prize when we stumbled upon these French hats for 2 tokens each! :D For some reason it was really amusing to us... I guess you had to be there! Anyway, we got two matching hats for the value of a quarter each. Not bad, we think; and it turned out to be kind of cold, so we were actually grateful for it! The hard part was trying to find a person to take this photo for us. Would you believe, two different arcade employees refused to take it for us?? Maybe they were jealous of us, who knows? :D

Those of you who live in the area or plan to be in the area, take Torrance Boulevard westbound all the way to the end, and you will find yourself in the parking lot. Go down the parking lot steps, make a sharp right, and you will find yourself standing in front of Quality Seafood. Order the Santa Barbara females. They are our favorites, and you will often find them filled with yummy crab eggs. A good sized crab usually runs around $6 to $7. Very affordable and very yummy. We also had some fried calamari and a slab of garlic bread to soak up the crab juices.

Marymount College X'Mas Party

We were hired to do a set-up for the Marymount College staff Christmas party this year. It was great! There were so many nice people! The group photo above is of the sisters that started it all at Marymount! Aren't they lovely?

The college not only gave all the staff frames as gifts, but they are also providing them each a 5X7 photo to put in the frames.

Online gallery is coming soon...

Here is Eddie checking the lighting set-up...

Testinomy - Email from Rosie

We got an email from Rosie today. We did her daughter's Sweet 16 in June, and the whole family has been so wonderful and nice to us. Rosie wanted us to post some kind words from her, so we are sharing it with everyone here. Thank you so much!

"Eddie and Julia –

When we had planned our daughters Sweet 16, our biggest dilemma was finding the best Photographer/Videographer of the South Bay. Why? When asked, what is of great importance and is irreplaceable in ones home? Pictures are always one item that is very valuable which lasts forever. Therefore, after dozens of interviews I was truly impressed and knew that Southbay Studio was the right choice. The event was beautiful and a success! This was where I saw your passion for your profession; it was not a job but an art. Eddie & Julia you are like a family to us, and this is not the end. We are just beginning this relationship – we have much more events to come and we hope Southbay Studio will be there!!

We thank you from the bottom of our hearts –

Alfred, Rosie & Alexis"

Pasta with Pumpkin Sauce

We had this for dinner tonight. Pasta with Pumpkin Sauce, chopped sausages and fresh basil. Eddie thought it was surprisingly good, and he gobbled it up, (get it? gobbled? sorry...) despite not being a fan of pumpkin. Eddie said he would not have been able to tell if Julia hadn't told him. She will definitely keep that in mind... :P

So this brings our pumpkin update to: 14 pumpkin pies, 2 pots of curried pumkin soup, 1 batch of pumpkin squares and 1 batch of pasta with pumpkin sauce.

Pumpkin Square

Still trying to use up all those pumpkins, Julia came across another recipe she thought would be worth trying. Pumpkin Bars. Except, she cut them into square, so... Pumpkin Squares for us.
It was dense, and not too sweet, which is good.

Our New Wedding Site

Eddie just finished updating our new wedding website, check it out! www.southbaystudio.com/wedding

Turkey Day

Julia made this turkey army for our Thanksgiving dinner tonight. It's made from Oreo cookies, peanut butter cups, candy corn and malted milk balls. The darned things were hard to find! They didn't have any at Ralphs, or Albertsons, the local liquor store, and 7-Eleven. Finally, they were found at CVS... By the way, thanks for the tip, Daniel!

We also had a first tonight. Fried turkey. Yes, we know that it's dangerous, but a family friend who was here for dinner was in charge of it, so we went along. We were actually pretty excited about trying it. And we both agree, it's the best turkey we've ever had! And before you start emailing us, we had a fire extinguisher on hand the whole time!

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving! The tryptophan is starting to kick in...

Gobble gobble! Good-night, America. Don't forget to count your blessings and be thankful!

Brief Pumpkin Update

As you know, Julia brought home 12 pumpkins. And we promised to update you on the status of these pumpkins. So far, Julia has made 14 pumpkin pies and two pots of curried pumpkin soup. And we have 4 very happy neighbors around us!

Imperial Garlic

These odd looking things you see above are Imperial Garlic. We saw these at a store today, and Julia was curious enough to buy them. They claimed to be "one clove heads" of garlic. Once we got home and unwrapped, we found they are exactly what they claimed to be. They taste just like regular garlic. A little bit disappointing, we have to say. For some reason, we half-expected them to taste a little different...

Elizabeth and Alberto's Wedding

Elizabeth and Alberto's Wedding from southbaystudio on Vimeo.

Shannon and Diran's Wedding Video

Diana and Ben's Wedding Video

Brandi and George's Wedding Video

12 pumpkins = Pie!

This is actually the first time Julia has made pumpkin pie from scratch. She wasn't expecting it to be this easy... She plans to make more for the neighbors! Bon appetit!

What can you make with 12 pumpkins?

This year Albertsons was giving out free pumpkins after Halloween, like last year. Julia went crazy and picked out the 12 big ones you see in the picture here. Eddie is asking her, "What can you make with 12 pumpkins?!?" She swears that a lot can be done with pumpkins. Well, we'll keep you posted...

California Travel and Tourism Commission Event

The California Travel and Tourism Commission had a media event at the Beverly Wilshire in Beverly Hills yesterday. They asked us to cover the event and set up a green screen studio for some still shots. Here is Julia working hard.



They had all this wonderful looking food and desserts, lots of useful information, and we think the event went really well.

Everyone from the California Travel and Tourism Commission, as well as the Beverly Wilshire staff were very friendly, kind and professional. We'd like to thank them for a wonderful experience.

If you want to find out more about the California Travel and Tourism Commission, go to www.visitcalifornia.com

Jenny's 18th Birthday Party

We went to the Torrance Holiday Inn yesterday to cover Jenny's 18th Birthday celebration. Eddie did photo, as usual, while Julia did video.
Here is Julia getting some birthday wishes on tape for the birthday girl.



Happy birthday, Jenny! Hope you had a great time!

Lily & JC's Engagement Photo Shoot

Here is a lovely couple we met with last Friday for an engagement shoot. This engagement shoot was included in the wedding package they ordered in September. We shot at the Botanical Gardens and at the Point Vicente Lighthouse.

SoHo Thai Fusion Bar & Grill

Today is Eddie's birthday!! We went to SoHo Thai Fusion Bar & Grill to celebrate, and this photo above was taken with Eddie's camera phone, so you'll have to excuse the quality... These are the appetizer Angel Wings. Pretty good, we have to say. They are chicken wings with the bones removed, and stuffed with a mixture of pork and some other ingredients that I'm sure they will not share with us... It tasted a little reminiscent of Vietnamese fried egg rolls. The chicken was nice and crispy, not too over fried; the texture was great! This restaurant is fairly new, so those of you who haven't tried it yet, go check it out. Their website is www.sohothai.com

Point Vicente Lighthouse

We spent some time on Palos Verdes today, scouting for good photo locations. We ended up at the Point Vicente Lighthouse. We have been there before, but never stayed until it got pretty dark like we did today. It was the first time we saw the lighthouse actually lit up! And there was some fog (what else is new in PV?) so we had to listen to the fog horn the whole time we were there.

The last time we were there the new visitor's center was still in construction. Now it's done, but we were there too late in the day to be able to take photos and look around, so we took the photos and decided to go back some other day to be tourists. Today was strictly a "work" visit.

Evan's Artwork

These are 4 paintings that we photographed today. They were done by a very gifted local artist by the name of Even Peelle. He wanted high resolution files for possible future reproduction.
The final results - four 700Mb files!

Apparently, great artistic ability runs in Evan's family. Having a sculptor grandfather and a painter mother, art has been a part of Evan's life since he could remember.

If you are interested in any of these stunning works of art, or would like to have a portrait painted, please visit Evan's website for more information:

www.evanpeelle.com

All images are copyrighted by Evan Peelle.

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.!