Manhattan Beach Photographer | Manhattan Beach Family Photos

The Jones family headed west from Texas to bring their kids to Disneyland--and stopped by idyllic Manhattan Beach by the sea to meet with us for Manhattan Beach family photos at the Manhattan Beach Pier.

It was another amazing sunset evening, and the Jones gang was a whole lot of fun to spend time with. Call us local chauvinists, but we're betting they don't have summer nights like this back in Texas.

Manhattan Beach Photographer

As Manhattan Beach Photographers, We live, breathe and love every moment of our beloved hometown, Manhattan Beach, California. On a sunny Wednesday, we decided to snap some iconic images of downtown in the summer. Enjoy!

Manhattan Beach Portraits | By Sam Graham

We met with the lovely Mai Vu Saturday at the beach for this portrait session for ASJ magazine. Portrait by Sam Graham, Graham & Graham Photography.

Manhattan Beach Corporate Headshots | MIB Insurance

The folks at Media Insurance Services in Manhattan Beach had us over the other morning to do Manhattan Beach corporate headshots of all the staffers, hauling over our blue backdrop paper, Alien Bees and light and backdrop stands. [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="600" caption="Headshots of Media Insurance Services"][/caption]
We love the results, and so did they. Jemelia, from MIB, called us "awesome" on Citysearch!

Manhattan Beach Family Photographer | Manhattan Beach Portraits

If it's Thanksgiving, it's time for holiday cards!
And that's how we spent the weekend, helping families with their holiday cards, with classic Manhattan Beach family portraits.
We began on Friday, with our new friend Bill at Polliwog Park in Manhattan Beach. His family from Michigan called to get photos to distribute to all the family members, and we were happy to oblige.

Then Saturday it was off to Pacific Palisades, to meet Matt, Nancy and their lovely young daughter at the Santa Monica Mountains hiking facility off Temescal Canyon. What an amazing backdrop! This was our third annual holiday card for the gang, and we look forward to many years more.

Finally, we met with our old friends Rich and Lisa, to photograph their family, again for year no. 3, at their home in Manhattan Beach. This was the best shoot ever, and we can't wait to see the new holiday card!

We closed the weekend on the sands of Manhattan Beach with the Stewart family from Long Beach, for classic Manhattan Beach family portraits under the Pier.


Thanks everyone, for the fun weekend by the sea!

Manhattan Beach Portraits | Manhattan Beach Pier | Manhattan Beach Quinceañera

We met the lovely Victoria Monday under the Manhattan Beach Pier for a portrait shoot. The meeting was to get a killer shot for display at her weekend Manhattan Beach Quinceañera, which is being held this weekend at Veranadas in Manhattan Beach. And we think we got it--we arrived under the Pier just in time for a big, rich, yellow sunset.

Bellflower Dance Recital

The great thing about this job, when the phone rings, the requests are extremely varied. Weddings, Bar Mitzvahs, family portraits--indian dance recitals in Bellflower! You just never know where you'll end up.

Meera performed a solo recital this weekend, in 7 amazing dance numbers. We were thrilled to be there to document the performance for the family.

Manhattan Beach Portraits | Meet a Dietz Mother

This is why we love working locally. We got a call this week from Susan Dietz, she of the Manhattan Beach institution Dietz Brothers, seeking a new headshot. Just hearing the "Dietz" name brought instant smiles to our face. The legendary Dietz Brothers music store on Sepulveda is where the younger Graham took mandolin lessons for several years during high school, where teacher Pat Dietz always greeted him with a big smile and wealth of knowledge. He was more than happy to share music and books with Sam as well, and compare notes on the great mandolin pickers, like Chris Thile and Ricky Skaggs.
Susan is married to John, one of the two Dietz Brothers, who runs the music store with Pat. John and Pat also have a band that performs often.
Susan, a singer, needed a new headshot for career purposes, and we were thrilled to help out, and in our own way, try and return some of the kindness shown by the Dietz gang to our family.
And we think she looks fabulous in the above photo.

Manhattan Beach Family Portraits by Graham & Graham

It was our pleasure to meet with the Gross family on a beautiful Manhattan Beach afternoon, for a family portrait of the extended members of the family. We did the shot on their deck, which overlooks the beautiful Pacific Ocean, and used our Alien Bees lights, to illuminate the family, and be able to pick up the amazing blue sky. Thanks for having us over!

Manhattan Beach Engagement Portraits | Carrie & Tommy

On a balmy Sunday night in Manhattan Beach, on a day when the sun finally returned for a classic summer afternoon, we met Carrie and Tommy at the Manhattan Beach Pier for their sunset engagement portraits.


Carrie flew all the way out from Iowa for the photo session--she and Tommy are getting hitched in January in Las Vegas (on lucky 7/11 day) at the Mandalay Bay resort. Tommy lives and works in Valencia, where the pair will eventually live.

Manhattan Beach Photographer | Beach Portraits

How do you spell cute? Try A-L-E-X-A-N-D-R-A.

We brought Alexandra to some of our favorite Manhattan Beach locations for a portrait that will be used on her sign-in board for her upcoming Beverly Hills Bat Mitzvah at Temple Emanuel. The "mermaid" shot under the Manhattan Beach Pier is one of our favorites at this iconic location. We showed to a potential client Saturday, and she called "A once in a lifetime picture."
We don't know about that, but we sure love it! For the image, we used one of our favorite new accessories, the Orbis Ringflash, which is an attachment that goes over the flash and brings amazing studio like quality to location work. We used the Orbis on the other two shots here as well.

Redondo Beach Senior Portraits | Manhattan Beach

This was something new--and fun--for us!



We met Margaret and her sisters in Manhattan Beach at the Manhattan Beach Pier for a senior portrait session. Margaret is about to graduate from Redondo Union High School in June, and wanted to have some sunset beach shots to hand out to the family. We were thrilled to be there for her.




Congratulations, Margaret!