My little sister went to the University of Washington, so I got to photograph her and her friends at the lovely UW campus! I went to Chapman University and spent three years taking photos all around the small campus, so this was a refreshing change of scenery.
Friend shoots are always a lot of fun, but they are a little stressful because you need to make sure you have enough time and light to shoot everyone. That means you need to be prepared and schedule your time at each photo location. I shadowed a photographer before my first Chapman senior shoot in 2016 and developed my own senior photo route. To prepare for the friend shoot, I shot my sister individually the day before. This allowed me to see where the sun was and which places made for good backgrounds.
The next day I was feeling prepared! When you’re shooting multiple people, it’s important that you are decisive and let them know that you have an agenda. If they want to shoot at extra spots, that’s fine, just make sure you’re doing it in a logical way so you’re not doing a ton of extra walking. I didn’t plan to shoot at these four locations below, but we easily incorporated them into the schedule.
The key to taking individual photos is making sure everyone’s photos look slightly different. All you have to do is shoot from a slightly different angle or have them move a couple steps.
Make sure to get group shots in the iconic places on campus.
And when in times of corona…drink Corona
During senior shoots, I also usually try to get a headshot that they can use on LinkedIn or any non-grad photo purposes.
Our planned last stop was the W sign at the entrance to campus. This is where I planned on ending the shoot because it’s kind on the edge of campus and it’s not convenient to walk up to the sign then walk back to the quad. Also, champagne shots should be last since you don’t want to be carrying an open bottle around campus for a long time, also usually they get wet while shaking the bottle, and that is a headache to edit out. Lastly, since I was there the day before, at the same time, I saw the sun was casting weird shadows on it around 5pm, so I knew we should wait a while before taking photos there. I love capturing their reactions when the champagne explodes!
A few of the girls wanted photos at the sorority house, so we went there for some last shots as the sun was going down.
