Busy Season Begins
As a photographer in Wisconsin, the busy season goes from spring through the fall. Living in a college town means that busy season begins with UW Madison's graduation. This year, a record number of 8,679 students graduated from the university, 18 of which were photographed by me.
Sorority Sisters and Roommates Celebrate Together
Many grads like to take pictures with the special people that they have made connections with during their time in college. My first session of the season began with four sorority sisters who lived together for their last year on campus. We started at one of Madison's most iconic locations: the Wisconsin State Capitol Building. We chose a gorgeous day to take portraits, however every other upcoming grad decided to take their photos that day as well, meaning it was extremely busy! We managed to maneuver around the crowds to get some great shots, both in the lawn and on the steps of the building.
These ladies had so many fun ideas for the photos they wanted. I also loved how much they each hyped each other up when it was somebody else's turn to take their photos. We quickly fell into a routine of getting group photos, then having each take turns for individual shots. It was easy to get a large variety of photos since they all had their caps and gowns, stoles, and diplomas with them.
After plenty of photos at the Capitol, we headed over to Bascom Hill. This is another iconic place on the UW Madison campus that every graduate loves to take photos at. Fortunately, they had Bucky's face displayed on Bascom Hall, as well as some really cool 2025 statues at the bottom of the hill. Both of these helped make the photos even cooler.
One of the requests this group of grads had was to do a champagne pop! It was so much fun hearing their giggles as they sprayed champagne to celebrate this momentous occasion. Again, we did a variety of group photos as well as individuals.
UW Graduation Party
Another group of graduates involved in Greek life held a party after the graduation ceremony. Hosted at an Airbnb in Monona, a group of 13 fraternity brothers and their families got together for a big celebration. There was food, drinks, music, and good times all around. For this party, I captured a mixture of candid photos of the event, as well as posed group photos of the grads and their families.
West Side of UW Campus
For my next graduate, we headed to some different spots on campus. I was excited to start the session at the Camp Randall arch, as this is a beautiful piece of the UW campus. I remember when I was a student, walking through that arch to get to football games. I think it creates a great backdrop for portraits, as it framed the subject beautifully.
We then headed over to Allen Centennial Garden. It feels crazy that this garden is free to enter, because it was beautiful and offers so much variety to your photo gallery! We found shaded wooded areas, archways, bridges, and unique trees. Golden hour was just starting to hit at the time we were there, which created some beautiful lighting through the trees as well. This Badger alumni wasn't as interested in wearing his cap and gown for all his photos, so we did many without them. I think this is a great idea for grads who want to celebrate the occasion, but also want to use these photos on their new Linkdn profiles to land their first job outside of college!
We ended this session close to Lake Mendota on the Lakeshore Path and at the Observatory Viewpoint. Other grads were there as well to take their photo with the epic lake backdrop. We kept stopping along our walk as we were finding more places for pictures. The Lakeshore part of UW's campus is so beautiful, especially at this time of year. We even found this grad's freshmen dorm and decided to use it as a backdrop for a couple pictures as well.
Bucky Badger at Bascom Hill
For my last graduate of the 2025 season, I headed back to the top of Bascom Hill. One thing that's wonderful about this part of campus, is there's endless buildings to use as the backdrop for your photos and so many different angles you can capture. For this photoshoot, we stuck to the top of the hill but wandered around the entrance to Bascom Hall as well as nearby buildings. The wonderful part about this photoshoot was that it was several days after the actual commencement, therefore there were hardly any people around. My tip for graduates in 2026 then is that if you don't need the photos as soon as possible, just schedule your graduation session for the week after the ceremony for a much more peaceful experience!
