Graduation season has a way of feeling both huge and weirdly ordinary all at once. You've done something significant… and now someone hands you a cap and a list of "poses to do" and suddenly it feels like every photo could've been taken at any graduation, anywhere, ever.

That's exactly what we didn't do with this shoot.

This spring, I had the best time shooting a golden hour grad session that threw out that rulebook entirely. She wanted to focus on more of a film inspired aesthetic with favorite spots around campus.

Here's how we got there — and how you can too.

Find spots that mean something to you

Every campus has the obvious backdrops such as the iconic building, the main quad, the fountain everybody takes pictures at. And yeah, those have their place. But the spots that make a session feel personal? Those are the ones you actually spent time at.

Think: the back corner of the library you practically lived in, the side entrance nobody else uses, the lecture hall you spent many a class in. Those details are yours. When you're in them, it reads in your face and in the photos.

"The best location is the one that already has a story attached to it."

Bring something with you

Props get a bad reputation because people think of them as gimmicks. They're not! They're just extensions of you when used right. A worn paperback you carried everywhere. A newspaper from graduation day. Your grandmother's sunglasses. A coffee cup from your spot.

These things give your hands something to do (which makes a huge difference), and they add texture to the images that stock-pose photos just can't touch. You don't need much. One or two intentional items are better than a whole bag of stuff.

Give your hands something to do with intentional props

Let the light do the heavy lifting

Golden hour is its own kind of magic, but it rewards people who move around in it. Don't just stand in one place and hope for the best. Walk toward it, turn sideways, find a doorway that frames it, sit down and let it fall across you.

Some of my favorite frames from this shoot came from going into the light instead of away from it. Get the golden glow and if you have a pretty dusk, stick around and keep playing with the light.

The light is a character and subject of its own, interact with it like one

For this shoot, we leaned on warm tones, a little softness in the edit, and shooting in ways that let the environment breathe. Brick walls. campus greenery. Evening shades with a rim of gold. Everything felt a little bit found rather than staged.

Scroll down and take a look at what this session turned into. I hope it makes you want to do something a little unexpected with yours.