College Graduation Photos, CCS Detroit
“I know you only photograph weddings, do you know anyone who can photograph my college graduation photos?”
Running a business is a funny thing: you can spend all of your time reading books on how to run a business, or you can jump in and figure it out as you go. You can ask everyone their opinion on something, or you can take it to the market and listen. You can specialize and become an expert, or you can be a jack-of-all trades. A few years ago, I made the decision to stop photographing things that I didn’t truly enjoy. To me, photography is precious and personal. Spending time photographing things that didn’t bring me joy is a recipe for disaster: you risk ruining the whole experience to cater to a single part. Nope! Definitely not worth it. With that, I focused on two elements of photography that I love, weddings and dance.
If you can photograph a wedding, you have a pretty good idea how to photograph anything. Weddings require you to shoot portraiture (bride and groom), macro (rings), architecture and interiors (reception spaces), photojournalism (dance floor and candids), fashion (studio lighting and posing), just to name a few. So when Tessa reached out to me through Instagram, first complimenting me on my work but then asking me if I knew anyone who could photograph her college graduation photos, I screamed, “ME! I can do it!” Sometimes people think that just because I post and publish a lot of weddings that I am not willing to shoot anything else. Far from it! I was so excited at the opportunity to photograph something different and to help Tessa celebrate her accomplishment by creating college graduation photos that reflected her style.
Tessa graduated from Detroit’s Center for Creative Studies with a degree in Industrial and Product Design. Photos took place around their Detroit campus and surrounding neighborhoods.
As our college graduation photo shoot began to wind down, it was time to celebrate her accomplishment. You have to have a little fun and celebration with such an accomplishment.
