UDM College Graduation Photos

It has been years since I was last on University of Detroit Mercy’s campus. It was for an engagement shoot for a couple whose kids I am now seeing grow up through photos on Facebook. So long ago, in fact, that I don’t even think I had a blog at that time! Coming back to it to photograph Amanda and Grace’s college graduation photos, I was reminded how beautiful it is.

When Grace reached out to me to see if I had any availability, I knew I had to squeeze her in. I had so much fun knowing Grace over the years and photographing her sister’s wedding, I knew spending an afternoon with her and her best friend would be much the same. Grace and Amanda did not disappoint! Between reminiscing with Grace and getting to know Amanda, I almost forgot to click the shutter. When I asked how they met, they looked at each other and started laughing. I can see why they became instant bffs. In the words of John C. Reilly, “Did we just become best friends?” Yep! (No karate was done in the garage or watermelons harmed during the photo shoot. IYKYK.) Their answer: “We met each other the first day of being in a sorority. We looked at each other, nodded, and both dropped out. It was the right decision” they said in between laughs.

As we were taking college graduation photos on a quiet and relatively empty campus, a random bagpipe player started playing. That was all these two needed to bust out into laughter. From this, you could easily see they have story after story of inside jokes and lasting memories from their days at University of Detroit Mercy.

Would it really be college graduation photos if you didn’t pop some champagne in celebration? I think not.