Lexi’s UNR Graduation Shoot

Hi everyone! Maddy and Logan here to tell you guys about our first grad shoot of the season…these photos will have you contemplating going back to school just to have the chance to take grad photos again. They are absolutely iconic! First, we want to tell you a little bit about our special grad, Lexi, and her huge accomplishment because let’s face it, it’s a big deal! Lexi is getting her bachelor’s degree at the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR) in Human Development and Family Science with a minor in Substance Abuse Treatment. She is currently finishing up her internship in order to become a Certified Alcohol and Drug Counselor. Lexi has been working at this for a while now and we are so excited for her as she embarks on this new journey!

We started her shoot at sunrise at the UNR campus to get the dreamiest lighting possible. Lexi rolled up with the cavalry, her boyfriend Nicko and her best friend Ava, rollers in her hair, fuzzy slippers on, and a starbies coffee in hand. Like I said, ICONIC. We took some traditional grad photos to start off and really tried to play with the lighting to give her photos a dreamy look. Here is one of our favorite photos that we took as the sun came up behind her:

Fun fact: Lexi’s stole was made with the fingerprints of the toddlers she works with at the Child and Family Research Center (CFRC) at UNR, how cute is that?! She is so passionate about early childhood education and the relationships she has built as an assistant educator in the classroom. We love that she did this project with the kids to incorporate them into her grad photos!

We decided to take some more photos in the memorial garden next to the quad and bring out the bouquet that Lexi brought as a prop for her photos (shoutout to her boyfriend, Nicko, for playing florist and putting it together for us!). These were by far some of our favorite photos of the shoot- and yes I know I say this a lot- but I swear she looks like an angel in these photos, I will simply never get over them. Lexi also had the idea to do a cute “getting-ready moment”…. you’ll see what I mean when you see these photos. If you know Lexi, you know why these are so her- they capture her fun and cool energy!

We walked to the William Raggio Building on campus, which is the College of Education building at UNR. We made sure to capture some with her stole with the kids’ fingerprints on it. These photos outside of the building perfectly represented her degree and college focus as you can see the building name and the College of Education sign as the backdrop. We decided to go inside to explore and see if there were more cute photo ops for us to capture! The building has a library on the first floor, which includes a wide selection of children’s books to check out. Lexi often goes to this library with her toddlers from the CFRC to help them check out some books to read in the classroom! We had to get some photos with the Lorax book and her tassel to represent these special memories for her.

We had more fun ideas to do in front of the infamous “N” sign on the UNR campus. We grabbed some of Lexi’s college books, a pair of vintage sunglasses, some gum and got to work! We hadn’t fully prepared for this idea so all we had was some Trident mint gum. Not the greatest for this but we made it work- while this may sound easy, Lexi worked so hard to get the biggest bubble she could with her gum, which was definitely not an easy feat. It was so fun to capture these and the harsh sun gave it more of a dramatic look!

We circled back to the quad and we had Lexi stand in front of the Mackay building in the quad with her CASAT cord and graduation stole. These came out so cute on her graduation announcement that she got printed out! We also decided to do some cute flat lays with several details: the polaroids that we took earlier in the morning, her champagne bottle, her cord, stole, shoes, flowers and tassel. The flat lays were some of our favorites to do, we love appreciating all of the cute little details. We wanted to incorporate more of her books in the shoots so we had her take this cool shot standing on top of her books! These came out absolutely stunning and Lexi’s dress definitely tied in the UNR colors.

We took some pictures on the quad field next, it was finally time to pop that champagne and celebrate! I get why this is such a popular spot for grad photos, the open field is great for providing depth to photos and the lines of trees up and down the quad are so beautiful. Lexi really wanted some photos with Nicko here so we got some of the two of them together, they turned out so cute! We got a few blurry ones of them running too, we couldn’t help it! Since we had the bouquet, we wanted to get some fun ones of Lexi throwing the bouquet and capturing it mid-air. So in love with this idea, it’s so celebratory and fun to execute. All you need is a few tosses, and a photographer who will do anything to get the shot! The bouquet definitely tied it all together and added some cool detail to the shot. Might be a little biased, but I think this was one of the coolest pictures of the shoot:

Here is a cute stack we made of Lexi’s photos on the quad at UNR!

Part of Lexi’s shoot was some photos at another location. We scouted this location in Verdi and Lexi was all for it, a dreamy forest with tall trees and blue skies. This location was special to Lexi as it reminded her of locations that her and her friends back home would take photos at. We were on our way to this location when we realized we should probably stop for some coffee and food on the way. We stopped at Outlaw Coffee in Verdi and while waiting for drinks and food, found an injured butterfly on the floor! The butterfly let me pick him up and placed him on the tree nearby to rest. Butterflies are such a good omen, and this absolutely made our morning! It was so special spending some time chatting with Lexi, Ava, and Nicko while having breakfast on this beautiful day. After recharging, we finally got to the location in Verdi to take more portrait style pictures of Lexi. She also wanted more pictures with Nicko and Ava that weren’t necessarily with a cap and gown on. This location was absolutely perfect for Lexi’s portraits and the lighting peeking through the trees gave the photos a dreamy feeling. We used the trees to help with posing, having them sit down on the logs, walk across them, lean on them, etc. Lexi’s outfit was absolutely perfect for this location and a great contrast with the colors of the forest.

We found a spot within the baby trees to get more greens in the photos. The back of Lexi’s outfit was absolutely stunning and she wanted us to capture that, and this was just the perfect location. We got some more with Nicko and Lexi together and these have been some of our favorite couple photos to date. The highlights in this location through the trees were perfect and brought the right amount of softness to the photos. We got to take couple photos of Lexi & Nicko a while back so it was nice to give them a refresh of some images, plus we always have the best time with them! Side note: when we first came across this spot, just to the left of where these photos were taken is what looks like a manmade camp with a hut and campfire made out of sticks and other natural materials. It was quite impressive quite honestly, and the guys spent at least 10 minutes theorizing who and why this was here. Creepy but also cool at the same time! Here are the some of the photos we took in this spot:

Last but not least, Lexi insisted on stopping at the California sign in Verdi. This was important to her as she is originally from California and had to commemorate her home in these photos. These were pretty cool to take and because the sun was pretty bright at this point in the day, everyone got to look extra cool with some sunglasses! We also took some cool photos of Lexi with her Camp Snap camera, which she brought along to take some fun behind the scenes photos for herself.

Lexi’s grad shoot was the perfect session to kick off Fall Grad Season and get us even more excited for Spring graduations! Lexi, Ava and Nicko made this such a fun time and the whole session was just like hanging with some good friends. We got to tell some good stories, make some interesting discoveries, and best of all, celebrate Lexi! Those who know Lexi know she is one of the best friends you could have and such a light to be around. She radiates so much joy and laughter and is always there for the good vibes! We are so grateful to know her and be able to capture this special moment in her life. Congratulations to this lovely grad, and we are looking forward to the next adventure with her!