Jayda. Charles City high school, class of 2027.
Cedar Falls was our chosen location for a few reasons. First, Jayda didn’t really want to do her senior photos in Charles City, where most of her classmates’ sessions would be done. Second, she’ll be going to college in the Waterloo/Cedar Falls area next year. And third, I was all in on the travel. I love shooting in Cedar Falls.
Every Cedar Falls session I’ve photographed so far has started on the UNI campus. I went to UNI, so I know the campus pretty well — even with the many changes since I was there. UNI is also an easy place to meet. I say, "Lets meet in front of the UNI bookstore" and everyone knows where that is. I have yet to lose a client.
Jayda and I logged what felt like 20,000 steps walking around campus. It’s not for the faint of heart or foot. But we hit a lot of spots along the way.
Jayda seemed very easygoing in front of the camera. It’s hard to tell for sure sometimes. You can either be at ease or just really good at projecting it. Bonus: she laughed at about 40–45% of my jokes. That’s an A or solid B+ for me.
There are plenty of other areas around Curris we could have used, but we were working our way toward other parts of campus. That’s one thing I like about UNI: you could photograph several senior sessions there and not have any of them look exactly the same.
The rooftop deck at Maucker Union usually finds its way into a session too. There are interesting architectural forms, glass, reflected sunlight and a few opportunities to experiment.
And then there are parking garages.
I love parking garages.
They’re the ultimate side quest. In fact, I usually start there. Stairwells, multilevel concrete columns, open shade, hard sunlight, deep shadows — they give me a lot to work with.
I love using the sun. I treat it like a brush on a canvas. After 12 years of photography, I’ve gotten pretty good at seeing a space through the lens and through the finished edit instead of only seeing what’s directly in front of me.
Parking garages are almost built for that.
And for parking cars, too, I guess.
I love some of the architectural spaces around campus. One of my favorite spots is the Kamerick Art Building and the area around it. The doors stay open later because of access to the pedestrian bridge toward the UNI-Dome complex, so I’ve used it with clients several times.
Jayda and I stumbled into some great window light inside and took advantage of it. Hopefully UNI is okay with that. They’re supporting an alum, if that helps.
I also like the area behind Rod Library, especially the loading dock. It gives me a few things that don’t look like the traditional college-campus senior photo. The photograph of Jayda in front of the lined corner wall is actually a giant air-handling unit. It was off.
The Curris Business Building is another good stop because of the mirrored windows across the front. I like using reflections whenever I can find them. They add another visual layer to a photograph without needing anything elaborate.
After campus, we headed toward downtown Cedar Falls and spent some time wandering the alleyways and the area around River Place Plaza.
This part of Cedar Falls gives me a completely different look than UNI. We found murals, old brick walls, vines growing across buildings and plenty of little corners that probably wouldn’t look like much if you were just walking past them.
Those are usually the places I like best.
I’m rarely looking for one perfect backdrop. I’d rather walk around, see what the light is doing and find things as we go. A wall, some vines or an alley can become something completely different once you put a person in the right place and frame it through a camera.
That’s part of why I like working in Cedar Falls. Within one session, we can go from the cleaner architecture of campus to older brick, murals and a little more texture downtown without everything feeling like it came from the same location.
By the end of the session, we had covered a lot of ground — literally — and ended up with a mix of photographs that felt like Jayda rather than one long series from the same backdrop.
That’s what I like about photographing seniors in Cedar Falls. We can move, explore, change the look completely and let the session develop as we go. Jayda wanted something different from what she would have done closer to home, and Cedar Falls gave us plenty to work with.
If you’re a senior from Charles City, Cedar Falls, Waterloo or anywhere in between and you want your senior photos to feel a little less predictable, I’m always up for the drive.