Graduation Photos at Filoli: Planning a Senior Session That Gets Both Kinds of Shots
There is a shot list for every graduation session, and it isn't mine.
It's the one the parents carry in their heads. The lei, because someone spent weeks braiding it. The cap, held up, tassel swinging. The college sweatshirt, because the acceptance letter is still on the fridge. Those frames have to happen. They are the ones going in the group text, the ones grandparents print, the ones that mark the year. If I skip them to chase something more editorial, I have failed the assignment.
But if those are the only frames I make, I have also failed. A lei is a busy object. It fights every background, it hides the neckline of whatever she chose to wear, and it pulls the eye away from her face. The photos that end up on the wall ten years later are almost never the lei photos. They're the ones from the second half of the session, after the props come off and she's just standing in a garden looking like herself.
So I plan a graduation session in two acts. This one, at Filoli in Woodside, is a clean example of how that works and where it gets hard.
Act one: the shot list
Act one, lei on, before anyone is tired.
We started on the brick path along the east side of the house, lei on, big smile, walking toward me. Get the required frames done first while the energy is high and before anyone is tired or hungry. Parents relax once they know the lei shots are in the bag, and a relaxed parent is a much better second-half subject.
The brick at Filoli is the right backdrop for a black and yellow lei. Warm, textured, and busy enough that the ribbon doesn't look like it landed from another planet. Against green foliage the lei screams. Against brick it settles.
The lei needs brick behind it, not green.
Then the cap. The cap frames are the fastest part of a session because there are only so many ways to hold a mortarboard, and she'd already seen every one of them on Instagram. Hold it up, hold it out, hold it against the hip. Three angles, done in ten minutes, one clear favorite.
Three cap angles, one favorite.
The quieter cap frame.
The sweatshirt was hers to decide. She held it up first, which is the safer frame because the dress underneath still reads. Then she put it on, off the shoulder, over the white skirt. That second version is the better photo. It looks like something she'd wear on a Saturday, not something I asked her to put on.
Worn, not held. The better version.
Something she'd wear on a Saturday.
The light problem nobody mentions
Graduation sessions happen when graduates and parents are free. That means weekends, late morning, and midday. Not golden hour. Filoli closes at 5pm with last entry around 3pm, so evening light isn't available here anyway unless you book their after-hours package.
Full sun at 11am is the hardest light I work in. It's also the light most family sessions actually get, so I've stopped complaining about it and started scouting for it.
At Filoli that means the brick arches. The gate arch on the garden side has a deep enough overhang that she can stand in open shade while the path behind her is lit. That's a backlit frame with no flash and no reflector, which is good because Filoli doesn't allow standalone lighting on the grounds anyway. The cypress allée with the pink begonias is the opposite problem: no shade at all, light coming straight down, and the flowers so saturated they'd blow out on a phone. Shot at the right exposure it's the most Filoli-looking frame in the set, and it took two tries to get her face and the begonias to both hold.
Open shade under the arch, sun on the path behind. No flash.
The woodland path below the house is the third option, dappled and unpredictable. Move two feet and the whole exposure changes. I used it sparingly.
If you're planning your own session here on a bright day: arches first, allée second, open lawn last if at all.
Dappled light on the woodland path.
Act two: the dress
Lei off. Cap in the bag. Sweatshirt back to mom.
This is where the session turns. The white dress had been under the lei the whole time and nobody had really seen it yet. We went back through the same arch, but now the frame was about the light on her hair and the gate hinges behind her instead of the ribbon.
Act two. Same arch, different photo.
The impatiens border outside the walled garden gave me the profile I'd been waiting for. White flowers, white dress, her looking down at them instead of at me. It's the quietest frame of the day and it might be the best one.
The quietest frame of the day.
Lei off. This is the dress.
Later, at the ballroom, I did one walking frame across the parquet and one of her mother under the chandelier. Filoli's interior is beautiful and I've written about shooting it before, so I didn't spend long there. For a graduation session the garden is the story.
One walking frame, then back outside.
The mother and daughter frames
Here's the honest part. When a family books a graduation session, the daughter is the reason and the mother is the client. Both things are true, and the second one matters more than photographers usually admit.
So I build time for mother and daughter together, not as an afterthought at the end when everyone's done. Seated on the allée steps, walking the path side by side, and one tight frame with foreheads touching that neither of them expected. That last one was maybe four seconds. The daughter closed her eyes and her mother looked at her, and I took two frames and stopped.
Full sun, no shade, two tries.
The most Filoli-looking frame in the set.
Four seconds. Two frames.
The client and the reason.
I also make a point of photographing the mother on her own. She'd dressed for it, she'd driven, and in my experience the parent who organizes the session is almost never in a good photo from it. The chandelier frame and the arch with the blue hydrangeas were hers.
The parent who books the session is never in a good photo from it. This time she was.
Hers.
What to bring to a graduation session
The lei, cap, and any school gear. Put it all on for act one, then we retire it.
One outfit you'd actually wear. Not a costume. Something that reads as you.
A second, smaller look if you want it, but Filoli doesn't allow changing on the grounds, so it has to be something you can put on over what you're wearing. A sweatshirt works. A second dress doesn't.
Comfortable shoes for walking between spots. The distance between the house and the walled garden is further than it looks.
No large props, no standalone lights, no reflectors. Filoli asks for that and I agree with it.
For a fuller checklist, my family session preparation guide covers the rest.
Last frame before the ballroom.
Booking a graduation session at Filoli
When should I book? Graduation sessions fill from March through June. The lei and cap frames work any time after the acceptance letter arrives, and the garden is at its best April through early June. Late September, when this session ran, still had begonias and impatiens in full color.
How long does it take? Ninety minutes is right for a graduation session with both acts and mother-daughter time. Sixty gets rushed. Two hours and the graduate is done with you.
Does Filoli need a permit? Filoli welcomes personal portrait photography with regular admission. No large equipment, no blocking paths, no changing on the grounds. Members can book their own entry. I'll walk you through the rest when we plan.
Can we add a second location? Not in the same session. Filoli is 25 minutes from anything else and the light is gone by the time you'd get there. Pick Filoli or pick somewhere else.
What if she hates the lei photos? Most graduates do, in the moment. Take them anyway. In ten years the lei is the only thing that says which year it was.