College graduation has always held a special place in my heart. It’s the one chapter and the beginning of a new chapter in life. A time to celebrate success, honor friendship, and reflect on all the hard work that it takes to be a college graduate. Those sentiments and many more were ever-present during Kiarra’s graduation photo session a few months ago at the beautiful Western Carolina University in Cullowhee, NC. And now she has photos to relive those feelings for years to come!

Kiarra found me through my Instagram page in March, just before everything with COVID started to happen in North Carolina. Thankfully, we were able to plan our session quite quickly and get on campus! Kiarra was a WCU Online student graduating from her Master’s Degree, and had never been on campus before! Thankfully, her sister attends WCU and was able to give us advice on the best places to hit, plus some lesser-known areas that turned out to be great for photos!

The day of the session was truly perfect. The drive down to Cullowhee was full of rain showers but we had no rain the whole shoot. One of the items on Kiarra’s shot list was a huge door outside the basketball arena with a big WCU on it. Unfortunately, the door was raised, but with a little luck and asking permission, we ended up shooting in the middle of the basketball court in a completely empty arena. What a dream come true! And best of all, her amazing boyfriend was there to help with holding bags, appearing in a few couple photos, and being her hype man too! This was the first of hopefully many trips down to Western. Hope you enjoy the photos!

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Nick