MARY E GEARING HALL

The courtyard at Gearing Hall is one of my favorite places to shoot on the UT Austin campus! It has a beautiful view of the tower, arched limestone walls, a tiled fountain, and a wrought iron gate all surrounded by lush greenery and overhanging trees. This courtyard is usually my starting point for senior photos. 

Timing and lighting are very important in this location. If the tower is getting direct sunlight, it’ll be overexposed in the background. If the light is hitting the gates, the sun will cast a shadow on your face and you’ll have to move around or reposition your face to get even lighting. On sunny days you can get really beautiful backlighting that will give you a glowy, halo effect around your hair.

I usually have my subject start by posing with the gate. I make sure to eyeball the doors and make sure they’re generally symmetrical on both sides and the tower is centered in the frame behind my subject. Once I’m done at the gate, I shoot at the fountain at the center of the courtyard or move on to the arches or greenery.

Goldsmith Hall Courtyard

The courtyard at Goldsmith Hall - often referred to as the architecture courtyard - has a little bit of everything you could want to photograph. As you walk in, you’ll find a set of blue gates that you can pose with similar to the gates at Gearing Hall. To the sides of the gates, you have beautiful baby blue wrought iron that makes for a great backdrop and offers bright, directional lighting. And when you walk into the open air courtyard, you’ll find a tiled fountain with large arched windows behind it. If you come here around February, you can catch the cherry blossom trees in bloom!

Battle Hall - Blue Doors

The Blue Doors are an iconic spot on campus for senior photos. They went under renovation recently and the new paint color is more green than blue. Nevertheless, the doors are framed by beautiful molding all around and large arched windows with decorated balconies above.

I think this location can be very versatile. You can pose closer to the doors and get shots surrounded by the blue squares on the doors, you can also step farther away from the doors to capture the full grandeur of the architecture of the building.

The Tower Steps

I’m dividing the tower into 2 parts. There is the area right under the tower building and then there is the tower itself. For this section, we’re focusing on the area under the tower. This includes the steps leading into the building, the arches at the top of the steps, and the decorative area right in front of the steps.

If you’re taking photos in the covered portion past the arches, be mindful of the direction you’re facing. The light comes in from one direction so you want to make sure you’re facing the light so you’re properly illuminated. There are a lot of opportunities to incorporate existing frames in the environment and use leading lines to direct the viewer’s eye to the subject.

Once you step outside away from the arches, you can shoot at the curved walkways leading up to the tower. There is really pretty landscaping surrounding these walkways so you can incorporate the flowers and trees for a pop of color. You can also go to the west side of the area to get beautiful backlighting during golden hour. This is a great spot for headshots.

The Tower

Now for the pièce de résistance, the Tower itself. The Tower is the building most synonymous with UT Austin. It can be seen from just about anywhere on campus but if you want to get the full tower in frame without any distractions, I recommend shooting at the top of the stairs near Inner Campus drive. For those who are more familiar with the UT campus, these are the stairs that go down towards the six pack.

In order to get the full tower in frame, your photographer will need to squat down and point their camera up towards you. You can play around with different angles and focal lengths to get the view you want. Depending on how clean you want the photo to be, you may need to PhotoShop out the people walking across in the background. This is a great location for a cap toss.

Littlefield Fountain

A champagne pop at Littlefield fountain is one of the most quintessential photos for UT Austin grads. Once you get in the water, the champagne pop itself lasts maybe 15-30 seconds. After that you can either pop another bottle or take photos drinking the champagne, posing with the bottle, doing a hook ‘em, or splashing the water.

If getting in the water is not your cup of tea, you can always take advantage of the beautiful landscaping and statues around the fountain to get photos in this location.

THE LIFE SCIENCES LIBRARY Stairs

The staircase just outside the Life Sciences Library used to be a hidden gem but has gained a lot of popularity in the last year or two because of its large gothic windows and intricate tile ceiling.

This location is great to shoot at on bright, sunny days when a lot of light is flooding in through the windows. On overcast days, a strobe or an LED light panel are helpful to bring in additional light. This is a great location to try some out of the box poses or fun compositions.

The University of Texas at Austin sign

This sign doesn’t get as much love as some of the other locations but I think it’s a great option if you’re wanting to send out graduation invites or mailers. It succinctly informs the viewer of the school you’re graduating from, it includes the school’s most recognizable building in the background, and most importantly it shows you!