UCF Graduation Photo Locations
Most UCF grad galleries look the same, and it is not because campus is boring. It is because everybody shoots the same two spots at the same time of day and then goes home.
There are five places on Main Campus worth your 90 minutes. Here they are in the order I actually walk them, and what each one gives you that the others do not.
We Do These In Order, And Yes, It Matters
Think of it as a lap around campus with a game plan.
We hit the busiest spot first, while it is still yours. Then we work toward the quiet end. By the time everyone else is showing up at the pond with their confetti, you are already inside standing on the seal like you own the place.
90 to 120 minutes, start to finish. That is the whole session, and it is exactly how long this takes without anybody jogging in a gown.
1. The Reflecting Pond
The most photographed spot on campus, and honestly, it earns it. Open water, palms, and a clean line of sky behind you with nothing fighting for attention.
It is also where the fun happens. Confetti, the champagne, the ones you are actually going to post.
The catch is November and December. During commencement season this spot has a line, and a line shows up in your background whether you like it or not. So we start here, and we start early. That is most of the reason my sessions begin when they do.
2. Millican Hall, The Rescue Spot
A covered brick walkway, repeating columns, and a corridor long enough to give you real depth behind you.
What Millican really does is fix light. It is shaded and even all day, so it works at 11am when the sun is doing you no favors anywhere else on campus. If your only free morning happens to be a rough one for light, this is the spot that saves the session.
The columns pull their weight too. Nobody looks at that corridor and wonders which campus it is.
3. L3Harris, Where You Bring The Friends
Home of the College of Engineering and Computer Science, and the approach out front is a straight run of palms with low benches along it.
Late day light here is the best on the whole loop.
If you just finished an engineering or CS degree, this is the one that is going to hit you in ten years. And those benches make it the easiest spot on campus for a group, so bring your people here rather than to the pond.
4. The Pegasus Seal, Finally
Inside the Student Union, right there on the floor. The seal you have spent four years carefully walking around.
Takes about five minutes, and it is not really about the photo. It is about today being the day you are finally allowed to stand on the thing.
Every UCF alum who sees that picture gets it instantly. Nobody else does. That is kind of the whole point.
5. The John C. Hitt Library
Wide steps, a glass front, and the name across it in letters big enough to actually read in the frame.
The steps are the useful part. They give us some height to play with, which means a different set of photos than 90 minutes of standing on flat ground.
This is usually where we finish.
What To Bring
Your regalia, obviously. Past that:
- The prop that says what you studied. A stethoscope, a laptop, a hard hat, a giant textbook. It turns a photo of a graduate into a photo of you.
- Up to three friends come with the session, $25 each after that. Bring them to L3Harris and the pond.
- Water. It is Florida.
Come On A Weekday Morning
Not close, honestly.
Campus is quieter, the light is better, and you are not stuck behind four families at the seal. Commencement weekend itself is the hardest time to get a clean frame anywhere on this loop.
Book four to six weeks out and you get to pick your morning. March for spring grads, October for fall grads.
What It Runs
A UCF Knights session starts at $395 and covers this whole loop in 90 to 120 minutes, with confetti and a bottle of champagne, up to three friends, and $25 for each extra one.
You get high resolution files in an online gallery, no cap on downloads, in your hands within 3 weeks.
All the details live on the UCF graduation packages page.
En Inglés O En Español
Whichever your family prefers.
Pick Your Morning
Tell me your graduation date and which of these five you care about most, and we will build the 90 minutes around that.
David Stella Photography
Orlando and Central Florida
321.475.7792