Kim at Sather Gate — Berkeley Class of 2026

There's a reason every Berkeley grad wants to photograph at Sather Gate. The teal ironwork arch, the long brick path stretching back through campus, the way the whole thing turns almost luminous when the evening light hits it just right — it's one of those spots that does a lot of the work for you. But it also demands something from whoever's standing in front of it. Kim brought exactly the right energy.

We started at golden hour, which in late May means the light gets long and warm right around when the plaza starts to empty out. That timing is worth protecting. By the time we were shooting, the path behind Kim was nearly clear, and that soft directional light was wrapping around her face in a way that no midday sun could touch. Her navy gown and gold Berkeley stole — Class of 2026 embroidered in that satisfying block script — read beautifully against the patina of the gate. The whole color palette just worked: navy, gold, teal, warm sky.

We shot the gate from a few different distances. The wider frames give the arch room to breathe and put you fully inside the scene — you know immediately where you are and why it matters. The closer compositions let her expression do more of the storytelling. That smile is genuine in every single frame, which tells you something: Kim wasn't nervous in front of the camera. She was just happy to be there, in that gown, at that gate, at the end of four years at Cal.

For one variation, she held her cap loosely at her side rather than wearing it — a small choice that somehow changed the whole feel of the image. It's a little more relaxed, a little more *her*, and the walking-toward-camera energy made it one of my favorite frames from the session. There's movement without it feeling posed.

The light faded gradually, and we used every bit of it. By the last few frames the sky had gone soft and pale behind the arch, and the campus lamps in the background had just started to glow — that brief window where everything feels a little more still and a little more significant. Which is honestly a pretty good description of what a graduation session should feel like.

Congratulations, Kim. Go Bears.