Seniors Get Stylish for Memorable Photos

By Anna Esquibel

Although it is only week six of fall quarter, for seniors, this week is a reminder that graduation is just around the corner with the start of senior portraits.

Ultimate Exposures will be on campus from Oct. 22 through Nov. 9 taking professional portrait photographs of seniors for the yearbook with the option of ordering prints in their cap and gown or business clothes.

For some seniors, this is a monumental moment that they took every precaution to prepare for.

"I'll be getting a hair cut and having my hair stylist show me how to style it so it will look good with the cap," said senior Kendra McClelland, "I also will be doing my makeup that day and practicing how I think it will look best in the pictures in the days leading up to my pictures." .

Other students are using different methods to prepare for their portrait shoot.

"I'm not doing anything crazy but I have been going to the gym more to prepare, and on the day of, I'll just make sure to brush my teeth and throw on a Hawaiian shirt," said Kevin Henderson.

For many students, their senior portraits represent how their classmates will remember them. They are used in the yearbook but many students also use them for graduation announcements and display them in their houses.

"I wanted to make sure I looked and felt good," said senior Laura Antonelli, who took her portrait on Oct. 23. "I hope this picture reminds people of the happy person I was in school, the great memories we had and I hope they look at it and say, 'wow, that's a great picture of her.'"

Taking their senior portrait also caused an emotional response for many seniors.

"I thought it was going to be like taking any other picture and then when they took out the cap and gown for me to put on, that's when it became real, that this is my senior portrait and it made it sink in that this is the last of everything for us seniors," said Antonelli.

For other seniors, this moment made them excited about the future and their impending graduation.

"I'm actually just astonished at how much I've grown and just how much I've learned and matured through college," said McClelland. "Coming into college you are hoping that you'll be prepared to go out into the real world and now I'm feeling like I am and I'm ready to take the next step into the next season of my life."

For others, putting on the cap and gown made them nostalgic and reflective of their time spent at Santa Clara.
"It's crazy to think about how four years have gone by so fast," said Henderson. "I can still remember walking on to campus for the first time freshman year and I know that I'll be sitting at graduation with most of my friends that I made that first day. I don't want it all to end."

Contact Anna Esquibel at aesquibel@scu.edu or call (408) 554-4852.