3. Spend a day exploring an elegant and historic building
Is your graduate classy? Prim, proper, and put together? The Woodrow Wilson House is an ideal site for the emerging professional to take elegant graduation photos. This is historical residence is definitely one of the best graduation photoshoot ideas in Washington, D.C. The colonial architecture is Georgian Revival style – a three-story brick townhouse complete with terraces, columns – surrounded by an expansive manicured lawn and formal gardens.
The interior spaces are lush and rather formal. Picture maroon velvet chaise lounges, thick tapestries, and oil paintings, not to mention a museum’s worth of antique gifts of state for President Wilson. It was regal enough to be the final residence of our 28th president, and so befitting of an accomplished graduate. Bonus: the interior features plentiful natural light, which a photographer could opt to block using the thick curtains hung strategically throughout the home.
4. Take a stroll around a photogenic garden space
Sprinkled throughout the city, picturesque gardens provide another backdrop for chronicling major life events. These gardens are some of the best graduation photoshoot ideas in Washington, D.C. One such garden, located in the Kalorama Heights neighborhood, is available year ’round for just such occasions. The semi-private garden is surrounded by brick homes, some of which also rent rooms for photography and events.
In spring, the graduate can pose in front of an iconic D.C. cherry tree bursting with purple blossoms, or an equally elegant crepe myrtle. Or they can pose bathed in light on a classic bench in front of bright flowers. No matter the season, the gated and walled gardens afford a photogenic setting for your graduation shots.
5. Pose with sculptures at the National Gallery of Art
The National Mall is the site of tons of our most famous monuments and statuary, most of which have been photographed literally millions of times. But two of the 19 free museums – The National Gallery of Art and the Hirschhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden – each have outdoor sculpture installations that offer a creative backdrop for graduation shots.
Centered around a fountain that in winter serves as an ice skating rink, the National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden is a particularly photogenic choice. There, graduates can select from a total of 20 world-class pieces to posture with. Fans of pop art will appreciate Roy Lichtenstein’s late-1990s “House I” while Art Nouveau lovers would enjoy posing under Hector Guimard’s 1902 French quaint gate-like sculpture entitled “An Entrance to the Paris Métropolitain.”
6. Walk along a brilliant structural bridge
The pedestrian bridge connecting Yards and Diamond Teague parks could symbolize your graduate’s rite of passage, bridging the student life to whatever comes next. Or maybe it’s just a visually stunning structure. Either way, the bridge would make a profound background for graduation pics. Located in the Capitol Riverfront area, the 627-foot bridge spans a canal on the Anacostia River.
Walking along the bridge’s boardwalk, white steel arches hoop overhead, and it looks like you’re going through a sort of transparent tunnel. Graduates might conduct a photoshoot on the bridge itself, with the water and the parks in the background, or in the parks themselves. The whole area is attractive and photogenic, especially at sunrise or sunset.
