St Andrews Summer Grad Week Photo Highlights 2025
Every year, thousands of family, friends and guests descend on St Andrews in the height of summer to witness that year’s graduands cross the hallowed stage at Younger Hall and receive their hard-earned degrees. St Andrews is a place truly steeped in tradition and graduation ceremonies are no exceptions, with the famously unwashed ‘et su per te’ cap placed on the head of each and every graduate for hundreds of years. As part of the group of people who have been ceremoniously booped with this cap, I can’t really talk – but it’s just another slightly odd tradition that makes St Andrews so unique.
The summer grad season of 2025 was another fantastic week in St Andrews. For my photography is was as busy as ever, but with slightly more stable weather than the couple of downpours we had in 2024 (read my roundup of that here!). I thankfully didn’t find myself with umbrellas hooked over my arms and haphazardly shielding my cameras from the rain, which was a bonus to a great week. Read on for some highlights from this summer’s graduate celebrations!
New Iconic St Andrews Locations for graduation photos
This year we added a couple of new locations to the roster of the iconic St Andrews photoshoot list!
This gorgeous lane is just off of the path down to the Cannons and the Pier and has this gorgeous spire and terracotta red roof, plus the sea in the background!
This year I also started incorporating College Street – making sure to include some of the iconic cobblestones and the bunting and buildings that makes St Andrews such a gorgeous, unique little town.
Want to create your own photos like this for your graduation? Book your grad photos with me here!
Behind the Lens
This year’s graduation was a special one for me, being the first I’d photographed as alumni where I was commuting from my home locally, rather than an AirBnB (read last year’s roundup if that sounds confusing!). Sandwiched between a 10 hour golf tournament the weekend before (the annual Arnold Palmer Tournament, on behalf of the University of St Andrews Development Office), and swiftly followed by a wedding the next weekend – no rest for the wicked.
I think my favourite part of this year was the number of couples – maybe a result of my wedding and engagement work showing up more often when people search for St Andrews photographers. Rob and Rhiannon were one example, and later compiled a beautiful album commemorating their graduation together full of their favourite photos from our gallery. This was especially meaningful as Rob is an avid photographer himself!
Other graduates booked several sessions between themselves and their friends and attended each other’s sessions, which is always great fun! By the final session everyone really knows the drill, and the result is a huge number and variety of really great photos!
Tips for Graduates and Families with an ever-busier schedule
I think this year we finally saw the end of any last remnants of covid events – the calendar for graduates was in absolute full swing for the whole week, meaning we felt more than ever that there were 100 things to do and 100 places to be in one day! In terms of timings, it’s always best if – when booking – you give me as much information as possible. You want to leave plenty of time to get to any lunch or dinner reservations, and also take into consideration any awards ceremonies, class photographs, or university garden parties that you would like to attend. Graduation day is always absolutely jam-packed (I attempted to photograph a couple of shoots on my own graduation day back in 2023 and it was a grave error that made the rest of the day unspeakably busy!). Communication is key for coordination so make sure that all of your friends, family, and any guests coming to celebrate your graduation know what you are doing, where you will be, and when!
Closing Thoughts
Another summer grad season comes to a close and we look ahead to the Winter graduation schedule! We only need the weather to be kind on the 2nd and 3rd of December but who knows what it’ll do… Luckily I have tricks up my sleeve in the event we experience some good old traditional Scottish weather 🙂
You can read my round-up of last year’s grad week photos here: Grad Roundup 2024
Looking for your own graduation photographer? Look no further! See more of my work and the grad photo packages I offer here: Graduation Photography
