I shot this with a longer lens from farther back, which compresses the distance between the sign and her so the letters read almost flat, like a stage set built around her instead of a backdrop standing behind her. Standing close with a wide lens would've made the sign loom and distort — this way, the "C" frames her cleanly, with the star-shaped cutout in the neighboring letter catching light just behind her.
The UC Riverside sign is a common photo spot on campus, but most shots of it are taken straight-on and flat. Working the compression let me turn it into something more graphic — her figure nested inside the negative space of the "C," gold light catching the metal around her.
It's the kind of technical choice I look for on every graduation portrait session: finding the angle and lens combination that makes a familiar campus landmark look like it's never been shot quite this way before.
Location: University of California, Riverside..
