Grad Student Asks Dad to Take Her Graduation Photos. When She Sees the Results, She Cries (Exclusive)

Yahoo

16-05-2025

Growing up, Taylor Clark tells PEOPLE her dad, Ed, rarely left the house without his camera
That lifelong habit of documenting his children's lives left a lasting impression on Taylor, now a graduate student
As graduation approached, Taylor knew that hiring a professional photographer likely wasn't an option. So, she opted to ask her dadThere were very few times when Taylor Clark's dad, Ed, left the house without his camera while she and her brother were growing up. Whether it was gymnastics meets, cheer competitions, prom or other milestone moments, he was always there — camera in hand — ready to capture it all.
That lifelong habit of documenting his children's lives left a lasting impression on Taylor. Years later, while in graduate school juggling four jobs (three on campus and one in the wedding industry) to fully fund her education, she found herself thinking about all those memories her dad had preserved.
As graduation approached, Taylor knew that hiring a professional photographer likely wasn't an option. She had browsed a few portfolios on Instagram but ultimately couldn't justify the expense. That's when an idea struck: Why not ask her dad?
By then, Ed, 63, and Taylor's mom had relocated from her childhood home in Greensboro to Hampstead, N.C. — just 15 minutes from where Taylor now lived. She realized the ask wasn't just practical; it was personal. This was a way to make a new memory with the man who had captured so many of her firsts.
"It was about a month before graduation," Taylor, 25, tells PEOPLE exclusively. "We were sitting on the porch together, just talking and I had been scrolling through Pinterest on my phone, looking at graduation photo ideas. I turned to him and said, 'Do you think you could take something like this?' and handed him my phone."
"He looked through the photos for a moment, then looked back at me with that proud dad smile, the kind that says, 'I got this,' " she says. "He told me he'd love to do it and would do everything he could to bring the vision to life just the way I imagined."
Within days, Ed was all in, watching YouTube tutorials, learning about portrait mode on his Nikon D40 and reviewing every photo on the Pinterest board Taylor sent him.
"That's just who he is," she says. "When he commits to something, especially for someone he loves, he gives it his all."
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The day before the shoot, the two walked around the University of North Carolina Wilmington campus to scout locations that felt personal and meaningful: Hoggard Hall, where Taylor had done most of her advising, and the Education Building, where she earned her degree.
The next day, they returned for the shoot. From the moment Ed lifted his camera, the weight of the moment hit him.
"Anytime I take pictures of her during significant moments, it reminds me of all the photos I've taken through the years and how much she has changed and grown," Ed tells PEOPLE. "When I'm looking through the lens, it takes me back to when she was just a baby, smiling and laughing. She always had a big, hearty laugh as a toddler, it was always fun."
"I know the father-daughter relationship is a very special one, and Taylor and I have always been very close," he adds. "I wasn't sure she would ask me to take these photos, since I hadn't been doing as many pictures of the kids in recent years, but it meant a lot that she wanted me to do this for her."
After wrapping the shoot, the pair sat in the car and quickly scrolled through the images on the small display screen. Taylor says they didn't say much; instead they just smiled.
"The D40 is an older camera, and the viewer isn't very large," Ed says. "But once we got home and uploaded the photos to her laptop and projected them onto a larger screen, we saw they turned out pretty good. The shots I liked best were the ones of her standing next to the columns in the middle of campus."
"Taylor has always been very photogenic," he adds. "I've always been able to take pictures of her next to almost anything, and it turns out well."
Looking back, Taylor says the photos were everything she'd imagined — and more.
"I couldn't help but cry," she says. "It was such an emotional moment for me, knowing how much effort my dad put into making them special. He wasn't just capturing a milestone — he was showing how much he cared. Every photo felt significant. Picking a favorite felt nearly impossible."
"It was exactly what I had pictured, and it meant even more knowing it was my dad behind the camera," she adds. "For a moment, I felt like I was 5 years old again, standing in the front yard while he took my first-day-of-school photo."
Later, Taylor shared several of the photos on TikTok to celebrate her dad's effort, and the response shocked her.
"I jumped out of bed and immediately called my dad," she says. "We shared the post in our family group chat. Seeing those first 50 comments was incredible. Then the likes kept coming — we hit 10,000 and couldn't believe it."
"When we saw it reach 1.5 million views, my dad had this proud smile on his face — not about the photos, but because he was proud to be my dad," she says. "Now, with almost 4,000 comments and over 330,000 likes, it's still surreal."
Ed admits he hadn't fully grasped the scope of TikTok until then.
"I'm not a regular visitor of TikTok and really wasn't aware of what kind of numbers were a big deal," he says. "When she told me she posted them, I just said, 'That's really sweet, Tay. I wonder how people will like them.' Then she told me how popular it was, and I realized: Everyone else saw what I've seen for years — my smart, beautiful, loving daughter."
Read the original article on People