A Cinematic Couples Session at Melbourne University Old Quadrangle — The First Move

Melbourne couples photographer | University of Melbourne Old Quadrangle | cinematic couples session


I've been sitting with these images for a while now, and I still can't get over them. There's something about this session that felt less like a shoot and more like watching the opening chapter of someone's favourite story unfold, the kind you'd read curled up on a rainy afternoon and not put down until it was finished.


This was The First Move. A cinematic couples session set at the University of Melbourne's Old Quadrangle, inspired by My Oxford Year, built around chess, and soaked in that very specific feeling of falling for someone for the very first time.


The Idea Behind the Session

When this couple first described what they wanted, I knew it was going to be something special. They weren't just after pretty portraits, they wanted to tell a story. A college love story. The kind that starts with a glance across a courtyard and ends with everything changing.


My Oxford Year was the reference point, and honestly, the moment they said it I could already see it. That film has this quality of making you feel like love is something that happens slowly and then all at once— in libraries, in corridors, in the middle of a chess game you weren't expecting to lose. That's exactly the energy we were chasing.


Why the Old Quadrangle

I've shot at a lot of locations around Melbourne, and the University of Melbourne Old Quadrangle genuinely does something to you. It's not just that it's beautiful (though it absolutely is). It's that it has atmosphere. The kind of place that makes you feel like time works differently inside it.


The Gothic cloisters with their ribbed vaulted ceilings stretch down in these long, shadowy corridors that just beg to be walked through slowly. The pointed sandstone archways frame everything like a painting, you couldn't compose a bad shot if you tried. And then you step through one of those arched doorways into the open quadrangle, and suddenly there's this soft, overcast Melbourne light washing over the whole courtyard, the bluestone underfoot, the old globe lanterns, the trees just starting to turn. It's understated and gorgeous in a way that I don't think you can fully appreciate until you're actually standing in it.


For a session like this one: cinematic, literary, a little bit timeless, there was nowhere else it could have been.


The Story We Told

We approached the whole session like a short film, moving through it in scenes rather than just ticking off locations.


It starts in the courtyard. She's walking ahead, leather satchel over one shoulder, a stack of books tucked under her arm. He's watching her, that sideways glance that gives everything away. She looks back, just once, with this small smile. He's already done for. I'm pretty sure I held my breath while I was shooting it.


Then there's the scene between the columns, her walking ahead with her books, him leaning against the sandstone with the chess board under his arm, watching her go. It's one of those frames that tells you everything about where this is heading without anyone saying a word.


The chess game happens in the cloisters. They're sitting cross-legged on the flagstone floor beneath those beautiful vaulted arches, completely absorbed, heads bent over the board, shoulders almost touching. She's mid-move, laughing at something. He's watching her hands instead of the pieces. It's the most intimate thing, and it's also the most them.


There are quieter moments too. The two of them standing inside a pointed archway, the warm honeyed light of the quadrangle behind them, just talking. The same shot in full silhouette, both of them in that arched doorway, the whole courtyard framed behind them like a world they're about to step into together.


And then the final scene: outside under the autumn trees on the lawn, leaves catching what little light was left in the day, and a kiss that felt like the end of one chapter and the beginning of something much longer.


A Note on Bringing Something Personal

The chess board changed everything about this session. It wasn't a prop in the decorative sense, it was actually theirs. Their thing. And you can feel that in the images. There's a comfort in those frames that you can't manufacture, a kind of ease that only comes when people are doing something they genuinely love together.


If you're thinking about a creative couples session in Melbourne, that's my biggest piece of advice: bring something that's actually yours. A book you've both read. A game you play on Sunday mornings. Whatever it is that makes your relationship feel like your relationship. Those are always the details that make the images.


The Session: Moving Through the Old Quad

In terms of how a session like this actually flows, we covered a lot of ground in a few hours, but it never felt rushed. The Old Quad gives you so many different moods within a small area. The open courtyard has a completely different feel to the cloisters, which feel different again to the archways and the surrounding paths and lawns.


We moved between them naturally, letting the story guide where we went next rather than working through a checklist. The overcast light was honestly a gift. It was soft and even, no harsh shadows, the kind of light that makes skin glow and sandstone look rich and warm. It suited the mood of the session perfectly.


If you're curious about other Melbourne couples photography locations worth shooting at, the Old Quad is at the very top of my list, but it works best when you have a concept that matches the space. It's a location with a lot of personality, and the sessions that lean into that always come out the strongest.


Scroll Through the Gallery

I'll stop writing now and let the images do the rest. Take your time with them.


And when you're ready, whether you have a fully formed concept or just a vague feeling of the kind of session you want , come say hello. That's usually where the best ideas start.


xhliaw studio is a Melbourne-based photography studio specialising in cinematic couples, engagement, and wedding photography. View the full portfolio here.

Young man holding a checkered book gazes upward in a lush courtyard with a stone arch.
Person standing in arched doorway of historic sandstone university building with lush green trees.
A young woman in a white shirt and dark skirt walks past a historic sandstone university building carrying books.
A young man in a brown vest holds a book while leaning against stone columns of a historic university building.
A young woman with curly hair in a white blouse and plaid skirt holds books outside a stone university building.
Stylish young male student carrying a book while walking through a lush university campus pathway.
Two students meet under a historic stone archway in a tree-lined university courtyard, one smiling back.
Blonde student in brown knit vest looks across a sunlit university courtyard toward another student walking away.
A curly-haired woman leans against a tree glancing back at a man in a courtyard setting.
Young man and woman walking and chatting across a stone plaza at a historic university campus.
Two students smiling and walking together in a sunlit university courtyard with sandstone buildings.
Two students converse in a Gothic stone archway courtyard of a historic university building on a sunny day.
Two students face each other in a Gothic stone archway overlooking a historic university courtyard.
Two people in silhouette conversing by a window overlooking a historic sandstone university building.
A curly-haired woman in a white blouse holds a book while conversing with a person in a sunlit doorway.