Name: Gutierrez Photography
Price range: $$$

Where to Take Your Senior Photos?

senior photos of a girl in a green dress sitting on a lake dock with shoes beside her

Getting Senior year off to a great start is easy

Have you been thinking about where you want to take your Senior photos? This is such a personal decision and is usually dependent upon the look you want to create. Senior pictures are one of the many memorable moments you will have during your Senior year. Choosing a location for your photos is an important personal step for your session. We hope this collection of location choices helps you select a great location for your Senior photos.

senior photos of a girl sitting on rocks by the water

Do you want a coastal look?

senior photos of a girl wearing a black long sleeve shirt and blue jeans sitting in the grass

Maybe a field of flowers is your jam.

girl in a dress sitting on a log over water with a waterfall behind her

Are you brave enough to get out by a waterfall?

senior photos of a boy sitting rocks with moutains and trees behind

How about going up in the mountains?

senior photo of a high school girl posing in front of a wall of graffiti

Do you like urban settings?

high school girl in a dress sitting in the forest looking up with eyes closed

Did you want photos out in the forest?

Shooting at a stunning locations

Alaskan landscapes offer many great places to take advantage of for your Senior photos locations. You can go from a natural setting to city life in just a short drive. The Chugach mountains and the Turnagin Arm, the Knik River and downtown Anchorage are all nearby and easy to get to.

Being on the Coast:

Coast lines in the Anchorage area are spectacular. They offer so many options for your photographs. Sandy beaches, rugged rocky terrain and grassy fields are abundant. Beluga Point is a short distance from Anchorage. The views are stunning and offer a variety of different backgrounds and looks for your Senior pictures. If you like mountains, water, rocks and beaches, then think about taking the drive down the Seward Highway. Beluga Point will be an excellent location for your Senior photos.

Kincaid Park offers a beautiful coastal spot and is only a 20 minute drive from downtown Anchorage. The walk to the beach area is worth the time it takes from the parking lot. The beach offers soft sand, grassy hills and long beaches with driftwood. Forested spots line the walk to the beach and offer places to stop along the way. Kincaid is a great place to go if you want forests, sandy beaches or grassy hills.

Shooting on the Alaskan coast always provides us with stunning photos, when the weather decides to cooperate. The area along the Seward Highway is often the subject of heavy winds that make shooting down there dangerous. When this happens, it leaves us with two options to either move the shoot to some place where there is no wind or to reschedule the shoot for a different day.

girl wearing a black sweater and blue jeans standing in the grass with ocean side behind her

Senior photo of a high school boy with foot up on a rock wearing a blue formal suit

girl in an ombere sweater looking off and leaning against a rock wall

Shooting in the Mountains:

Alaska is known for its beautiful mountains. Anchorage has lots of them to choose from. The Chugach and Talkeetna ranges are both great options for your senior photos. Both are very nearby within easy driving distance to where we live. They offer fantastic backdrops and incredible views.

The Glen Alps area is a short 25 minute drive from downtown Anchorage. There are plenty of stunning backgrounds all within relatively short walks from the cars. There are also different trails to find open areas that look up at Flattop Mountain or out into the Anchorage Bowl.

If you are wanting the Talkeetna Mountains in your photos then we can leave Anchorage and head north for about an hour and drive up into Hatcher Pass.

Beautiful mountain views, vast open tundra, and lakes are all available for your photos. If you are wanting mountains and also want an industrial feel, one road leads you back to Independence Mine. A stunning place where both nature and industrial co-exist create two very unique and different looks.

As a word of warning, mountain weather can sometimes be unpredictable. If the plan is to go up into the mountains for your photo shoot, even if it is a sunny summer day, bringing a jacket along is a good idea as the weather can change quickly.

high school senior girl in the middle of the grass with mountains behind her

girl sitting at the edge of the water in large red dress

Creating that Urban look:

While Alaska is not exactly known for being a very urban setting there are about 4 blocks in Anchorage that are perfect for capturing that city look.

From the Egan Building, to the Dena’ina Center and the street just outside Ginger you can create some downtown senior photos.

We also know where one of the few accessible fire escapes in the state is!

Shooting in the city can lead to creating some stunning images, there are a few other things about being downtown that we have to keep in mind.

While in downtown Anchorage there is a likely chance that we will run into street people, who may on occasion attempt to engage with us. We have no problem going downtown for photo shoots, our team will be actively keeping an eye on the surrounding area, but if it gets to be too uncomfortable to anyone we will address it right away.

girl leaning casually on a street lamp with neon signs behind her

Outstanding in Your Field:

Sometimes what you really want is to be outstanding in your field………. your field of flowers that is.

The areas around Anchorage, Palmer and Wasilla have many open fields and these areas will fill up with the beautiful Alaska wildflowers. We know of many spots where these wildflowers will bloom and create stunning fields of color. From the purple-pinks of fireweed, the whites of daisies, and the yellows of the tundra rose, we can take advantage of many of the local flowers.

When it comes to finding the best places for flowers, the first place that comes to mind is may likely be a ditch or pull off on the side of the road. Out in Palmer there are two ditches just off the Trunk Road Park and Ride that fill up with yellow and white flowers during the summer.

Then if you keep heading up the road towards Hatchers Pass, you will come across an acre of fireweed that happens to be someone’s backyard.

high school senior girl sitting in a grass and fireweed wearing a white dress

girl in a flower patterned dress standing in purple and yellow flowers

girl an orange dress looking down and sitting in a path with fallen leaves

Walking in the Forest:

We are surrounded by nature and all of its beauty, so taking a walk out in the woods is not something we shy away from. From the Birchwood forests at Peters Creek or at the Eklutna Tail Race, to areas filled with Evergreens out at Beluga Point and Glen Alps, and all the way to the mossy woods of Girdwood. There are a lot of wooded options in and around Anchorage that we love.

Many of our wooded areas look great year round and are short walks to get to as we have access to so many different trails and parks that are all about getting out into the trees.

boy walking down a tree lined path with his hands in his pockets

Getting out into the Water:

Lakes, rivers and waterfalls are something that Alaska has an abundance of, so if you are thinking about getting out in the water we have a few ideas for you.

We have a lot of lakes in the area with stunning views and beautiful surrounding areas that we can take advantage of for senior pictures. A place like Eklutna offers a beautiful mountain background, with grassy shores and drift wood piles that make for great settings.

There are also several rivers and creeks that are in the Anchorage and Matsu area. McHugh Creek just off the Seward Highway, Peter’s Creek here in Eagle River and the Little Su out in Palmer are all great rivers for your senior session.

Now when it comes to waterfalls in the area there are two that are perfect for photos.
Barbara Falls here in Eagle River is just a short walk through the woods along the river and you then are greeted by the falls. The trail gives you lots of places to just step off and shoot along the river or use the trees that line the trail as areas to shoot.

If you were to drive down South towards Girdwood you would have another short walk to Virgin Creek Falls. The walk through the mossy woods provides many opportunities for shooting. And wow, it is a beautiful drive getting there.

But as a warning, all of the water in these places is fed by melting snow so the water can be very cold even in the summer. So it might not hurt to make sure to have boots or a towel just in case, and this is whether you are planning to get in the water or not.

senior boy standing in knee-deep water with his hand in his back pocket

girl leaning on a rock and looking off while standing in moving water

However, there are other things to consider when picking out your perfect location for Senior photos.

One being if there is a place that has special meaning to both the family and the Senior.

We can also shoot at your home!

Say it’s a family home or there is something around the house that means something to you or your family; family room, dining room, outside on the porch, out by the trees in the backyard, or garage where you get your hands dirty!

Sometimes home isn’t where you live, it can be a place that you enjoy going to with the ones you love! It can be an arcade you enjoy going to with friends, a lake you would go fishing with family, or even a park where you can be a kid! But fear not, our cameras are always open for something new! We want your photos to be something that screams YOU!

Recently we had a Senior who spent most of her childhood summers at this summer camp and she had so many memories there that she wanted to have that be the location for her Senior photos! Her brother also attended the camp for many years and even did his Eagle Scout project in collaboration with the camp. Which also led the Senior to a very specific idea of her standing by her older brother’s project.

senior photos of a girl standing in front of a shed filled with sports and outdoor activity equipment

The One Place We Should NOT Go:

It is illegal and dangerous to photograph people on the railroad tracks. The Alaska Railroad does not allow people on the railroad tracks for photos. You are taking a risk that is not worth it and can result in fines, jail time or worse – injuries or death. To learn more about their policy on this, visit https://www.alaskarailroad.com/corporate/safety.

Final thoughts on selecting the location for your Senior photos:

We love being able to shoot in all the stunning locations throughout Anchorage and Matsu Valley. What a great place to live. You can choose metro or urban places. If you prefer an indoor look, there are many options – your home, a coffee shop, maybe your school. And of course, the great outdoors in our hometown really gives us so many different ideas.

Finding the places that mean the most to you is very individual and personal. Think about what you enjoy doing, where you feel most comfortable and what is the story or look you want to tell with your senior photos. That will help you decide where to go. And remember, these are your senior photos. They need to tell your story.

Senior Photos – Its All About Location!

Where to Take Your Senior Photos?