3 West Valley, Phoenix Photography Locations

I’m sharing three Phoenix photography locations in the West Valley. (And bonus: they are not in the desert!) Even so, they are absolutely beautiful spots to photograph your next session. You’ll get the details you’ll need to schedule at these locations, too.

In scheduling sessions, I often hear, “I’m not sure where I’d like to choose for a location, but I DO NOT want the desert.” And, I get it. While the desert can be absolutely beautiful, sometimes you’d like something different that brings color and other elements that you just don’t find when you photograph session in the desert. So, here are my top three favorites:

01. Lake Pleasant, Peoria, Arizona

Lake Pleasant in Peoria, Arizona, can serve as a beautiful backdrop for photographs and the depth you’ll get in your photographs is incredible. While the shores of Lake Pleasant are desert and rocky landscapes, you’ll get wide expanses of water in your photographs as well as the mountains surrounding. It creates wonderful depth of field and interest in photographs.

If you go in the spring, you’ll have an additional color element in your photographs because of the wildflowers blooming in season. The photograph below with pops of yellow flowers was taken in the spring on a chilly, rainy March day.

Fee: $7 entrance per car to Lake Pleasant Regional Park

(Hours vary during different seasons, more details here)

02. Sahuaro Ranch, Glendale, Arizona

Sahuaro Ranch in Glendale, Arizona, is a historical ranch with beauty at every turn. From rose gardens, historic buildings, palm trees, vineyards, orchards, citrus groves, and wandering peacocks, this location is unusually full of opportunities for beautiful photographs.

Things to note: this is a popular location for events and you may have to pivot if you arrive and part of the venue has been reserved. Best advice? Call ahead before you schedule a date to see what events may already be scheduled. There are also dates that are unavailable for photography use, and are listed on their site.

The photographs here were from a lovely senior session during the month of April.

Fee: $25 day photography permit required (or $100 yearly photography permit)

(Hours and more details on the permit required can be found here)

03. Verrado Main Street in Verrado, Buckeye, Arizona

Verrado’s Main Street district, in Buckeye, Arizona, is a great spot if you are looking for more architectural features in you photographs. The interesting, modern buildings coupled with the palm tree-lined streets and planted flowering pots provide a fun location that will still give a natural, outdoor feeling to photographs with crisp, clean design lines. The buildings provide that “open shade” so that your lighting is even and you can still peek around the corner of buildings to capture the sunlight for a backlit photograph.

There’s so much you can capture here without having to walk far at all! And that makes sessions like this family one an absolute blast!

Looking to book a session in the West Valley?

If you’re local to the West Valley, I’d love to work with you! I serve the West Valley area, including the cities of Buckeye, Surprise, Peoria, and Glendale. I help both seniors and families capture beautiful moments. I look forward to meeting you!

Gratefully,

Kendra