1. Dorothy L. Gebauer Building

The view of the tower from the Gebauer building staircase has become a little more popular in the last few years. It’s tucked away from the busier parts of campus and offers a different perspective of the tower than we’re used to seeing. With all of the renovations planned for the tower and main mall area, this is a great alternative to get a photo with the full tower while covering up some of the scaffolding.

2. “The West” also known as the UT Balls

Believe it or not, this is an actual sculpture on loan from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. While UT students have dubbed it “The UT Balls”, the sculpture is called “The West” and meant to evoke layered commentary on capitalism and obsolescence. You can read more about that here.

All of that frou-frou aside, if you look at the sculpture with the tower strategically placed behind it, it looks like a weenie and makes for funny photos - and that friends, is what matters.

3. Goldsmith Hall Window

If you’ve read through my other blog post on 8 Popular Locations for UT Austin Senior Photos, this area is already kind of mentioned but I love this specific nook so much I wanted to give it its own spotlight.

When you walk up the steps and past the gate into the Goldsmith Hall Courtyard, you’ll see two huge wrought iron windows on either side of the gate. This spot gets amazing directional light and gives you a lot of depth in your photos.

4. Gregory Gym

I wish people would ask to shoot here more often. Unless you’re a kinesiology major or a gym bro, I can understand that this building may not have a ton of sentimental value for most folks. That said, it’s still pretty and has cool architectural elements that photograph well! Annnnnd you paid for access to it for four years, so you may as well get a photo out of it if not a workout.

5. Moody Bridge

A favorite for my communication majors! Lots of fun leading lines and geometric shapes to work with here. If you want to take photos at Moody Bridge, I recommend either booking a 2 hour session or being really selective with your locations if you book a 1 hour session. The bridge is a good distance away from most of the other popular photo locations. Walking from there to the main tower area can eat up a significant chunk of time.

6. Six Pack Walkways

I always try to sneak in some photos in the walkway if we’re getting towards the end of our session but doing well on light. We typically come down this path on our way to Littlefield Fountain so it’s a quick stop to snap some photos with the large oaks lining the six pack.

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7. The Blanton

Like Moody Bridge, The Blanton Museum is out of the way and will require you to either book a 2 hour session or be very selective if you’re booking 1 hour. The courtyard outside the museum has gone through renovations in the last couple of years and blessed us with even more visually appealing architectural elements to work with. As a bonus, you can also see the state Capitol building from here.

If time allows, I recommend checking out all the different facades of Ellsworth Kelly’s “Austin” installation. It’s went up back when I was a UT student and I even had my own senior photos done there.

8. The UT Flowers

I have a conspiracy theory with this location. I think UT has received an obscene amount of donations in the past few years and they’re running out things to name after the donors which is why they keep putting up random (but nevertheless beautiful and appreciated) installations all over campus.

This location probably doesn’t belong on this list given that the flowers are well loved and almost always have a long line of people waiting to be photographed with them. They are situated in a near perfect location. You can see both Littlefield Fountain and the tower behind them and the flowers themselves spell out UT in burnt orange marigolds. It doesn’t get more iconically UT than that.

9. The Turtle Pond

Every year I think I’ve seen the tiniest possible turtle and every year I learn that they can get smaller. It’s fun to come here in the spring and see all the baby turtles sun bathing on the rocks. It’s a quick stop on the way between Gearing Hall and the tower.