The mac OS screenshot utility is extremely helpful for day to day operations (⌘ + Shift + 4). Unfortunately screenshots are saved to the users desktop by default. This results in the desktop quickly becoming cluttered with .png screenshots.

Solution:
To set the screenshot location using the command line use the following command:

$ defaults write com.apple.screencapture location [desired_directory]

I used /Users/riley.macdonald/Pictures/screenshots for my screenshots.