Location location location. It’s one of the questions I get the most as a portrait photographer. “Where should I do my Montreal portrait session?” My top answer for this question is to plan your photo session in a space that you feel comfortable and enjoy going to. Is it possible to photograph outside your home or in your neighbourhood? Or maybe you have a favourite park or a secret alleyway? Inevitably I end up helping a lot of folks pick the best location for their portrait session. So here it is: my list of best outdoor portrait locations in Montreal. I've included a variety of Montreal neighbourhoods to help you find the perfect spot.
1. Bridge Charlevoix
A walk along the Lachine Canal near Atwater Market offers a variety of green foliage perfect for portraits and wide open sky with beautiful natural light. My favourite spot to stop is at Bridge Charlevoix. With its thick teal-green beams and rusted bolts, Bridge Charlevoix creates an internal framing rich in colour. It also adds an industrial energy to a professional portrait. While this bridge typically has a narrow footpath, there’s still enough room to fit both photographer and the person being photographed for some quality portraits. Many Montreal neighbourhoods have closed streets to car traffic during the pandemic, and the neighbourhood of Griffintown included Bridge Charlevoix in its road closures. Have you heard of the French word "pietonnage"? Literally “returning the road to pedestrians''.
2. Montreal Botanical Gardens
The outdoor space at the Montreal Botanical gardens offers more than 185 acres of space for portraits. I'm a huge amateur of plants, and I love using foliage and flowers both as a back and foreground in my photos. The Botanical Gardens are located in Montreal's east end neighbourhood of Hochelaga. If we get separated during the session, you can find me in the Rose Garden.
3. Your favourite Montreal park
The question "what is your favourite Montreal park?" is sure to spark a heated conversation between Montrealers. My favourite big Montreal park is Park Lafontaine (although Parc Jarry and Parc Maisonneuve are also in the running for best Montreal park). Jokes aside, I think the real strength in the city of Montréal is that there are so many beautiful parks in every neighbourhood. For our portrait session, invite me to your favourite Montréal park and we can scope out some gem spots to photograph in front of. Fun fact: apparently one of the intentions of early park design was to maintain space between buildings so that fires didn't spread throughout the city.
4. Old Port of Montreal
Step one: Meet me at my favourite Old Port café Le Petit Dep. I'll debate between ordering their matcha or turmeric lattés (both are incredible). We'll spend some time together discussing the portrait session before heading out.
Step two: As we meander the streets together, I'll spot the perfect backdrop in the most unexpected places. An innocent wall will turn into a rich backdrop for photos. With my eye keen I'll seek out the perfect natural light for our photos. Within a few short blocks we'll have made a diverse set of portraits together.
Step three: We finish the photo session with a selection of amazing images with a few different moods based on the locations we found.
5. Flowers in bloom
At the end of May, we have apple blossom season, in June we move over to the lavender fields, and by July and August the sunflowers are shining in all their glory. While farms with big fields of these flowers are technically outside of Montreal, you can scope out a flowering tree or bush in many parks around the city. I love how the flowers create a soft backdrop around a person, the randomness of nature creating a pleasurable mental stimulation. If possible and appropriate to the goal of the photo session, I also like to incorporate some foreground flowers to create some added layers in front of the person I'm photographing.
6. In front of an old shipping container
As one of Canada’s most important port cities, there is no shortage of shipping containers to be found in Montreal. These colourful metal structures add an industrial vibe to your portrait session, and a nice contrast to a sharp suit or professional outfit. One thing that I really like about using shipping containers as a photo backdrop is that they provide a bright backdrop and texture to the background of a portrait.
7. The woods of Mount Royal Park
The fastest way to escape the city of Montreal is to take a walk through the woods of Mount Royal Park. There are many wide leisurely paths that will lead you to the top of the mountain and the best view of the city at the Belvedere lookout. Personally I'm a fan of exploring the many small paths on the mountain so that we're surrounded by rich green foliage during our portrait session.
This blog post about best outdoor portrait locations in Montreal was written by Montreal portrait photographer Selena Phillips-Boyle of Life by Selena Photography. Selena specializes in headshots, environmental portraiture, and natural light photography. These location suggestions are located in Tiohtià:ke on the traditional territory of the Kanien’kehà:ka.