Instagrammable YYC: The Best Places to Take Photos in Calgary

Our brand is basically built on two fundamentals: taking pictures and staying caffeinated. So naturally, when we’re travelling, there’s a pretty good chance we’re wandering around with a camera, a coffee, or both.

Calgary has become one of our favourite cities to do exactly that. Over the last few years, we’ve photographed Social Made Local in neighbourhoods all over YYC, finding everything from colourful streets and nostalgic storefronts to public art, river views and some pretty incredible skyline backdrops.

So grab a coffee, charge your camera and come explore with us. These are some of our favourite places to take photos in Calgary.

Inglewood

On a recent trip to Calgary, we stayed in an Airbnb in Inglewood. Naturally, that also meant wandering around the neighbourhood with our cameras.

And honestly? We could have photographed here all day.

Within just a few blocks, we found an incredible mix of textures, colours and environments. There are spots that feel vintage and nostalgic, gritty urban backdrops, colourful storefronts, interesting architecture and natural spaces that can completely change the mood of a photograph.

For street fashion photography especially, Inglewood gave us pretty much everything we needed.

That variety is what makes a neighbourhood so much fun to photograph. You don’t necessarily need an elaborate plan or ten different locations. Sometimes you just need a model, a camera and a willingness to walk around and see what catches your eye.

Some of our favourite images from Calgary have come from doing exactly that.

Chinatown + Centre Street Bridge

Calgary’s Chinatown is another great place to wander with a camera, especially when you combine it with a walk toward the Centre Street Bridge.

Chinatown itself gives you plenty of interesting streetscapes, architecture, businesses, signs and little details to work into your images. Head toward the river and you can start incorporating the Bow River, Centre Street Bridge and downtown skyline into the background.

It’s another area we love because you can get several distinctly different Calgary looks without having to travel very far.

Our advice? Walk it. Give yourself some time, look down side streets and alleys, and pay attention to what changes as you move closer to the river.

High Park

High Park might be one of our favourite hidden gems in downtown Calgary.

Located on top of a downtown parkade, the space gives you an incredible view of the surrounding skyline while adding colour, interesting lines and plenty of room to experiment. For us, that combination makes it particularly great for fashion and portrait photography.

One of the things we love about High Park is how much variety you can create in one relatively compact space. Change your angle and you can go from colourful and playful to something that feels much more architectural and urban. Then turn around and suddenly the Calgary skyline becomes your backdrop.

If you’re trying to create a bunch of different images without travelling all over downtown, this is a pretty great place to start.

East Village

The East Village is almost cheating when it comes to finding interesting things to photograph.

You’ve got the Bow River, RiverWalk, public art, murals, bridges, contemporary architecture and plenty of little pockets that can give your images a completely different feeling from one block to the next.

We’ve stayed at the Alt Hotel Calgary East Village before and really loved using East Village as our home base while exploring the city. If your Calgary trip involves creating a lot of content, being able to step outside and immediately start finding interesting locations is pretty hard to beat.

Take a walk along the river, explore the public art, cross a bridge and see where you end up. East Village rewards wandering.

Kensington

Kensington brings another side of Calgary into the mix, with plenty of local charm, independent businesses, public art and interesting streetscapes to discover while you wander.

It’s also close to the Bow River and Peace Bridge, so you can easily work some of Calgary’s more recognizable architecture and skyline views into your adventure. That makes the area a great starting point if you want a mix of neighbourhood photography and bigger city views.

And sometimes the best photo spot might be right where you’re staying. If you’re lucky enough to find an Airbnb with rooftop access, take advantage of it. We’ve caught some incredible views of Calgary from above without having to travel any farther than upstairs.

The thing we’ve learned from photographing Calgary, and really any city, is that the best location isn’t always the landmark everyone else is photographing.

Sometimes it’s a parkade rooftop. Sometimes it’s an alley you noticed while walking back to your hotel. Sometimes it’s the view from your Airbnb. Sometimes it’s just really good light hitting a spot you would normally walk right past.

That’s a big part of what Social Made Local means to us. It’s not about having the fanciest camera or planning the perfect photoshoot. It’s an excuse to grab your camera, get out into your community and see what you find.

So grab a coffee, bring whatever camera you have and give yourself an afternoon to wander around YYC.

And if you find somewhere incredible, tag @socialmadelocal. We’re always looking for another excuse to bring our cameras back to Calgary.