Toronto Photoshoots

Locations

Where to shoot in Toronto

The Distillery District is the best single location in the city — Victorian brick, cobbled lanes, iron fire escapes and no cars. It is compact enough to work properly in an hour, and the light bounces around the brick in a way that flatters everything.

The Toronto Islands give you the full skyline across the water, with sand, cottages and almost no traffic. It is a ferry ride from downtown and feels much further.

Graffiti Alley, the laneway running behind Queen Street West, is a long wall of constantly changing murals. The art is repainted often, so it is never quite the same twice.

High Park is the largest green space in the city, and its cherry trees draw enormous crowds for about a week each spring.

Casa Loma is the Gothic Revival house on the hill, with gardens and a view back over the city. It is ticketed and has its own photography rules.

The Scarborough Bluffs, east of the centre, are white cliffs dropping into Lake Ontario, and they look nothing like the rest of Toronto.

Timing

The seasons here are extremes

Winter is genuinely cold, and January and February bring wind off the lake that makes the number on the forecast optimistic. Shoots in those months are short, planned around indoor warm-up points, and often beautiful because the light stays low all day.

Cherry blossom in High Park runs for roughly a week, usually late April into early May. It is spectacular, it is extremely busy, and the dates move every year.

Autumn is the quiet best season — October colour across High Park and the ravines, mild air, and the summer crowds gone.

Summer is hot and humid, with long evenings and sunsets after nine in June. The Islands are at their best then and the ferry queues are at their worst.

What to wear

Dress for the lake wind

Toronto sits on a Great Lake and the wind coming off it is the deciding factor in spring and autumn as much as in winter. A layer more than the forecast suggests is the right call near the water.

Against the warm brick of the Distillery District, deep colours work — burgundy, forest green, navy. Against the glass and steel downtown, almost anything bright reads well.

Graffiti Alley is already saturated with colour. Solid, simple clothing gives the murals room to be the background rather than competing with them.

Before you go

Ferries, permits and changing walls

The Islands are reached only by ferry, running to a seasonal timetable with long queues on summer weekends. We build the crossing into the schedule rather than treating it as a short hop.

The City of Toronto can require a permit for commercial photography in its parks, including High Park and the Islands, depending on the size and nature of the shoot. We check what yours needs before confirming.

Casa Loma is privately operated and ticketed, and sets its own conditions on photography.

Graffiti Alley is a working laneway with vehicles and deliveries in it, and the murals are repainted regularly. If a particular wall matters to you, it is worth checking it is still there.

Arranging it

How a Toronto shoot gets booked

Toronto shoots are arranged directly with our team rather than booked online. Tell us your dates, how many of you there are and whether you want the Distillery District, the Islands or the ravines, and we will confirm what can be arranged and what it will cost.

If you are coming for the High Park blossom, keep your dates loose. The bloom lasts about a week and nobody can predict it far out.