Calgary Urban Photography Location. Inglewood: My Fave Five - #5

Lesser-Known Awesome Photography Location #5: Hidden Butterfly Garden


I find that one of the nice little added bonuses to being a photographer is that it offers the opportunity to explore your own hometown with purpose. Too often, we forget to be tourists in our own city and forget that there can be some wonderful and sensuous locations just in our own backyards.

Recently, while out searching for more urban locations for photography sessions, I made the choice to visit one of the more talked-about but not-often-visited locations within Calgary, the community of Inglewood. Inglewood is a little enclave of homes and businesses tucked in between the Bow River and a rather imposing and somewhat unlikely industrial area of Calgary.


As stated on the community website, Inglewood claims to be Calgary's "original main street" and as such, has a bevy of antique shops interspersed with cafes, home decor/ design stores and unique, one-of-a-kind opportunities to explore some different shopping opportunities. Most of these shops have gorgeous (and sometimes original) facades making for some great streetscape photography opportunities. However, these particularly well designed streetscapes weren't quite what I was looking for on this particular day as I wanted to find something a little bit different and slightly more undiscovered (that having been said, I am definitely keeping this main street in mind for future sessions ;) So... I decided to venture off the beaten path a bit and see what else Inglewood might have to offer.

Let's do a little bit of a count-down, shall we? Starting with #5 of my all-time favourite spots for photography in Inglewood, Calgary, we have....


Number 5: Secret "Butterfly Garden" & Train Track access

During my scouting of the neighbourhood, I found the most wonderful little secret "butterfly garden" (I think it's actually current vacant land but it looks like a natural garden right now) It has a gorgeous array of wildflowers which, to my delight, was found to be the home of thousands of friendly butterflies, crickets and ladybugs. I pulled over to the side of the road to check it out for access to the train tracks as I was looking for that kind of a look for an urban session (more on the track access further down) and decided to cut through what looked like, from the street anyways, as quite an uninviting, weed-infested, bit of land. As soon as I stepped onto the foot path, I was all of a sudden surrounded by hundreds of butterflys and grashoppers glowing in the mid-day sun. And many more sitting pleasantly upon the newly-blooming thistles and flowers along with their ladybug friends. I swear, it was like a scene out of a movie! Awesome to say the least :)

As an added bonus, the site does have rail access and quite a wide swath of land beside the tracks, which might make for some gorgeous grungy, urban shots. However, I don't think I would recommend going near to the tracks with a family (especially with younger kids) as the train tracks do appear to be quite active with potentially fast-moving trains.

Now, as I haven't had the opportunity to stage a session here quite yet, I'm going to keep the exact location of this sweet little find under wraps for now. Believe me though, once I find that right little session to fit this unique location, I will gladly share the images (and perhaps even a few more clues as to the location) here with you.


To see more of my Fave Five for Inglewood, check back tomorrow for Number 4 in our countdown.


Cheers!

lil' mama photog