In my opinion (as a 20 year Calgarian) Nose Hill Park defines the Northwest of the city.  I know a lot of people who live down by the river will disagree, but the reason I was initially drawn to this quadrant was that there was some elevation. When you get up to the top, and with good air quality, you can see so much in all directions. If you have never been to Nose Hill at sunset in the summer you really should put it on your to-do list.  It’s basically an island, a refuge from ‘urban” in the middle of Canada’s 4th biggest city.  You can see downtown, but you can’t hear much other than the grass rustling in the wind.  If you are on the top part and facing east, planes taking off at the airport will seemingly appear out of the prairie.   At 11 sq km’s there are a lot of different parts to the park to explore and as a Calgary Wedding Photographer, I have used it a lot over the last 15 years. 

Steve is an arborist by profession and runs a successful tree nursery near Red Deer.  Her and Steve came to Calgary for an engagement session and left it up to me to pick a location.  Her only real feedback for me was that she wanted something natural, so Nose Hill seemed like a pretty obvious fit. 

If I had to pick my least favourite thing about living in Calgary it would be a tie between the wind and the 7 months of monotone brown that we are stuck with from October to May.  The artist commissioned to make the art instalment on Highway 1 by Winstport, the Bowfort Towers (a.k.a. Nenshi Towers), likely never had to endure a monotone winter.  It’s soul-sucking driving by those rusty poles in January.  Wouldn’t it be nice if they were green or some other bright colour other than rusty brown?  Anyhow… back on topic.  I love shooting on Nose Hill in late spring / early summer, it’s so green!  We had a perfect night, not much wind, but just enough to move Alycia’s awesome hair around and keep the mosquitos at a humane level 🙂