Canmore Elopement Photographer

I have photographed in the Canadian Rockies more than anywhere else in Canada and Canmore is where I start every Rockies elopement. The town is outside the Banff park boundary, which means no park permit required for photography on town land, and the access to the park from here takes ten minutes by car. The Three Sisters, the three limestone peaks that rise directly above the eastern edge of Canmore, are visible from essentially everywhere in the valley and they give every composition a horizon that requires no searching.

The Three Sisters and Bow Valley Locations

The viewpoint on Three Sisters Parkway east of Canmore gives the best available composition of all three peaks with the Bow River in the foreground. I use this location for early morning sessions when the alpenglow hits the limestone and the river reflects the sky. The Rocky Mountain Soap Company pond on the south edge of town gives a still-water reflection of the Three Sisters when there is no wind, typically in the early morning before the valley breeze builds. I have built entire sessions around that reflection pool because the image it gives, the peaks doubled in still water with the couple at the edge, is specific to this location.

Spray Lakes and Kananaskis

South of Canmore on the Smith-Dorrien Trail, the Spray Lakes reservoir gives a different character than the Bow Valley locations: wider, more alpine, with the Spray Range and the Goat Range visible across the water. I use Spray Lakes when couples want a more remote feel than the Canmore valley provides. The drive takes twenty-five minutes from town and the reservoir is large enough that, on most weekdays outside of long weekends, the locations I use are completely private. The reflection of the Spray Range in the reservoir in the morning is as good as anything I photograph in the Rockies.