Chateau Frontenac Elopement

I have used the Chateau Frontenac as a background element in every Quebec City elopement session I have shot, and the challenge is always the same: it is so dominant that it competes with the couple for attention if you are not deliberate about how you compose it. The building works best as context rather than subject. The couple is the subject. The Chateau is the proof that you are in Quebec City.

The Terrace Approach

The Dufferin Terrace runs below the Chateau Frontenac along the cliff edge, and the approach from the south end of the boardwalk, walking toward the hotel with the building growing above you, is the visual dynamic I use for movement shots. I position the couple at the south end and photograph them walking north with the Chateau rising ahead. The staircase at the north end that leads toward the Governors Promenade gives the opposite angle: the couple on the stairs with the Chateau behind and the river below. I use both ends of the Terrace for this reason.

Side Streets and the Walls

The rue du Chateau and the rue Mont-Carmel that run along the south side of the Chateau property give angles on the building that the Terrace does not. From these streets the copper turrets and the gabled dormers are visible at eye level rather than overhead, and the stone facades of the adjacent buildings frame the hotel in a way that makes it look more like an old city building and less like a hotel. I use the intersection of the rue du Chateau and the rue d’Auteuil for a framed composition where the fortification wall at d’Auteuil is visible alongside the Chateau facade. The combination gives the couple two major historical elements in one frame.