How to Find Pretty Instagram Photo Locations

Sometimes I always find myself chasing wildflowers!! 

 I’m not sure what excites me the most when doing a photo shoot the outfit or the location so today on the blog I wanted to share some ways I find my pretty places to take pictures!

My favourite part about summer is all the beautiful flower fields, my dream was to go to a lavender field this summer but with everything closed then starting to open up I wasn’t to sure on spending hours in the car traveling to a spot and it potentially being filled with people wanting to also take amazing shots. Trying to find a location and also practice social distancing can be challenging during these times, luckily living in the country we have no shortage of amazing views but sometimes the pretty Instagram worthy photo spots don’t exist around here so you have to make your own! 

Let’s face, it we all want those gorgeous dreamy photo locations, but we can’t spend all our time traveling to different places around the world just to get a pretty picture. The one thing I love about Instagram is being able to see all the flower farms there are in Europe, and I dreamed about doing my own photos in the same type of locations. But being where I live there are not very many options close to home, not that we do have any in Ontario, just none that I wouldn’t have a 3 hour minimum drive just to get there, and having a toddler over 6 hours in the car is not going to happen for just a few pretty pictures. 

So how does one find such a gorgeous location for photos you might ask? The answer is simple it is all around you! 

I started taking notice of areas that might look interesting for background in my photos, and you would be amazed to find what you have right in your own backyard! I first started taking notice of spots back in March of this year when everything was shut down because of covid-19. Most public locations were closed so being able to take photos there was not an option. We would go for walks around town every day and as we were walking I would start to notice spots that looked interesting or pretty to do photos. 

Sometimes you will find an amazing photo spot in the places you least expect it, like this beautiful field of wild flowers I found on my drive to work. I have been driving past this farm field for over two years and didn’t even notice that it is covered in pretty purple and white wildflowers. This will be for sure a spot I will continue to go to in the future. Another spot I recently re-discovered is a swamp outside of town, I say “re-discovered” because I have been biking down that swamp road since I was a kid and never thought of it being the perfect spot to take photos and it has to be one of my favourite shoots this summer. 

Know what you are looking for and by this I mean what do you want in your photo. When you know what you want you will start to see them everywhere. A good way to find something you know you want for your photo backgrounds would be to search it on google. For me I talked about my love for pretty flower fields, so I searched flower fields or farms on google maps to see what came up. You would be surprised at how many places your might have near you! I also love old manors, or castle-like buildings. So I searched these words and added Ontario to keep the locations closer to home, and oddly enough I found some pretty cool looking old builds. 

Another great way would be to look on local photographers websites or Instagram pages. A lot of the time, photographers will add the name of the place or location of where a photo is taken. 

So what I mean by this, is when you find a spot that you love, think about what it might look like during the different seasons. Some locations might look better or best during certain times of the year. I found a beautiful garden spot last fall to take pictures but never keep ted to different seasons in mind when spring came, this same garden was filled with the most beautiful rose bushes. So now I am thinking about what might be in bloom during the spring. A plain field of trees might not look very pretty in the spring or summer but when all the tress are turning colour, it  will have a very different look and feel to it. I always love taking photos down by the water, its one of my go-to spots in the summer, I then discovered I love how it looks in the winter almost even more! It has a completely different look when the bay is covered in ice, and the trees are bare and you can see all the wispy ways the branches have grown.