Cosplay photoshoot ideas Toronto!

In a previous post, I wrote about general cosplay photoshoot ideas. Now I want to make a post about cosplay photoshoot ideas in Toronto, as lots of cosplayers are based from the largest city in Canada! Or if you’re planning on visiting Toronto for a cosplay convention like Anime North or Fan Expo, maybe you’d like to know where some good locations to shoot are. Whatever your reason may be, I am here to help you out in this post!

In this article, I will give you 10 cosplay photoshoot ideas Toronto for you. I tried my best to pick locations that are awesome, while not being too public that people will think you’re weird for wearing cosplay in public!

So let’s go!

A few things to note

Make sure you have permission to take photos in these locations and a permit, if applicable. Image by emkal from Pixabay.
  • Make sure you have permission to take photos at that location. While these locations I’ve personally taken photos at, there may be times or days where you’re not allowed to take photos there. If you’re not certain, then be sure to ask the authorities first before taking photos.
  • Be sure to buy a photo permit before shooting. In most places in Toronto, you’ll have to buy a photography permit before you’re allowed to take photos. This is especially true if you’re planning to setup anything fancy like tripods and strobe lights. It shouldn’t cost too much for a photography permit anyway!
  • Respect other people using the area. Most of these places are public areas and not private or exclusive. So while taking photos, be sure to respect others using the area. Let them pass or walk by when needed. Most people love seeing cosplayers, so you’ll have no issues with this. If anything, they’ll be asking you stuff about cosplay!

1. Guildwood Park

This photo of me was taken at one of my favorite spots: Guildwood Park! Photo by ooc_photography.

One of my favorite locations to get cosplay photos in Toronto! Guildwood Park is a big park located in the East part of Toronto in Scarborough. It’s a historic park that features relics collected from older buildings and even a Greek stage theater. Because of the relics and the beautiful stage, Guild Park is truly one of the best places to get cosplay photos in Toronto. The park also has a garden and beautiful trails as well for those lovely portrait shots. 🙂

With that said Guild Park is a very popular location for both regular park goers and wedding photos. So be sure to respect the other patrons of the park when taking your photos. And always give the newlywed priority when it comes to using the space of the park!

This location is great for:

  • Characters from mythical series (e.g. Fire Emblem, The Witcher)
  • Looking for natural beauty
  • Characters frequently with nature (e.g. Zelda, Tomb Raider)

2. High Park during the Cherry Blossoms season

High Park is by far the largest and most popular park in Toronto. So a lot of cosplay photos do get taken at this location for that reason. However, the best time to do so in my opinion is during the cherry blossom season in the spring! That is when the trees bloom and drop beautiful blossoms onto the grass, making it perfect not only for tree photos, but cosplay photos as well!

The trees tend to blossom at different times each year, depending on the weather conditions. Unfortunately, there are some years where they don’t blossom at all, especially if spring is very cold. There are websites that track the progress of the blossoms. Once you know when they blossom, you can head down to High Park to get some photos!

It does get VERY crowded at High Park during the blooming season, so if you want lots of cosplay photos, try to visit during off-peak times (e.g. weekday mornings).

This location is great for:

  • Sakura-themed characters (e.g. Ayaka from Genshin Impact, Sakura from Naruto)
  • Many Anime characters
  • Regular normie photos as well!

3. Toronto Islands

Toronto Islands (cosplay photoshoot ideas Toronto)
Beautiful Toronto Islands. Image by Cirilo Aparicio from Pixabay.

One of Toronto’s best natural wonders, the Toronto Islands is beautiful and scenic. While it may look small on a map, the Toronto Islands surprisingly covers a lot of landmass. Here you’ll find trees, beaches and even an amusement park! I feel like Toronto Islands you’ll be able to get a lot of photos because it’s generally a quiet place to relax with few people (except for the amusement park area).

You can take the city-run ferry to/from the Islands. Or you can take a private taxi across. Make it a day trip for you and your photographer to relax and get some photos together!

This location is great for:

  • Beach characters (e.g. Love Live!, summer cosplays)
  • Casual characters (e.g. Free, Pokémon)
  • If you need photos in a variety of different backgrounds and settings, as the landscape of Toronto Islands is pretty diverse

4. Scarborough Bluffs

Scarborough Bluffs is one of the natural wonders of Toronto. Image by dvjones65 from Pixabay.

I’ve personally been to the Scarborough Bluffs and it truly is a natural wonder! It’s an escarpment located on the lakeside portion of Toronto. You got some really cool cliffs at the bottom of the Bluffs. They kind of look like big sand dunes.

What’s nice is that you also have trees and beaches at the Bluffs as well. Much like other parks in Toronto, you want to try to go on off-peak times, as this place gets extremely busy, especially in the summer weekends. The Scarborough Bluffs is a great place to spend a day with some friends or photographers to get some photos.

This location is great for:

  • Beach cosplays
  • Characters involved with nature (e.g. Horizon)

5. Queen Street West Alley

This isn’t Queen West Alley, but it sure looks very similar to this! Image by Paul Macallan from Pixabay.

Queen Street West Alley is a super cool hip spot in a famously trendy part of the city. Here you’ll find beautiful graffiti and artwork along an alleyway street. Lots of people come here not only to take photos of the alleyway, but to also get their photos taken beside the artwork. It’s very easy to reach Queen Street West Alley, as it’s located right in the downtown area of Toronto!

So if you’re cosplaying a character that has an edgy or alternative look, then consider Queen Street West Alley as a cosplay photoshoot ideas Toronto!

This location is great for:

  • Punk-style characters (e.g. Cyberpunk 2077, Chloe from Life is Strange)
  • Superhero Characters that take place in urban settings (e.g. Spider-Man), although you might get some weird looks cosplaying in a very public setting
  • Getting normie photos taken as well! Seriously, it’s such a cool location that even getting “regular” photos taken is an excuse to visit this local attraction

6. Humber Bay Park

You get some great scenery and views from Humber Bay Park! Image by Another_Simon from Pixabay.

Another beautiful park located in the southwest portion of the city, Humber Bay Park is a huge area with lots of places to get your photos taken. It’s right on the lake, so you have lots of quiet greenery and water to take some great photos. There’s also a really big beautiful bridge that crosses over the Humber River, where I recommend getting some shots there as well.

Overall, Humber Bay Park is a wonderful place to get cosplay photos. If you’re tired of always getting photos at conventions or at High Park, then try out Humber Bay Park for a change!

This location is great for:

  • All cosplays! Since the area is so diverse, you can get a variety of photos taken here.

7. Woodbine Beach

Woodbine Beach is also where I’ve held cosplay events! Photo by frankie.cheng.photography

How can this list be complete without mentioning Woodbine Beach? It’s the premier destination for beach lovers in Toronto. And while the weather is too cold for beach going for most of the year (it can get as cold as -30C), when it’s summertime it is time. Time to not only bring the beach clothing, but also the beach cosplays!

What’s nice about Woodbine Beach is that it’s pretty long and stretched out, with parks and greenery dotted along the beach. I recommend going further east along the beach, as that is a quieter area where you can get photos without being disturbed.

This location is great for:

  • Beach cosplays!
  • Any swimsuit version of a character

8. The Humber River

Not exactly the Humber RIver, but some spots along the waterway can be as nice as this! Image by Matthew Morse from Pixabay.

The Humber River is a huge river that runs right through Toronto, north to south along the whole city length. It’s on the western portion of the city, and lots of different parks are dotted along the Humber River path. A lot of these areas are very quiet and not populated, making a good place to get some photos along the river if you need one.

This location is great for:

  • Avatar water-bending characters like Katara!
  • Pokémon characters, like Misty
  • The Legend of Zelda characters!

9. The Distillery District

Distillery District (cosplay photoshoot ideas Toronto)
The Distillery District is an awesome unique area, but you’ll likely need a permit to take photos. Image by Aurore Duwez from Pixabay.

The Distillery District is one of the coolest places in Toronto! Located in the downtown Eastside portion of Toronto, this area used to be a factory distillery back in the day, until it was converted to a hip area for restaurants, shops and housing. The old buildings and cobblestone streets give the Distillery District a very unique look and feel. And you can get some awesome cosplay photos here, depending on your character.

Do keep in mind that this area is private property. Depending on the level of photography you may want, you may need to purchase a photography permit in order to take photos here. So before planning any cosplay photoshoots here, be sure to contact them beforehand to see if you need one or not.

This location is great for:

  • Steampunk cosplays! The Distillery District is practically made for Steampunk cosplays. They’re perfect together.
  • Victorian Era style cosplays (e.g. Black Butler)

10. Mint Room

I had to bring up The Mint Room because a lot of my cosplay friends in Toronto have used their indoor studios for photoshoots on several occasions, and they loved it! They have a variety of different rooms such as a library, kitchen, ballroom, a bathroom, lounges and more. As of this writing, the cost to rent out one of these rooms is $95 an hour, which is more than reasonable for an indoor studio. If you bring along a 3-4 other cosplay friends, you can knock down that cost to around $20 for each person.

And when it’s -30C outside in Toronto and you want some cosplay photos, you don’t have to worry about freezing your butt off when you can just do a cosplay photoshoot at The Mint Room! Note I’m not being sponsored by them or anything. I just think this is one of the most affordable and best places to shoot indoors for cosplayers in Toronto, especially when there are no cons happening anytime soon.

This location is great for:

  • Any cosplay really. They have a variety of rooms that will suit all types of cosplay, I’m sure.

Bonus

Roundhouse Park (during Fan Expo and Toronto Comicon)

Roundhouse Park is a wonderful place to take cosplay photos.

Roundhouse Park is an interesting place to say the least. The park is located right across from the convention centre during Fan Expo and Toronto Comicon, both very popular conventions. This park features train locomotives from the past and even has train tracks along the park! It’s basically an outdoor train museum.

Even though many characters have nothing to do with trains, the setting surprisingly fits well with cosplay, as evidently seen in cosplay photos.

So what I’m trying to say is that during Fan Expo or Toronto Comicon, don’t miss an opportunity to get your cosplay photos taken at this park! It’s a lovely place to get some pictures. And yes, it’s easily overdone and everyone goes there. But who cares? 🙂

YetiCon

Blue Mountain Village
The famous pond at Blue Mountain Village. Once you step foot on this resort, you’re gonna have a good time!

I talk about YetiCon quite a bit on my blog and for good reason! It’s such a unique and awesome convention that I highly recommend people to attend. I bring up the convention now because the con location itself is an amazing place to take cosplay photos.

Blue Mountain is a ski resort that is awesome in the summer. You have the beautiful swimming pools that are perfect for beach cosplays. Up the mountain (or big hill really), you can get some nice landscape shots. And there’s even an artificial waterfall at the resort that’s insanely popular with cosplayers!

So I recommend attending YetiCon for many reasons, including cosplay photoshoot opportunities. Blue Mountain is about a 2-3 hour drive from Toronto. If you want to learn more about what YetiCon and why it’s so awesome, click here.

Summary

To summarize, here are the 10 cosplay photoshoot ideas Toronto for you:

  1. Guildwood Park
  2. High Park during the Cherry Blossoms season
  3. Toronto Islands
  4. Scarborough Bluffs
  5. Queen Street West Alley
  6. Humber Bay Park
  7. Woodbine Beach
  8. The Humber River
  9. The Distillery District
  10. Mint Room

And there you have it; 10 cosplay photoshoot ideas Toronto for you!

Which cosplay photoshoot ideas Toronto location do you want to try? Let me know in the comments below!

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