Photo and Video Archive

*See what we’re looking for and guidelines below.

To tell a better story about our neighborhood (as we often do in our newsletters and advocacy), we often want to show how we actually live in it. Too often, the visuals used in urban planning, local news, or community advocacy are pulled from generic stock libraries. These “placeholder” images usually feature non-descript buildings or generic parks that look nothing like our community. They aim to represent our everyday experiences in Convent Glen and Orléans Wood, but typically fall short of being true models of our neighbourhoods.

The Photo and Video Archive is our attempt at a solution: a community-owned, locally-sourced repository of high-quality visuals. By building this crowdsourced repository, we are creating a shared resource that belongs to the neighborhood.

Why Your Contribution Matters

This archive aims to ensure that when the Community Association or any resident produces a newsletter, an advocacy campaign, or just a graphic for a community event, we are using authentic imagery that reflects our actual environment rather than a corporate approximation of it.

What We Are Looking For

We are looking for “stock-style” photos and/or video that captures the everyday reality of our corner of Orléans. This includes the beauty of our ravines and river paths, but also the mundane—the intersections we cross, the homes we live in, and the ways we move through the community. You could look to capture something you really love or something you seek to improve. This media allows us to make our perspective visible to the rest of the city.

We are seeking high-quality, preferably-horizontal photos or videos.

Please include media in the following categories:

• Nature & Greenery: The ravines, river paths, local parks, and the shifting seasons.
• Architecture & Built Environment: Our specific mix of single-family and multi-unit home styles, local schools, and commercial hubs.
• Transportation Networks: Our multi-use pathway networks, roads and intersections, LRT Stations, or local streets.
• Community Life: Neighborhood businesses and services, community gardens, and local landmarks.

Please don’t include media in the following categories:

• Family or private events
• Images or portraits of people
• Media you don’t have permission to use or share
• Things outside our community

Submission Guidelines

To ensure these files are useful for our communications, please keep the following in mind:

• Minimum Quality: High-resolution photos and stable video (HD at least) are preferred. Smartphone photos and video are certainly acceptable.
• Privacy First: Please avoid capturing clear faces of passersby or license plates without explicit permission. We want to respect the privacy of our neighbors.
• Permission: By submitting your media, you grant the Convent Glen Orléans Wood Community Association and our community partners a non-exclusive, perpetual license to use and share the photos or video for promotional or reference purposes.
  • What this means for you: You keep 100% of your copyright. You can still post your photos on social media, sell them, or use them in your own portfolio.
  • What this means for us: The Association has permission to use the images in our newsletters, on our website, in social media posts, and as reference photography to accompany other work, without needing to ask for permission for every individual use.
• Attribution: We will endeavor to credit photographers wherever possible, though some formats (like small social media graphics) may make this difficult.

How to Submit Photos or Video

Video or Multiple Images

• Shared Folder: To submit a batch of files, please create a folder with a service like Google Drive or Dropbox and put your photos or video in the folder. Then, make sure the folder is shared publicly and email a link to [email protected] with the subject line “Media Archive”.
• Bulk Upload: If you’d prefer to just upload photos directly, please visit the following link and submit photos or video directly: CGOW Photos Request (phone or computer). To submit a batch of photos in a folder or folders, you can create a .zip archive and upload that.

A Single Photo

1. Email: Send a message to [email protected] with the subject “Media Archive” and the photo attached.
2. Community Forum: Create an account or ‘Sign in with Google’ and submit your photos: CGOW Forum – Photos.
3. Discord Community Network: Join our Discord Community and submit your photo(s) in the #photos channel
4. Facebook Group: Every Tuesday morning in our Community Facebook Group, we create a post for anybody who wishes to share their photos taken in the community. You can also share your photo there to have it included in the archive.

Help us document the neighborhood as it is today, so we can better shape what it becomes tomorrow.

If you would like to partner with the community association and use photos from our Archive, please reach out!

Past Featured Photos