Fall Update

It's been a while since I've updated this so... here I am.

I haven't updated too much since I got back from Newfoundland because of my transition into my new apartment and job. It's been a busy few months for me but I hope to do some shoots in the near future that I'm really excited for.

I recently started working at Pikto and am enjoying it. Pikto covers many areas of photography so I'm hoping it'll help round out my photograph knowledge more. With having studio rentals, photo printing, seminars, a gallery and press I'll definitely learn a few things along the way. I think the best thing about working at Pikto is being surrounded by photography. The more I'm surrounded by it the more I'll be inspired to shoot.

So yeah with living in the new apartment...



and working at Pikto I expect to be inspired/motivated to shoot more.

So much to do and so little time!!

I've also began thinking more and more about what direction I want to take my photography in. I think I may actually be realizing what I really want to be doing in the future and it feels good.

I find when I'm talking to photographers they mostly declare themselves one form of photographer and that's it. "Hi, I'm ****** and I shoot fashion" or "I shoot still life" or "I shoot film". Me? I just shoot. I simply love taking photos no matter what it is. I have a large range of photographs from portraits to events and I'm okay with that. Photography offers me a way to show my depiction of the things i've seen/done and also to have a creative outlet to produce images i've created in my head during my non-stop brainstorming. The satisfaction I get when I finish with an image is so rewarding that I crave it constantly.

My love of capturing the world around me is what powers my photography. If I go a week without producing at least one image I become anxious. Life moves so quickly and I hate the thought of missing an opportunity. I have found that photography is the best way of freezing time and truly immortalizing a moment I feel should be remembered. I live for new experiences and seeing new things. For me photography is the best way to keep those experiences alive - by capturing these images the moment lives past that 1/125th of a second. With sharing it to people I hope to provide at least the slightest idea of what it was like... good or bad. I want people to see what I'm seeing, to get intrigued, to wonder, to question or simply know that these certain things exist or are going on.

Another thing I love about photography is the power an image can have on a viewer. People say an image is worth a thousand words but I personally believe they're worth more. When someone views an image they have no choice but to think something of it and with that I've already done what I want to do... I've got you thinking, I've got you feeling something.

Here are a few photos I've taken recently.

Sausage Lady:




My roommate Andrew:




Michelle and Derek:



Koli's Hand:



While i'm at it here's a few Newfoundland photos. The next post will be completely dedicated to Newfoundland. It'll be really awesome.





In other news...

A few months back I took photos of art for a book called "Around The World In the Blink Of An Eye". The photos were simple copy board lighting shots of the artwork so you wouldn't be able to tell they're mine - but I'm still extremely excited to help such a positive project. The book is a charity book that directly supports education and literacy programs in Africa. If you're interested you can check out the book and the organization, we(e)press, here.

Lately I've also had a very strong interest in conflict photography. I hope that someday I'll able to shoot conflict but that won't be for a while. It's something I'm definitely going to have to ease myself into. Here are two documentaries that I loved.

The first is called War Photographer and it follows conflict photographer James Nachtway. I loved the way they attached a video camera to his still camera so you can see the exact moments he's photographing. It really shows how personal he gets with his subjects.

"In a way, if an individual assumes the risk of placing himself in the middle of a war in order to communicate to the rest of the world what is happening. He's trying to negotiate for peace" - James Nachtway taken from War Photographer.

Here's a trailer:



And you can watch it here.

The second one is called Shooting Robert King and it follows Robert King for over 15 years while he photographs three different wars. It follows him from the time he was 23 and just out of college so it's particularly interesting to me. I loved his honesty about it all and how naive he was going into it. Very eye opening.

You can watch it here.

So yes... I have ideas for a lot of shoots so hopefully I'll be able to put them into action soon. Pikto is a good step but I can't wait until the day that my full time job is taking photos. Even the thought of getting paid to be somewhere and doing something I love is surreal. Sure! I'll travel to another country to take photos for you!

I'll leave you with a video by one of my most recent musical obsessions, Frank Turner. Honestly, I listen to at-least one cd of his every day.

"AND I WONT SIT DOWN! And I wont shut up! But most of all I won't grow up!"



Thanks!
- Dylan

Nuit Blanche '10

Nuit Blanche describes itself as a free all-night contemporary art event where people take to the streets to witness and be memorized by hundreds of different contemporary artists (List of artist can be seen here)

The event starts at sundown and ends at sunrise so it makes for quite the night. There was no way I was going to miss it.

More about the event at http://www.scotiabanknuitblanche.ca/home.shtml

Considering I live about a block away from Dundas Square it was definitely not difficult to find the action.

First thing I experienced was a dub step parade. Yes, a parade with one of my favorite genres of music SUPER loud. Score.

Dubstep Party Parade:


Dundas Square:


Neil Young projections at City Hall:




Of coarse there was live music and dance parties. And of coarse I photographed it:









There was a HUGE variety of art pieces and here's just a small example of them...

"1...2...3... JUMP!"










I asked a random girl to pose with a toy lawnmower I found:



I also did an addition to my Strange(r) People project...



You can see his interview and a few others over at it's site www.strangerpeople.com

What a night. Every street seemed to just be one big party. Can't wait until next year.

THANKS!
- Dylan

Catch Up - Newfoundland Teaser/Strange(r) People

Hello friends!

Life has been pretty exciting lately... I have recently returned from an amazing trip to Newfoundland, I've moved into a brand new apartment in the heart of downtown Toronto, and I've started a new project that I'm absolutely in love with. Life is good.

So... I have absolutely fallen in love with Newfoundland. The land, the people, the atmosphere, the ocean... everything. The whole trip was surreal. Going into it I never expected the amount of beauty I witnessed over the two weeks there. Me and my co-pilot, Lexi, were able to cover most of the shoreline of the island and were able to see various terrains from mountain ranges, cliffs dropping into the ocean and vast fields with what seemed like no ending. Canada is amazing.

I won't go into it too much on this post because I'll go into all the detail in a future post dedicated to the trip. I'm not quite done the photos yet so I'll just post a sort of "teaser"...


Newfoundland Teaser:






These are just two of a lot of images i'm very happy with. I'm excited for you to see them all.

And a few fun ones...

One of our campsites. Yes, that's the ocean and a full moon... We also enjoyed a bottle of wine on a stone beach that night.



This is me flying a kite at the top of Signal Hill in St. Johns.



And introducing my wicked co-pilot Lexi! Without her the trip would not have ran nearly as smoothly as it did. She did most of the navigating and figured out crucial things during the day... like where to camp in a campground without paying - and not get caught. Oh, and she was able to put up with me for two weeks straight! GO LEXI!



Okay, that's all about NFLD for now. Keep checking back and i'll have the official Newfoundland post up. I may be doing something pretty big before that... but stay tuned either way because i'll be posting about it as it develops.

Okkaayyy... NEXT.

Strange(r) People

I've recently started a new project that i'm super excited for called "Strange(r) People". I explain everything about it on the blog so you'll have to go over there to understand what it's about.

But... here i'll ask this... TELL YOUR FRIENDS. Strange(r) People is a project I really want to spread around. I feel that not only will I get A LOT out of it personally but other people may get something out of it as well. It IS about people. Also, it'll help my photography career so... why not?

A photo from the latest post:



I've only got one post of up so far but it gives you a good idea of what it's about. I'm also testing it with two different hosts so there's two options to check it out...

I think i'm liking Tumblr a bit more so here's that link...

http://strangerppl.tumblr.com/


And if you're into blogspot here's the link to it...

http://strangerppl.blogspot.com/


I expect to update it at least once a week with various sorts of people. I may even start theming each post. Who knows... it's still in the early stages.

So yes, I love hearing all your feedback so feel free to comment here, facebook, or any other way you can... send me a letter!

Thanks so much!

Selling my own book!

As many of you may or may not know a long term goal of mine is to become a travel photographer and document the world around us. I've always been extremely captivated of the world around me and believe that the best "profession" for me is using my love of photography with my curiosity to produce images that open peoples eyes.

My intention is to capture everything about the world from war torn countries as a conflict photographer to the beauty of the earth itself as a landscape photographer. To me it's important to capture both extremes as both one can create a blind eye to the other.

So, saying that, I'm taking a trip to the east coast of Canada strictly to document and photograph the area/people/lobster... or whatever else captures my eye. For me this trip is the start to my career as a travel photographer and it will also provide me with something to show potential clients that I can do it well. I know a lot of you are thinking that the east coast may be boring or unexciting compared to the other wonders of the world but that is part of the challenge for me. It challenges me to come back with a pile of images that make you go "hey, Newfoundland actually looks pretty cool!"

During my trip there is no pre-planned places to go or places to sleep. I am going to go and seek out any area that draws my attention and than pitch a tent... I'm obsessed with the ocean so it'll probably be on the oceans shore most of the time.

Wondering where I'm going with this?

Well, with traveling comes expenses and being an artist is no glamorous lifestyle... so... I've made a book!!

The book is a hardcover, 8x10, 22 page book with full page photos from the last few years. The photos range many different areas from still life to protest photos. Here's a few images of what it looks like...







Okay, so I'm selling the book itself for 40.00$ OR you can get the book and a 10x15 print for 60.00$. Want to see an example of one of the prints???



Also...I can, and will, be switching the books up regularly so few, if any, of the books will be the same as each other. Annddd... if you ever saw a photo I've taken that you've really enjoyed I can even make an effort to include it in the book for you!

In terms of the prints it's up to you to decide what you want. There will be restrictions but if you have one in mind we can definitely discuss it. You can choose any photo from my blog or website.... or any photo you've seen of mine, really.

Also, if you find that those prices are a little too high for you we can probably discuss something. I want as many people as possible to get ahold of these but I can't lose money, ya know?

If interested shoot me an e-mail at contact@dylanleeder.com or call me at 416.668.8426.

Thank you so much for the support!! It means the world to me.
- Dylan

Big Music Update

Hello!

First off I want to thank everyone for the huge amount of feedback I got from my last G20 post! I never expected the amount of feedback I got and am so grateful to all the people that took the time to read it. Receiving this amount of support has further inspired me to pursue that area of photography. The amount of emotion that was sparked by the images was amazing - one of the best feelings was realizing that my photos caused discussion... that they had made people ask questions and raise general interest towards the topic. I truly felt how much impact a photo really can make.

If you're interested in pursuing the G20 further a local newspaper "Now" has a page with up to date articles.

http://www.nowtoronto.com/guides/g20/2010/

Also, if want to see some pretty disturbing videos of the events that went down just youtube it. There's definitely a lot of them.

Annnywwaayyyss....

A while back I started shooting for an online magazine called Bring Back The Boom Box. They're an awesome group of people and have given me the privileges to shoot some pretty awesome shows!

I most recently shot Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zeros and it was incredible. Being one one of my favorite bands I was beyond excited to shoot them and they definitely did not let me down. Their stage presence was extremely tight and friendly to the point where it felt as if they were all family. Oh, and to my surprise they played two sets! The first being all new songs, some performed solo by the pianist, and the second set was all songs from Up from Below.







MORE OF EDWARD SHARPE AT http://bringbacktheboombox.com/main/photos/photos-edward-sharpe-the-magnetic-zeros/

The day before Edward Sharpe I shot The Stills and Molly Rankin. The Stills played well but I found myself pretty worn out from that day so I left halfway through their 17 song set.



I never heard Molly Rankin before but was impressed. She kind of reminds me of Tegan and Sara. Here's a link to her website: http://www.myspace.com/mollyrankin



MORE OF THE STILLS AND MOLLY RANKING AT http://bringbacktheboombox.com/main/photos/photos-the-still-feat-molly-rankin/

I also recently shot The Dead Weather at the Sound Academy. Incase you haven't heard of them before The Dead Weather consists Alison Mosshart (of The Kills), Jack White (of The White Stripes), Dean Fertita (of Queens of the Stone Age) and Jack Lawrence (of The Raconteurs). All pretty big names and I found they performed really well together!









Opening for The Dead Weather was Lullabye Arkestra.





MORE OF THE DEAD WEATHER AND LULLABYE ARKESTRA AT http://bringbacktheboombox.com/main/photos/photos-the-dead-weather-feat-lullabye-arkestra/

Back for NXNE I shot a few bands including one of my all time favorites Amos The Transparent.



Said The Whale at Dundas Square



I also caught a new band The Zolas before seeing Dylan Murray. They were awesome.



More of these NXNE bands AND some photos of Dylan Murray can all be seen here:

http://bringbacktheboombox.com/main/features/photos-nxne-photo-set-2-amos-the-transparent-said-the-whale-the-zolas-more/

The first show I shot for BBTBB was Misery Signals at the Mod Club!

Check it!

Misery Signals





Structures





Beheading Of A King



MORE OF MISERY SIGNALS AT http://bringbacktheboombox.com/main/photos/photos-misery-signals-mod-club-w-structures-behading-of-a-king/