DYLAN LEEDER

So, I’ve still been working on that DJ Series for BlogTO. So far it’s going well! Since the holidays started i’ve done three additions. The most recent being…

ZEDS DEAD!

So… Zeds Dead are one of my favourite DJ’s and this was definitely one of the most interesting shoots I’ve done. At the very beginning I requested two hours and asked to shoot them on the main stage of a local club, Kool Haus. By the time the shoot started I had half an hour and couldn’t shoot in the room planned – luckily another major club, The Guvernment, is attached to it. Although it was challenging I’m still happy with the results!

This shoot really made me realize the pressure and the need for solid planning when photographing subjects with a tight schedule – the guys had other interviews and shoots that day.

Everything ran well! The dudes were super chill and the shoot, once started, was generally relaxed.

If you’re into the electronic music thing you should seriously check these guys out. They’re super talented and put on a damn good show – we saw them that night!

Check out the interview by Igor Bonifacic and more photos here:

http://www.blogto.com/music/2011/12/get_to_know_a_dj_zeds_dead/

Big thanks to Braeden Vanrooy and Justin Amyotte for helping me out!

P.s. You have no idea how small The Guvernment actually is when it’s not filled with people.

Kids & Explosions

A while back I attended this really cool event where a local organization, Dudebox, created a ‘pop up bar’ inside a car garage that was about to be torn down. The whole concept was really cool but was even cooler was seeing Kids & Explosions live. After seeing him I knew BlogTO would be interested in featuring him so I contacted a few people and shortly after shot him for our Call And Response series.

I shot Kids & Explosions AKA Josh Raskin in his work place where he’s creating a sound studio out of an old meat locker. I had much more time than with Zeds Dead so we were able to get a few different locations in.

Josh’s music is so unique. Some people probably wont like it but if you do you you’ll love it like I do. He combines a huge array of different songs to create his own pieces unlike much else.

He was also nominated for an Academy Award for an animated short film he made called I Met The Walrus – It’s about a boy interviewing John Lennon.

Check out the interview by Aldrin Taroy and also more photos here:

http://www.blogto.com/music/2011/12/call_response_josh_raskin_of_kids_explosions/

DJ BARLETTA

I also photographed local DJ, Hans Edquist aka DJ Barletta. I was able to shoot him right by my place near a church that is basically attached to the Eaton Centre. It was definitely a chilly day but everything ran smoothly! It was hilarious shooting right in Dundas Square having all the tourist stare at us.

I was a little nervous about the church location as I knew so many people would be walking through having cut it really close to an actual Christmas mass. The church turned out to have some really cool locations that worked well! Score!

Check out the interview by Igor Bonifacic and some additional photos here:

http://www.blogto.com/music/2011/12/get_to_know_a_dj_hans_edquist_barletta/

Here’s some of his music…

And a behind the scenes of me shooting and Andrew so kindly helping me out at Dundas Square…

There’s still many more DJ’s coming. It’s keeping me extremely busy but I’m excited to have the series completed. It’ll make for a good series and it’s already been providing some good networking!

Must keep shooting…

So much photography lately!

I’ve been shooting a lot of environmental portraits lately and I’m really happy about it. The DJ series is keeping me extremely busy but I’m definitely happy about it. My portfolio is getting better and better pretty quickly.

Even while shooting the DJ series I managed to shoot Candice from Elite Models.

Originally I was planning on shooting outdoors near Dundas Square but obviously it had to rain. Luckily my good friend Andrew had some hookups with the abandoned homeless shelter across the street and we brought everything together last minute. I’m happy with the results.

Another big thanks to Andrew Cottingham for assisting and also a shout out to my other good friend, Brendan Rygus, who has been letting me use his car to transport the gear around. I swear one of the hardest things about doing shoots like these is just getting the gear around.

Saturday I’m shooting my biggest shoot yet. Epic location, epic subjects, the whole thing is just going to be epic. Be stoked because I definitely am.

Hope everyone is doing well and the Christmas season isn’t stressing you out too much.

Take care,
Dylan

I recently started a feature series for BlogTO on Toronto based DJ’s. Although it’s going to be challenging getting 10 DJ’s and photographing them all in different locations I feel it’ll be a good addition to my portfolio, give me practice on environmental lighting and be a cool experience meeting some of the cities best DJ’s.

For the first entry my writer, Igor Bonifacic, decided to feature local talent, Matt Medley AKA DJ Medley. This dude was super cool – not only is he a prominent DJ both at Cobra and Andy Poolhall he also runs it. Any time you see Medley dj he’s not only the performer but he also plans and runs each night. If that isn’t keeping him busy enough he’s also an established web designer – truly a man of many talents.

You can check out the article here: http://www.blogto.com/music/2011/12/get_to_know_a_dj_matt_medley/

I’m hoping to do that background thing with every DJ. This may be a challenge with the winter wind but we’ll see how it goes.

There you can see my good friend, Braeden VanRooy, who was nice enough to help me out for the shoot. It was cold as tits but we fought through and got it done. Thanks Braeden!

I didn’t even mean to make the lights in the background look like hearts! Win!

And here’s a little Behind the scenes on how Braeden kept warm…

My next post should be in a few days. I shot a model in an abandoned homeless shelter – the photos are awesome, I promise.

Thanks guys!
- Dylan