More G20

Caught in the middle of a G20 protest surrounded by riot police

My day started at a small pub downtown Toronto at McCaul and Dundas. I was eating lunch with my sister, her boyfriend and our friend Crystal. It was around 4:15 when I saw on CP24 that people were gathering at King and Bay for a peaceful protest. I grabbed my camera and rushed to the scene, leaving everyone else still at the pub. When I arrived at King and Bay I noticed people gathering and walking north on Bay street towards Queen. I followed the protest which was routed west on Queen street towards Spadina. The police then blocked off Queen street just before University ave, not letting any protesters cross, only to let the protests proceed west on Queen minutes later.
I then followed the protest to Spadina, where normal police officers where replaced with the RCMP and OPP riot squads. All of a sudden they deployed in a matter of minutes, blocking off the intersection and trapping about 300 people in the middle. Most of these people where curious onlookers, media, shoppers and photographers, less then half where protesters. Even when the protest was going on, the only chants being shouted where "PEACEFUL PROTEST". No violence or weapons were used by this crowd, who was now surrounded by riot police with gas masks and the sound cannon. After being trapped for 2 hours and not informed why we were not allowed to leave, it started to rain. Many people did not have jackets or umbrellas, or clothing for the rain. I myself only had a T shirt on, with a pair of jeans...lucky I had a backpack to protect my camera, other photographers were not so lucky.
After it rained for about 2 hours on the trapped people, the police started to pull the media out, which scared me. Arrests were made throughout this whole ordeal, with the police getting rid of the protesters ( which were non violent ). The word finally came from the police that all 300 of us were arrested for "breaching the peace". People were then lined up to get arrested, just to get out of the cold rain which had plagued us for hours. At around 9:45 I was taken into custody by the Toronto Police, handcuffed, processed and thrown in the back of a paddy wagon. After being in the paddy wagon for 45 minutes, the door opened and the police let me go in peace. I was not involved with any protests, but as many of you can relate, the photographer inside of me had to cover the action.

Garret

I have been slacking on updating my blog. Hopefully I am back into the swing of things...here is an image from last week.

" Sleep Clinic "

I'm now moving on to new projects, taking a break from photography and making a step into film. I just finished a weekend of shooting for a short film called "Sleep Clinic" produced by Garret Henry and directed by Jonathan Robbins. I was the Director of Photography for the short film, it takes place in 1963 involving CIA "sleep" studies. I will update when all the filming is done, there is one day left. For now I will post a few stills from the film taken by photographer Tori Rusnac.

This is a slideshow from the last two years

- Leufkens Photo

Tyler

Here is a shot from the studio featuring Tyler !

Toronto Distillery District

Went down to the distillery district, too bad it was rainy and cold. Ended up having a good day, and leaving with a few images.

Toys 'R' Us

I planned on shooting some skate photos this sunny afternoon, but it ended up becoming dark, rainy, and windy. I decided to take the crew to one spot and check out the feature, to try to get the first photo of the season. This is what we came up with. Enjoy

Thanks goes to Travis, Tony and Jamie for skating in the bad weather.

Strangers

So I had a study week assignment, it was to shoot portraits of ten different strangers, people whom I have never met before. It was an interesting day resulting in some angry people, shy people, but on the other hand, I met some wonderful strangers. I promised all these people I would mail them a print of the photo I took, and I plan to keep my word. This is a few of the shots since some of the strangers did not want their faces on the internet. Enjoy

T

I have been holding on to this photo for a while and now ready to put it out into the world.

Check it out

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSLov5Wgu_w

Horseshoe Resort

Took a trip to Horseshoe this past Friday, here are a few shots from their premier feature in the park. Thanks goes to Horseshoe for letting me shoot up there without problems, and to the riders for hitting the feature. Hope you all enjoy!

Brendan

Thenew New

Check out my photo as photo of the week!

http://www.thenewnew.ca/2010/01/26/photo-of-the-week-4/

Thanks goes to Thenew New

Leufkens

Tom + Laundry room

Was supposed to shoot outside today but the rain kept us inside, just shot a few photos in the space we have, the laundry room.

Warm up session

It was real warm out today! We decided to shoot a few photos, with the help of Tori, ended up with these shots. Thanks goes to Jamie for throwing himself down the set, and Travis for keeping it clean.

Leufkens

Few more from Cy-an

few more

Cy-an photo shoot

Photography: Leufkens

Styling: Gill Jarvis and Neill Sturgess

Models: Deanna, Gill, Neill

www.neilsturgess.com
www.gillianjarvis.com