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Toronto photographer captures moody streetscapes

Zach Bird grew up in Whitby, but he first started coming to Toronto for skateboarding competitions. When he later got into photography, it completely changed how he saw the city.

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Bird, who has more than 10,000 Instagram followers, got his start filming and photographing skateboarders.

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While on a family camping trip, he played around with his father's camera and became hooked.

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Now, he's dedicated to building up his photography portfolio so he makes his part-time passion project his full-time career.

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As a mostly self-taught photographer, Bird credits the Instagram community with helping him improve both his skills and business acumen. "You’ve got to know how much you’re worth when people come to you for work," he says.

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He cites Ryan Millier, Jayscale and Camerson Bartlett (@snappedbycam) as his biggest sources of inspiration and often goes out to shoot with Bartlett.

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When he's shooting downtown, he likes to stick around Chinatown and like many other local photographers, the Financial District.

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"I tend to shoot in the Financial District when there’s really moody weather," he says.

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What you can't see on his feed are his wedding and engagement shoots. He says that by doing weddings, he continues to get better at portrait work, something he'd like to do more of. He'd also like to do more travel photography.

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But for now, as you can see on Instagram, he's happy to call the Toronto area home.

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Lead photo by

Zach Bird


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