About - Julian Mendl

I’m a professional photographer, based in Toronto, Canada. I specialize in high-end real estate and corporate marketing events, as well as the more traditional fields of weddings and portraits.

Born in Britain to an English Father and a Canadian Mother, my passion for photography goes back to my first 35mm camera at the age of 10, while growing up in the Beaches neighbourhood of Toronto. Four decades later and the camera has never been far from my side as I’ve traveled and lived in England and Australia before settling back in Canada in 2007.

Photography is my second career as I spent 24 years working for some of the worlds top retailers. My most recent full-time position was with Loblaws at their head office in Brampton, Ontario. My role was Senior Director for Product Flow in their Supply Chain Transformation department.

I studied photography at the University of Hertfordshire in England. I’ve since taken numerous courses in colour management, fine art printing and Photoshop. I’ve also been on several workshops where I’ve been able to learn from some of the world’s best photographers.

Photography is much more than a job to me. I truly love taking photographs and enjoy ~~every shoot~~ almost every shoot. There is nothing more rewarding than presenting the final print to a happy customer, or hearing from a seller just how much over asking their listing sold for.

As a photographer, you can expect this site to be predominantly about showing pictures, but the whole idea of having a blog is that I can write about anything I please. So get ready to hear about public transport, municipal politics, condo development, Toronto history, Arsenal Football Club, Robert Fripp, supermarkets, fresh produce, customer-centric supply chain design and some boring technical stuff about photography and my workflow.

Julian Mendl
Toronto, Ontario
Canada

My Experience

Retail Executive: 24 Years

Art Photographer: 14 Years

Pro Photographer: 6 Years

Paid Shoots per Year

2015

2014:

2013:

2012:

2011:

Tesco are the 3rd largest retailer in the world. They are based in England and they now trade in several countries around the world.

When I joined them in 1986 as a stock controller they were nothing like they are today.

Most of my 20 years at their head office was spent establishing a fresh food supply chain that is now the envy of the worlds retailers.

Tesco_Market_Share

Tesco’s percentage of the UK grocery market while I was employed there.

I was recruited by Coles in Melbourne, Australia in 2005. They were investing billions in their supply chain to improve their customer offer and reduce their operating costs. They realised, midway through their transformation, that their suppliers weren’t capable of doing what was required and they recruited me to be help enable and convince their suppliers of the merit of adhering to the new the new delivery requirements.

Loblaws of Toronto hired me in 2007 as Senior Director for Flow in their Supply Chain Transformation team. My somewhat loosely defined role was to ensure that all of the different transformation streams would equal the overall vision of a stockless supply chain that focused on delivering fresher food to customers.

Loblaw’s head office in Brampton, Ontario

I started selling my photographs online in 2002 and since then I’ve appeared in galleries in England, Australia and here in Toronto.

In 2002 I purchased a Canon 10D Digital SLR and 3 high end “L” lenses, which took my photography to another level. I’d had film cameras for years, but the 10D was the first affordable DSLR and it changed everything. With film, I might take 72 photos in a day. With digital, I could easily take 500 or more.

2002 also bought the Epson 2000p pigment inkjet printer, and suddenly my hobby had doubled in size as I was printing as well.

The next leap forward was in 2006, when Canon released the 5D, which was a full-frame camera that still holds legendary status.

Whats really enabled me to sell my photos online is living in London, Melbourne and Toronto, which are 3 of the greatest cities in the world. I really don’t understand how anyone could live in these cities and not take pictures.

I established my professional photography business here in Toronto in 2010. I’d wanted to do it for more than 20 years and after leaving Loblaws, it seemed like the best time.

A year later, and I was getting a few weddings & portrait sessions, but no where near enough to support me. In January 2011 I started Toronto-Pix and advertising to real estate agents.

In a very competitive market, I’ve built Toronto-Pix up to become one of the cities best known real estate photography companies. The Toronto-Pix website received more than a million hits in 2014, almost all from the MLS site.

In 2014, Toronto-Pix was about 70% of my photography business. The objective for 2015 is to bring it down to 50% by building the event side of my business.

Julian Mendl is owner and operator of Toronto-Pix, which is one of the fastest growing real estate photography companies in the city. Toronto-Pix provides photos, virtual tours and brochures to the cities leading real estate agents and brokerages.

I provide same day service and prices from $99. Click on the logo above to learn more about real estate photography and Toronto-Pix.