Architectural & Interior Design Photography, Corporate Commercial Photography, Advertising & Portrait Photographer | Ottawa | 613-558-7585 | justin.vanleeuwen@gmail.com
I’ve always been a photographer whose style reflects his client’s needs. While I certainly put my own creative and technical spin on everything I do, it’s rare that I take the time to create images that are reflective of what I’m purely interested in. So, despite the popularity and praise I receive for my interior […]
Portraits and Headshots have long been one of my favourite parts of photography. I enjoy the challenges of taking photos of people on-location and trying to work through someone’s own potential inhibitions in having their photo taken. I try create a portrait that represents them as a person, but also is useful to them in […]
As a commercial photographer, I’m not always given the opportunity to explore more creative portraiture. We work to serve our clients needs, and rarely does that allow for some of my more outlandish ideas to come through (of course, some exceptional clients definitely like to “play” right along with me.) The ability to have creative […]
It’s en-vogue to do a retrospective of one’s favourite photographs from the year. What sort of bugs me about this is it’s usually photographers selecting their own work, and why not? We got through it, took some good photos, probably more than a few bad ones, and maybe we need a bit of a pat […]
It’s been an incredible first week at the JVLPopUp photo studio. We had an opening party which (though I didn’t tell anyone this) marked two years in full-time photo business for me, with incredible food by Essence Catering, drinks from Beyond the Pale, perfectly rendered and HUGE canvases by CanvasPop. I’ve entertained a few headshot […]
In 2006 I purchased what would be my first of many SLR cameras. I needed a creative outlet and found a happy balance between creativity and tech-geek with a digital photographic medium. My friend Aaron helped set up my site and I ran with it as I went from a Fundraiser in Toronto, to a […]
I’m very pleased to announce that, from October 18th to 28th I’ll be opening a PopUp photo studio right in my own Ottawa neighbourhood: Hintonburg. 1089 Sommerset is a great space, that in-no way could I afford on a permanent basis, but it’s there, it’s empty, and I said I’d be willing to clean it […]
It’s been a busy couple months around here, and while I’ve taken the time out to post some tutorials, there’s some stuff going on outside of this blog that I should link to.
Steve came to me asking for help conveying an image that he had in his head, it was a visual representation of how he felt. Scared, sexually abused, and silenced as a young boy, Steve has grown into a very capable and accomplished man. He’s a professional athlete, Iron-man competitor, and barefoot runner. You look […]
With us firmly into the holiday season, a lot of my corporate clients have shut-down for the holidays and editorial photography is mostly due out in the new year. It’s an interesting lull, where I find myself with time I didn’t have before. Obviously the end of the year provides us with a time to […]
I’m proud to announce that I’ve partnered up with the much lauded website “Canon Rumors” in an ongoing series of reviews on Canon lenses, some bodies, and maybe other things as they come along. In some cases I’m reviewing lenses I already own, and have used for a while, others are new to me and […]
First in, hopefully, a series of Best-Friend Forever (BFF) photographic series I’ll be producing… maybe someday. Ashley and Kristine have been BFF’s since they first met in grade 9 ten years ago (Kids!). Ashley is the General Manager at Free Form Fitness here in Ottawa, and Kristine is a stylist at The Hair Loft on […]
People who know me know I’m not a big “sports” guy. And while I do appreciate athleticism and love working with athletes on portrait projects, I’m rarely assigned to cover any sort of sporting event aside from the odd run. That said, I’ve been reviewing a brand new camera that is ideal for sports shooters […]
I have a bunch of editorial photography in the backlog just waiting to go to print, I can’t wait to share it with you, but until that time you get to enjoy my adorable family just a little bit more. My parents came down for the beginning of this week to hang out with the […]
My weekend involved assignments that both involved water. The first one intentionally, a waterfight between two “competing” neighbourhoods Carlingwood and Hintonburg. Having seen it done in more extreme sports, I wanted to capture a before image of the combatants, calm, confident, with all their ammunition locked and loaded, then follow up with an after, wet, […]
Saturday’s Photowalk has come and gone. I was pleasantly surprised to find over 30 folks turn out (and many of them I didn’t know yet!). It’s the first walk that the main group walked WAY ahead of me, so far I had to tweet them to slow down. It was a beautiful day, full of […]
The past few months have been the busiest of my relatively short career. This is good, it means I’m growing and building new things, finding new clients, and pleasing old ones as they return. The above photos are of my new bathroom. Nice, yes? We had the reno’s done by Ottawa’s RND Construction, who I […]
Thank you. This is been a crazy year for me and my family, and while I’m not a spiritual or religious person, I would say that the first word that comes to mind is that it’s been a blessing. A blessing because I got to stay home with my kids for most of the year, […]
Tis the season for a wrap-up of all the great things we bought this year, and to let people know what you can pick up others to make them temporarily happy, all while reducing your own personal wealth through “mandatory” giving. Humbug you say? Fine, you want to buy something for the photographer in your […]
There are two steps to being a professional photographer: one is to value your own work, the other is to create work of value. You do not have to do these in order, but doing neither is unsustainable. The above photo I shot while on assignment for my local paper the Kitchissippi times. While it’s […]
Bonkers, pictured, is a local watering hole in my Hintonburg neighbourhood. I posted this photo on Flickr yesterday, and this is a suggested crop of that image (thank you for your input folks!). The nice thing about this shot, for me, is that it was something I had pre-envisioned. I knew I wanted to take […]
It’s been a while since I posted a HDR image – mostly because I haven’t been shooting them. Some people hate the effect, some love the results. I find it’s usually pretty polarized within a few groups “photographers” and everyone else. See – photographers themselves are always polarized – which camera company, bag, lens, flash, […]
It’s been a while since I did any Rorschach type image, but this one seemed to work well with it. Not for everyone, considering it’s obviously manipulated (I didn’t hold a mirror up to get the shot). You can see the original here.
A drop is due. A drop in the way we do business, a drop in what people say. It’s happening right now. Right now people are more honest, and up front with each other, online, than ever before. Transparnecy is key, it’s expected; the minute something is viewed as a sales pitch or anything less […]
