Architectural & Interior Design Photography, Corporate Commercial Photography, Advertising & Portrait Photographer | Ottawa | 613-558-7585 | justin.vanleeuwen@gmail.com
About two years ago I wrote a post about working for free, for pay. As a new photographer in Ottawa, I was looking for clients, and for some projects, I had no portfolio to show to get the work, so I did the work on spec – but still charged if the client wanted to use the images. The prospective corporate interior client was the Ottawa Marriott Hotel, and sure enough, they did select, pay for, and use several of the images I photographed two years ago.
Jump ahead to the end of 2011, and Ottawa Marriott is looking for photos of their newly renovated meeting spaces. This is big business for them, and often people are “buying” these spaces without actually being in the city, for conferences that are meeting from out of town, weddings, or just busy-folk who need to book meeting space. The photos have to say it all, show what’s available, how the space is set up for the meeting or event, and the overall aesthetic of the room. Lucky me, I kept in touch, with random roof-adventures and good client relations, they called me in on the job.
It was a nearly full two-day shoot on location. Rooms were set up, struck, then set up again to show variations on how they’re presented. Days at home in post, straightening lines, taking out random carpet fluff (you have no idea how much those new carpets had) and, most of all, de-wrinkling the linens. I’m an expert at this now, hole-E-crap were there a lot of linens.
I had a great time working with the folks at the Marriott, I’m honoured they chose me to come in and shoot the work, and thrilled head-office approved all 20 of the final selected images for use (they have strict branding guidelines). You can see a mixed gallery of my work on their site here.