Architectural & Interior Design Photography, Corporate Commercial Photography, Advertising & Portrait Photographer | Ottawa | 613-558-7585 | justin.vanleeuwen@gmail.com
Over the summer I was contracted to produce the portraits for a new Ottawa law firm McNally Gervan LLP. They knew their logo branding was going to have a simple red and white design – any hint of direction is helpful when creating commercial images – so we opted to work with a seamless white […]
My first work to go to print in the new year is an Ottawa Woman feature with Kristin Shannon, a pharmaceuticals sales rep, who also happens to be an accomplished fundraiser and outspoken advocate for woman’s mental health. Essentially a traveling sales-woman, there weren’t a lot of location choices for our shoot. She works from […]
I photographed Sarah to help showcase her new play, one she’s co-written and staring in, based on the lives of civil servants. There’s few better representations of the brutalist architecture our indentured servants than Tunney’s Pasture – the place should have a perimeter fence. You can now read full Kitchissippi Times articles online, which isn’t […]
Some of my interior photography clients aren’t builders, but designers. Not to take away from them, designers are involved from the ground up, before the ground is even there. Layout, materials, aesthetics flow, they pick materials and colours and accessories. A good sense of design will end up photographing itself, in a way, they’ve accounted […]
Harriet is was the Chef du Cuisine at Navarra Ottawa, a lovely restaurant in the market I personally had never been to before this assignment. Harriet is a hard worker, and while she wasn’t reluctant to have her photo taken, she’s certainly more used to operating behind the scenes. I took this image before opening, […]
When you’re assigned to photograph someone who is to be addressed as “His Excellency” you expect a certain level of regency and pomp to come along with that individual. Of course none of that turned out to be true, as His Excellency was incredibly friendly, down to earth, regaling us with tales of his youth, […]
The NiceJewishGadgetFamily is a blended family, a single mom isn’t so single anymore thanks to her superman (he’s Jewish, quite nice, and she likes gadgets). As always, the style of my Extreme family portraits lends itself more to my commercial photography, than a traditional family portrait. You might recognize GadgetGirl from the shoots I did […]
Sometimes you take on some commercial photography work just because it’s fun. I was approached by the Rideau Valley Roller Girls to do one of the pages of their fundraising calendar. It was the new girls in the league photo, and befitting the “Fresh Meat” they are, the location of a local butcher was used. […]
If you’re a hockey fan, you probably have mixed feelings about Ron Tugnutt’s career performance. Despite some incredible games and seasons, he had a rough go at others. That said, he’s a hell of a guy, and was great to shoot on this editorial photography assignment for Centre Ice. He’s taken on some vested interest […]
David Whellans Part 6 of 6 David was how I introduced the series, and I’ll finish it off with him too. David was one of the few I shot for this editorial series who, when I walked into the location (his home), I had two spots to use. The first you saw last week, his […]
Part 5 of 6 Dave and I went to see Peggy on a particularly rainy day. I hadn’t been to her expansive barn in Manotick before, but I did have an idea in my head of how I wanted a light and airy image taken from a high vantage showing the depth of the location. […]
Part 4 of 6 Nancy is a successful Ottawa realtor, but her claim to fame nowadays is chairing “Women for Mental Health” at the Royal Ottawa Foundation for Mental Health. Struck by the closeness of a local teenage suicide in age to her two daughters, she took to fundraising to raise awareness. Nancy was a […]
Part 3 of 6 We worked with Darryl on the last day of shooting for this assignment – the first subject of two in that day. I had to switch up assistants on this gig because Dave went and got himself a real job. My good friend Chris stepped up for this day which was […]
Part 2 of 6 After a few too many drinks one night, Paige Cutland decided to start a brewery: Hogsback. The first subject of my series produced for Ottawa Magazine, we were to meet with Paige at the “Keggerator” which, unlike a home one, holds *all* the kegs for the market. This location was a […]
Part 1 of 6 This was my first project undertaken for Ottawa Magazine and I really wanted it to show as my best work to date. It would serve to impress my new client (hopefully), and challenge myself to push my work ahead. I had recently read on David Hobby’s Strobist blog about Gregory Heisler […]
I was excited to be contacted by Ottawa’s Great River Media to do some editorial photography work on the lead story for their brand new Hockey magazine “Centre Ice” with The Ottawa Senators latest draft Cody Ceci. It was a tight schedule, figuring out when to shoot Cody only a few days before deadline… he […]
While much of what I photograph is editorial and portrait driven. I do have a good side-line on custom interior photography as well. This house (I didn’t shoot exterior, but know it looked like a typical suburban cookie-cutter house on the outside), was completely opened up by the addition of a glass central staircase. Where […]
My second cover assignment for Ottawa Woman, Carol Anne Chenard is a Fifa qualified referee on her way to the Olympics (marking my third Olympian photographed this year). Ottawa Woman prefers a more natural approach to the images they use, so I opt for soft light and locations on these editorial portraits with minimal post-processing […]
The latest issue of iRun magazine should be out today featuring some work I did for Canadian Olympians Dylan Wykes and Michael Tayler (Michael, you’ve seen before). Both were incredible subjects – there’s something about athletes that make them great for photography. Likely their fierce determination and resolve, but definitely their peak physical shape. While […]
I love it when a plan comes together. I worked with Nadine early last year, hers was my first planned composite family portrait outside of my own kids. This paved the way for an even more planned out shoot when she approached me to re-launch her blog “Adorkable Undies” to keep focused on her work […]
I lucked out on this shoot for Ottawa Woman magazine, a colleague of mine, who normally does their work, had a conflict in his schedule and needed someone to shoot some editorial photography for Ottawa Woman magazine ASAP. I quickly obliged (anything to help a friend out right?) and, since I was on a shoot […]
Featured on the cover the Kitchissippi Times today, is the young, Ottawa-based, Canadian, world champion (and soon to be Olympian) whitewater slalem kayaker Michael Tayler. It was a great morning on his home course at Ottawa’s pump station rapids. I brought in my two A-list assistants Lee & Chris knowing that, at some point, I […]
I was extremely fortunate to have been commissioned by the National Gallery of Canada to produce a number of panoramic interior photos of their various gallery collections. For those who have been to the gallery, you already know that photography inside the areas with art is prohibited, and there’s always a keen security guard watching […]
My good friend and fellow photographer Younes Bounhar recently acquired some new toys gear and we both had a free evening to put it to the test. Except. Except when I finally took out my camera from my tightly and carefully packed bag, I realized the only battery I was going to bring, was still […]
