Architectural & Interior Design Photography, Corporate Commercial Photography, Advertising & Portrait Photographer | Ottawa | 613-558-7585 | justin.vanleeuwen@gmail.com
I photographed this family a few months back, but we kept going back and forth on which image we’d use as final (my clients get selects of how they look so they can pick and choose the image that individually works best for them) – that’s the great thing about shooting a composite – we […]
Anatomy of a Shoot I may not always be able to meet my clients before I go shoot for them, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t gathered a bit of information on who’s going to be there, what their general interests are, and the potential to develop a common theme. Walking into the above shoot […]
Off to a late start on the blog am I? Whatever. I’ve been busy. My very first gig, when I moved to Ottawa, was with the front-man for a band called The Adopted. We’ve gotten together a few times a year to hash out some ideas and do some band shots, which has seen us […]
Today’s a good day, lots of new folks are coming to this site via Julie Cole’s blog post on YummyMummyClub and if you’re looking for *my* look at Julie’s family – I wrote about it here. It’s funny how some things lead to others. I was recommended to Julie by-way of a friend of hers […]
Despite photography being a visual medium, Craft & Vision creator and author David DuChemin insists on using his incredible grasp of language (rarely profane) and introspective thought to hammer into your head the best ways to achieve your intended vision. Vision is Better 2 is a best of Collection of David’s more memorable blog posts […]
I live in a part of Ottawa known as Hintonburg. Anyone following me on Twitter will know I’m strongly community oriented; so, along with lots of photography related stuff, I chat to and about those in my neighbourhood. The gentrification of the main strip of Wellington West in Hintonburg is nothing new to folks who […]
I have been greatly honoured by my friends at CanvasPop by being chosen by them to do the product photography for their launch of their Instagram-to-canvas launch. For those who don’t know, instagram is a free app for the iPhone that allows you to quickly take photos add a number of preset filters and, most […]
Extreme family portrait. I still have session dates available in and around Toronto as per last weeks post, so if you’ve been on the fence (we can do this literally if you like) about getting a photo get in touch with me ASAP. I’ll be in the area November 5th to 7th, and then “poof” […]
Persistence is key, in everything you do. I don’t know why I keep having to re-learn this lesson. Anything you want, you can probably get, if you persist at it. It might take hard work, it might take a lot of hustle, but if you’re willing to do more than the other guy, do it […]
Did a few portraits for George here. He’s been top of his game for this stage in life and has spent some good time working on his Harley. He lives out in the country(ish) with his wife (who you can see keeping the hog safe here), so asked for a more urban/grunge setting for this […]
Tristan his son Phoenix are currently fundraising for “Ride the Rideau” in support of Cancer Research. You can donate to them here & look for their article in an upcoming issue of Kitchissippi Times. Lighting it There are plenty of natural light photographers, the good ones can work in any conditions, but even they are […]
Did I skip a week between posts? oops – my bad. I was contacted this week by my local (like, neighbourhood local) paper, the Kitchissippi Times, to cover the Hintonburg 5K for my first editorial photography assignment. I jumped at the chance, of course, since I love being associated with my neighbourhood, but it’s not […]
Here’s V, the three year old member of the family I recently photographed. She took centre stage though, most cuties do, so I’m featuring her here solo. For my standard family portraits I travel to the locations a bit lighter, rarely with an assistant, which keeps the costs down for my clients and allows me […]
This is the kind of project I want to do more of. I had such a great time photographing the Ottawa Fringe team for their commerorative book, the first time they’ve done such a project. The producer at the Ottawa Fringe, Natalie, was introduced to me by showing up at my house one Photojam long […]
The monkey house has been of great support to this blog over the past few years, helping me customize the layout of my website and a lot of behind the scenes tinkering. I am grateful for the work, and it was only appropriate that, someday, they’d have a more extreme portrait taken for me to […]
I’ve been a contributor to the Spacing Ottawa blog since it was launched a few years ago, I’ve had a great working relationship and friendship with it’s editor Evan Thornton too. He has been my proponant and a fan, which always makes it easier when working on assignment for them. I’ve even been fortunate to […]
Earlier today I tweeted that I had nearly 200 views on the above photo of Lisa Barker on Flickr but ZERO comments. That means 200 people looked at it, said “meh” and went on there way. A fair appraisal, I guess, it’s not a perfect portrait (no fault of Lisa’s) but I felt it sufficient […]
Working for “free” gets a bad rap, of course it’s also often misinterpreted in what free involves. A few months ago I was contacted by the lovely folks over at Local Tourist Ottawa to write a blog post that included a good selection of my personal work from the Ottawa area. Now, I do believe […]
As you saw earlier this week, I spent some time goofing around on a shoot with a few other local photographers. I may have released that image prematurely, though, since going through the rest of the images I relized they worked better as a group: no single image really reflecting the dynamic of the evening. […]
Do you know how HARD it is to do a shallow dof self-family-portrait with three kids by the river? You can see some details over on Flickr. As a PC user (by habit only, I assure you) you might find it as odd as I do that you can find me, not once, but TWICE […]
Hello Eagen family, this has been a long time coming. I originally met with the lovely young daughters of the Eagens sometime last year, December maybe? (time flies) We had planned something in the new addition to the house, in front of the new fireplace that mom had been BEGGING for for years – in […]
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 […]
Another photo from the shoot with art by MetamorFaces May Mazor. The model, this time Carolyn, wanted to give her boyfriend a special gift (he’s a football fan, He likes the… Tigers… I fail at sports). I’m pretty sure he’ll be pleased with the gift – I don’t know a lot of guys who’d turn […]
As creatives, and importantly, as professionals, we should all take a workshop, if you live in Ottawa, you should take THIS workshop specifically. In 2009 I had learned my camera, all the lenses, f-stops, buttons, and settings and whatever other douchery I could handle. But I was strugling with a fundamentally “noob” issue, a weak-point […]
