Architectural & Interior Design Photography, Corporate Commercial Photography, Advertising & Portrait Photographer | Ottawa | 613-558-7585 | justin.vanleeuwen@gmail.com
Large venues really push my physical and creative abilities as an event photographer. Just covering the main stage at the National Arts Centre would be enough to keep one person busy, but I like to throw a little extra into my work. Which is why I decided to do back-stage portraits at this years’ Cracking […]
I absolutely love shooting comprehensive campaign work for my clients. As a commercial photographer, working on images from the very inception of the concept is where I like to be. I was thrilled to receive a call from Claire at Bikram Yoga Ottawa to revamp her images for their new website and other potential ad […]
I nearly forgot about these commercial food photographs I took for Suzy Q Doughnuts here in Ottawa last year. The shop is only a few blocks away from where I live. I was their second customer when they opened up and did as much as I could to recommend the crap out of them to […]
As a commercial photographer, I try to create images that help my clients better sell their product. While so many of my commercial jobs are people, portraits and interiors, there has been a product photography component to my business. It’s not something I do often, and I’m not always even completely comfortable with the results. […]
I had the honour this year of serving as the official photograph event sponsor of the 2013 Greater Ottawa Home Builders Association Housing Design Awards (GOHBA Awards, or… GOHBA…A?). What does an official sponsor do? Well, he works his butt off as an event photographer for the night, taking photos of the best builders, architects, […]
My friends over at MediaStyle called me in to cover some stills for a commercial video shoot they were on. In-between takes, I was to create some portraits to update photography for their client Jonathan Chant, CEO of Fitness for Freedom. Jonathan and his team are personal trainers who make house calls, trying to keep […]
Sometimes a shoot just works out perfectly. Erin’s a bit of an online friend, I had known *of* her for a number of years, following her exploits as she was married, had a lovely little daughter, and she’s helped come out and model for a few of my shoots with said adorable fam. When it […]
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 […]
I don’t often show the events I photograph. Most often, the event photography consists of some important people grip-and-grinning and, near the end, tend to be drunken revellers at a private function, so there’s really not much to see, or not much anyone’s willing to show.
One of my best clients, Ottawa’s boutique media-management firm MediaStyle have been incredible clients and creative partners with me for the past two years. Last year, I came in and produced which were (and still are) some of my favourite business portraits for the team. While I certainly know how to re-create the images, it […]
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 […]
It’s funny how everything in your life is connected, and how old contacts become new ones, and colleagues become clients and friends and hire you to be their commercial photographer when they’re ramping up their business. I wasn’t always a notoriously extroverted commercial and editorial photographer. There was a time when I worked in the […]
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 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 […]
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 […]
