Architectural & Interior Design Photography, Corporate Commercial Photography, Advertising & Portrait Photographer | Ottawa | 613-558-7585 | justin.vanleeuwen@gmail.com
Last Saturday was Tara & Tony’s wedding. It was crazy humid and I had to go two notches down on my belt as the day went on, in order to prevent my pants from completely dropping off. We were at the Brittania Yacht Club in Ottawa and, at first, I wasn’t crazy about the layout […]
Busy busy week this week – heatwave or no – I’m photographing a wedding on Saturday which really means a week of build-up, double checking, lists, and extra batteries & memory cards. You HAVE to have backups for this sort of thing. A wedding only happens once… and it only takes one loose end, one […]
So not like me to post a bunch of flower macro photos. Weird, though, I can’t seem to take macro’s of much of anything else. Getting in this close is a whole other level of perception, one that I’m not as in tune to. You gotta see, explore, even more. Flowers are obvious targets – […]
I haven’t been able to post much this week and it’s breaking my heart but if you lived in Ottawa (or Ontario for that matter) you’d know – the heat’s a big detractor. I seem to have this bad habit of putting my computer systems in the hotest possible location of my house. In Toronto […]
This photo is pretty heavily processed, so it won’t be for everyone, but I wanted to get a feel for this Photoshop plugin I had heard about a while ago called Topaz Ajust. It can give your images that boosted, ultra-saturated, look that’s all the rage with the kids these days (I also, often, find […]
People who don’t know me look at me pretty oddly when I’m crouched on the ground, sticking my camera as close to the base of a tree as I can, different angles, review, adjust. Luckily when I found these guys the people who came around DID know me – thanks for not thinking I’m a […]
It’s hard to resist the temptation of budding flowers when you’re taking photos. Even when, typically, you pass over the shots of petals and stems you typically see online. But here we are, with 3 photos this week, all with flowers. Thankfully – you can stick around only as long as you like 😉 Special […]
I’m completely looking forward to this summer. I’ve got a lot of great new photographic toys tools that’ll help me get some unique shots that, I hope, will be good too. I’m likely to make many more mistakes than I am to make portfolio pieces, but I’m going to have a blast making every screwed […]
Last week was busy, for me, this week is far, far busier. With no sign of slowin’ down. Sorry for the lack of posts kids – TTYL.
Yesterday’s rejects = today’s post! Shot with a Lensbaby 3G on the Younes Bounhar 2009 Fall workshop. With the Canon 1DMKII still in the shop, and the temperatures hovering around -30 degrees, I’ve been trying different lighting setups at home using the G11. MANY of these images are either shots I think are cute (of […]
Is it Christmas yet? I should probably take a slightly out of focus photo of a Christmas tree and it’s lights. It’s contrived and cliché but dammit, what isn’t this time of year!? On another note, it’s one of my favourite Humanitarian Photographers birthday today – go over to his blog and wish him a […]
I’ve reluctantly joined Flickr as it does seem to be a repository of photographs of which I believe I should be associated. It’s also a community of like-minded people whom I would also like to associate myself with. One complaint I do have of, what seems to be the norm, is that praise is heaped […]
An informal poll, if you’ll humour me, when you come and visit this site, and I know that you do – Mom – Are you coming here to read what I write at all? Because I realized I don’t really have a mode, or a goal in mind when I sit down. Sometimes I write […]
I think I’ve already taken more photos with the G11 than I ever had with the LX3. The G11 is a working photogs camera, LX3… for pretty-boys. Granted, I have been a bit more happy with the abstracts I’ve gotten than anything else… but it’s so grey and dull outside I find it hard to […]
Plans change – fast. This was supposed to be a catch-up time (financially) where I paid off that line of credit that allowed me to indulge myself and my family in luxurious and L-glass. Well, here’s an argument for always having a reserve: washer and dryer broke down SIMULTANEOUSLY. The plus is stores give great […]
A downwards pan shot with the G11. I think the thing about new gear, for most photographers, isn’t the need to have it to get the shot they’ve always wanted, but the “new gear” feeling you get where all your creative options are wide open to you. That’s what’s great about a point and shoot […]
Haven’t posted (or done) an HDR in a while, this one seemed alright. I especially liked that I processed it through plugins only – Photomatix, Lightroom, and ColourEfex Pro… no Photoshop. This week I was supposed to get an iPhone. I had been wanting one for a while as the “photographers” phone of choice. Big […]
Got a call from Younes this week, “wanna go shoot a sunrise?” Wake up at 5 AM, sub zero temps at the faint hope (failed hope) of getting one of those truly memorable mornings? What else was I going to do – Sleep? The man’s a talent, visionary really, he gets sickly excited when he […]
Processed this sucker in the Lightroom 3 Beta, which I’m liking okay, but being a beta it’s got ups and downs. using the new tech is a definite plus, seen in this image, I’m using the new crop vignette effect and I’m liking it about a million times more than the LR2 post crop vignette; […]
Taken at Dow’s Lake, this is a 5 image vertical pano taken with the Canon new 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS lens. The reason for the pano is simple, at a fixed 100mm I couldn’t get a clear shot of this tree without including lots of other trees and distracting foreground elements. So I got in […]
This’ll probably be my last post from the fall workshop, maybe not my last from Fall, but that weekend is SOOOOO over now.
So I got a new toy today. The Canon 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS, sold my regular Canon 100mm f/2.8 Macro in favour of adding an “IS” and “L” for about twice the price: Lucky me. One of the benefits of this Macro, aside from the IS which is supposed to give stabilization up to 4 […]
I’ll let the mood of the scene speak for this one. Except what I just wrote. And that too.
I am TERRIBLE at coming up with names for my more abstract images, good thing there are musical artists out there with a more inspired vernacular. This was a slight downward pan shot, hand-held I think since my tripod wouldn’t ease my camera down straight.
