Architectural & Interior Design Photography, Corporate Commercial Photography, Advertising & Portrait Photographer | Ottawa | 613-558-7585 | justin.vanleeuwen@gmail.com
In a world of potrable strobes, pocket wizards, and flash power units, the AA battery is, for me, the food that my gadgets feed on. 4 speedlights, 2 auxilary packs, & 4 PW’s means I bring at least 40 Double-A batteries with me for every shoot, and that’s just in the clip. Of course you […]
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 […]
I spent the latter half of last week 2nd shooting & assisting a wedding with Brennan (pictured) at Miller Lash house in Toronto, so I didn’t have a lot of my own work to show off. Of course I compromised by just photographing the photographer – something *we* don’t get very often. That doesn’t mean […]
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 […]
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 […]
Claudia Petrelli is a Colombian ex-pat who runs a swing-dance studio with her daughter, “Swing Dynamite“. We had known each other via twitter for some time, but never really got together until one of the more social drinking nights in my neighborhood. She had mentioned how much she liked the photos I had done with […]
Strip lights are one of those light mods you don’t need at first. You get by with an umbrella or soft box because, really, you’re just lighting your subjects face or other important foreground details. Then you think “hey, their back is kind of dark” or “how do I light the entire length of their […]
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. […]
Work is good, indeed, it’s how I pay the bills. But it’s tricky to update the blog when the priority, clearly, should be on work (right?). I have some great posts lined up for later this month, some wonderful collaborations that are resulting in some great new imagery. These projects have mostly been commercial in […]
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 […]
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 […]
Another awesome family, another fun extreme portrait. The Buell’s (I’ll refrain from the Ferris jokes) contacted me about creating their own unique family portrait. Unlike Nadine, though, they didn’t have a clear vision of what they wanted – just that they wanted something different than your every-day family portrait. Well that’s what I do, isn’t […]
A few weeks ago I was called, last minute, to do a shoot for a new Ottawa-based media firm Mediastyle. Headed by the much lauded Ian Capstick, I jumped at the opportunity. Ian’s an Ottawa main-stay, and while I certainly cruised the same twitter circles as he, we had never met in person (IRL). While […]
The snow got us, the cold got us, whatever it’s been – everyone in my house has been sick. So I offer to you, not as a reason, but a bona-fide excuse, for not posting a blog post, or much on flickr either (which is where I often post images if I don’t have much […]
Home remedies for kids with colds – Quinn’s sick – though once I put him in front of the camera he sprung to life. Go figure. Setup was pretty straighforward, I mention my setup info on my flickr page. A friend of mine once asked “What are all these .XMP files, and why do I […]
I like the adventure, the thrill, the danger that it brings. I leave myself exposed and open – that’s right – I don’t use a UV filter to protect my lens glass. This is a controversial subject among “#phodo gear-heads, and I’ve read as many good reasons as bad as to the use of a […]
Other way guys… see? I told you I was taking photos of other families. Maybe a bit less “extreme” than maybe some of my previous posts, this was a concept Nadine and I met and discussed. She was pretty clear about what she wanted – which makes it that much easier for me – it […]
My inspiration of this series is Jason Lee, or “jwlphotography” on Flickr. I first heard of him when the Strobist blog featured his work – doing amazing setups with his two little girls – I’ve been hooked ever since. His own work has taken a bit of a departure from the surreal and comical – […]
Since starting my SAHD series I’ve received loads of positive feedback, in the form of direct image views on Flickr, and being approached by clients and families to photograph their own “Extreme” family portrait. I’m grateful for all the attention, it certainly helps boost my ego on these dark winter days. I took a break […]
A challenge with these composite images is that it’s hard enough to just keep your kids still, and if they start moving things around they can really mess up your shot. The more elements you incorporate into the frame, the more chances you have of something screwing up. Also, if they decide to move your […]
Before the new year, I wrote about my favourite portable softboxes to use with speedlights, and promised a follow-up post on my favourite flash-triggers. This is not that post. What I will talk about is ONE trigger that I’ve been using with increased frequency: FlashZebra’s 16 foot TTL cord. This thing gives me a 8x […]
