Architectural & Interior Design Photography, Corporate Commercial Photography, Advertising & Portrait Photographer | Ottawa | 613-558-7585 | justin.vanleeuwen@gmail.com
Many of you know me as an International superstar photographer, though those of you who have known me the longest are privy to the gentler, less glamourous role that I play. Tuesday marked a new start for me and Mel, of sorts. She’s gone back to work after 3 years off raising our kids (and, […]
Just because getting cold means you have to bundle up, it doesn’t mean you can’t have some fun photo’s taken of you. Caroline & Al contacted me to do some rush portraits for them as gifts to their parents for the holidays (of course your family wants awesome photos taken of you!). Now I had […]
There are few things you can purchase that will improve your photography. Indeed, the only way I’ve seen people get better is through practice (or riduculous intuition and artistic ability – but we don’t like those people). 10,000 photos, or 10,000 hours; either way, it’s gonna take you time, trial, and error. But if there’s […]
It’s a rare treat that Mel actually lets me take her photo. I’ve broken the rules of privacy and sharing far too much in my household to brave “sneaking” one in again. Thankfully I told her my idea beforehand, and her overwhelming love of Christmas, and the Christmas lights that I bought her obviously took […]
Hey folks! A quick check-in on the blog here, I’m still alive, I’ve just been spending some quality time with my family. Alex has hit that doing-everything-at-once stage. He’s been crawling for a few months now, but he’s decided to simultaneously tackle stair climbing (already a mountaineer) and the moments before taking his first steps… […]
Maybe it’s not technical properties what make a compelling image.I love this shot, it’s grainy, blown out in both directions. But that leap Erin is taking into Will’s arms – it sums up their whole experience for me – joyous and trusting, it’s what a marriage should be.
Here’s my photo of the head table – look at it, I know some things stand out to you, then think about them – I want to hear your thoughts. See, I spent quite some time editing this image, or four images actually. It’s a composite of 3 groups, plus 1 for the background. The […]
It’s been a busy week. Back-to-back events have meant an overload of images on my computer; it’s a good thing I had recently revised my workflow in order to get through them that much faster. I use Lightroom as my photo processing/cataloguing/kewording program of choice. I do about 90% of all my work there. I […]
Erin & Will – congratulations on gettin’ murried. I had the absolute pleasure of photographing Erin & Will’s wedding this weekend. Despite all location scouting going to shit (it rained… then snowed!) I had planned some indoor contingencies and packed some big lights to take good portraits. This one, though, was a bit simpler. I […]
While living in Ottawa is pretty standard fare for a “major” city, we are fortunate to be very close to some lovely greenspace… or this time of year, orange and yellow space. The fam and I took a quick expedition to Gatineau Park last weekend to enjoy the last of the fall weather. Of course […]
Long delay from my last post, appologies, I wanted y’all to soak that one in. Prices on the canvases will go up on the 25th, they’ll have to, the event is gonna cost me some $$… so if you’re in town you might as well show up to it too. Despite jonesing to take some […]
Family portrait taken in Ottawa. I hadn’t used much rim/separation lighting in the past (the light behind them), and as such I’m laying it on a bit thick on my shots right now. Like most things, it’ll take some practice to finesse it into something a bit more natural and subtle. I have a different […]
I was very fortunate to be a part of Jennifer & Tyler’s wedding this past Saturday. Timing was an issue for us getting together – basically a tweet went out two weeks ago saying someone was looking for a wedding photographer – yours truly answered the call (…tweet). I had one chance to meet with […]
This portrait session came up fast. Got a DM the night before via Twitter with Don at the Cube asking me “HOW” to take a good photo of John Koensgen, who is working on a play due out in October. I asked him what he was shooting with, told me an old Olympus point & […]
These are the best two portraits I could get out of my kids after a solid day of trying. I wanted to try a few different lighting setups and, for lack of subjects, I try to stick my kids in front of the lens. Problem there is that the eldest is more interested in the […]
We had ourselves another Photojam this past weekend. More folks showed up and lots of more fun was had [read: more booze consumed]. Same location, alley beside my house, it’s easier to keep an eye on the kids when they’re running around you. It’s a great way to shoot, experiment, drink, hang out with friends […]
When Mel and I first moved into the Hintonburg area in Ottawa, we only had a few restaurants that we knew about beforehand. With a preemie in the hospital, we were really always looking for comfort food – the familiar. That said, there wasn’t much variance in what we ate, and one of the places […]
Stardom! What a fan-freakin-tastic last name. These guys were awesomesauce times a million. I showed up on time but Leo (the little guy) didn’t feel like wakin’ up – probably because he had a rough go of the party the night before – so that dude slept for, like, AN HOUR! No problem though, because […]
I used to be able to go back into photo’s I took months ago as an “archive dive” for posts on this blog. Now they just don’t cut it. It’s actually kind of depressing – a lot of the images I shoot are personal, either for me or my clients, so I can’t very well […]
I’ve been ripping off inspired by a friends photos this week – or at least the few I took over the weekend of my kids – it was one of the few we didn’t have plans and one I wasn’t shooting/processing a wedding. Check out Angela’s Flickr stream when you get a chance for some […]
Sorry I’ve been quiet on this blog lately, but as you can see from the photo, I’ve been working feverishly on editing images from Tara & Tony’s wedding. We’re putting together a really great wedding album for them, though I’ve often used some standard book providers in the past, I wanted to up the scale […]
I have lots of favourite shots that came out of the wedding, but this one’s a really great photo of the bride. She loves trees, plants, and earth, so despite the wedding being at a yacht club, we were able to find some greenery for her to hug up close to. Tomorrow is the 3rd […]
Quinn saw buzz light year and HAD to have them. Proud he picked out his own shoes, kinda lame they’re crocs though.
Another snapshot from Erinn’s wedding. One thing I’ll have to keep an eye out on, for my own couples, when shooting weddings I’m paid there to do, is going to be to take a small amount of time away from the safety shots – the gimme’s. What I need to do is get the portrait, […]
