Architectural & Interior Design Photography, Corporate Commercial Photography, Advertising & Portrait Photographer | Ottawa | 613-558-7585 | justin.vanleeuwen@gmail.com
Sometimes you take on some commercial photography work just because it’s fun. I was approached by the Rideau Valley Roller Girls to do one of the pages of their fundraising calendar. It was the new girls in the league photo, and befitting the “Fresh Meat” they are, the location of a local butcher was used. A challenge for me was that this location was used for the same sort of group photo last year. The space not being too large, it’s hard to fit a group of people in many other ways than they had been before. Of course, this was my “safety” since it was a no-brainer to pull off.
I had the idea to shoot “through” the meat before I showed up, it was the only other vantage, but I didn’t feel comfortable asking the butcher until we had been there a while. It’s important to build a quick relationship with your subjects, or people who have a stake in the photo (like the owner of the business where you’re shooting) but to be careful not to push your boundaries so far that it’ll reflect poorly on yourself or the client you’re shooting for. In this case, he said “Do whatever you want” so I was able to get the shot above. It, in itself, isn’t perfect but for me it’s different enough that I’m happy I was able to put a bit of an extra spin on the RVR’s shoot.