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Extreme Toronto Portrait Tour 2011

Extreme Toronto Portrait Tour 2011

I mentioned it last week when I showed off Julie’s extreme family portrait session: I am now offering a limited number of portrait sessions in the Toronto area.

Timing is tight, I understand that a lot of you will want images in time for the Holidays (yes, despite best efforts they have, again, come our way).

Available Session Dates:

  • Saturday November 5th Morning
  • Saturday November 5th Afternoon
  • Sunday November 6th Morning

    • 5 3 sessions, about 4 hours each (1 hour for setup). I bring a ridiculous amount of lighting and we take our time to get everything right. Me, my guy Lee, your family looking how they’re meant to look: like themselves.

    I’m going to ask my clients to leave comments on this post to fill in what you don’t see, behind the scenes of an extreme portrait shoot to give you an idea of what *you* will see, and how they feel about the finished product.

    If you’re interested in one of my sessions in Toronto and the surrounds (Burlington, Richmond Hill, Markham etc.), please E-mail me at justin.vanleeuwen AT gmail.com, or give me a call at 613-558-7585. This will be your last chance in 2011!

    Oct 25, 2011 | Categories: Uncategorized | 3 Comments »

    Making Light – a Craft & Vision review

    Making Light - a Craft & Vision review
    This is my first review of a Craft & Vision ebook as an affiliate, though don’t let the potential reward all your purchases made sway you. I have been reading ebooks from this series from the very beginning, and will tell you honestly what I think of them.

    I think it appropriate that my first review be for “Making Light 2: Advanced Use of Off-Camera Flash” by Piet Van Den Eynde. Since I consider myself a bit of a flash guy too; if by nothing more than volume. This is the second book in Mr. Van Den Eynde’s series, and if you’d like to try the first one you’re welcome to pick it up in the store, or even buy the two of them at a hot deal price of $8. The one thing I can consistently say about the C&V books is that you’ll get your money’s worth.

    Mr. Van Den Eynde (may I just call him Piet?), picks up where his first book left off… which I didn’t read actually (but I will, I promise). Piet starts this book talking about something I’ve been working very hard on myself, breaking the sync speed. If you didn’t know your camera had a sync speed or what that means this book already isn’t for you – go back to book one.

    If you’re interested in pushing your flashes beyond just “off camera” Piet takes you through the steps, explaining the relationship of light, aperture, shutter speed, and it’s effects on images, often with basic samples anyone could take (but also incredible images he’s created himself).

    Piet is both a masterful photographer and a skilled teacher. Explaining with ease (at least to me, though I get the lingo) some of the more complex possiblites capable of using multiple flashes. Of note for myself, is using shadow and fill to interplay to create drama and depth in an otherwise two dimensional image.

    His methods vary, but are incredibly affordable given the abyss of gear that photographers know all to well, but maybe that’s why he’s writing for the Craft & Vision series, after all: Gear is good, vision is better. Though, don’t worry, there is a gear section for you to load up your B&H shopping carts. He even brings up my beloved Quadra pack *sigh*.

    Piet’s dance photographs are a joy to look at, and make me consider incorporating more motion into my work – as well as teaching us all how to capture that motion with off-camera flash.

    If you’re new to flash I strongly suggest you pick up the first book or two-pack. But if you have a basis in off-camera flash already (like with your speedlights) than this book is a great way for you to get a few new ideas taking it all to another level.

    You can get “Making Light 2” for $4 until 11:59pm PST October 24th, 2011 by using the coupon code MAKINGLIGHT4. (why not makinglight2?)

    Oct 19, 2011 | Categories: Review | 4 Comments »

    Extreme Family Photographer – Julie Cole’s Family

    Ottawa Extreme Family Photographer JVLphoto - Julie Cole and family

    Social Media is a beautiful thing.

    I can probably attribute 95% of all of my business to twitter, the other 5% are almost direct referrals from friends – which I’ve likely made through twitter – or facebook. Julie Cole is a great example of both fusing together.

    Last year, just about this time, I did a family photoshoot for Katharine Cornfield aka @girlaboutOtown. We had a great time trying to manage logistics of a larger family shoot, location etc, and shared an equal passion for coffee and chatting. We connected again this year just to catch up and it was great… time goes on…

    (more…)

    Oct 17, 2011 | Categories: Extreme Family, Portraits | Tags: , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments »

    Herjavec for iRun

    Herjavec for iRun
    This isn’t new, but I realized I hadn’t put anything up on this blog about my cover-shoot for iRun magazine with Dragon & Shark (Dragon-Shark?) Robert Herjavec.

    The shoot came together pretty quick and while the Brookstreet hotel and Mr. Herjavec were both MORE than accommodating to our needs, for whatever reason, I wasn’t able to pull off the cover shot in the room we had provided for us. Instead we found a blank wall, down by the lobby. I set up a Orange gel’d speedlight to give a blast to the background (maybe a bit hot) and used a mix of ambient from windows behind me & a boomed beauty dish to do the heavy lifting.

    This was my second national magazine cover this year so I’m pretty chuffed about the work and thankful for the editors putting their faith in my work.

    You can also see this image a bit larger over on Flickr.

    Oct 13, 2011 | Categories: Editorial, Portraits | Tags: , , | 2 Comments »

    The View: Ottawa Marriott

    The View: Ottawa Marriott

    Persistence is key, in everything you do.

    I don’t know why I keep having to re-learn this lesson. Anything you want, you can probably get, if you persist at it. It might take hard work, it might take a lot of hustle, but if you’re willing to do more than the other guy, do it longer, and better and keep at it – you’ll probably get what you want.

    In a way, that’s how I ended up on the roof of the Marriott Hotel in Ottawa. You may recall, a few months back, I had the opportunity to photogaph their rennovated restaurant “Spin.” I noted that the building was one of the tallest in Ottawa – so I asked if I could get on top of the roof (not the top floor, but ON the ROOF). It went back & forth a bit but the final answer then was “No.”

    If I had left it at that, well, that’d be it. But I kept poking, every so often, on Twitter… talking about how awesome the sunset would look from the rooftop etc. There’s a fine balance here, I certainly could fall into the “obnxious” category, but apparently it was just a good measure of repetion that caught the attention of another local photographer, Quinn of FTWPhototography, who sweetened the pot with the promise of a large format print. POOF – roof access granted.

    The right level of persistence will often reward you in life, it’s helped me and my friends get dates, free stuff, access, deals…. whatever really. Complacency is, at it’s root, mediocrity. We owe it to ourselves as creatives and photographers to push past being complacent, to be persistently better and work at getting more. Sometimes that takes form as a roof.

    Have you ever been persistent about something and it’s paid off? Or what about the back-fires (I have a few of those myself). Sound-off in the comments!

    You can see another Panorama I shot on the roof, with a bit about “how” on Google+, also, a larger version of this over on Flickr.

    Oct 11, 2011 | Categories: Uncategorized | Tags: , , | 5 Comments »