Architectural & Interior Design Photography, Corporate Commercial Photography, Advertising & Portrait Photographer | Ottawa | 613-558-7585 | justin.vanleeuwen@gmail.com
A few portraits today. Typically, the new year starts of pretty slow for me, my clients rub off their hungover weary holiday eyes, realize they’ve spent all their money on egg-nog and iPads and need to hold off a bit until February to start booking me again. Thankfully, the Kitchissippi Times wanted the first issue of the new year to have some great cover options so they called me in to cover two potential candidates.
The shoot was for the “Human Library Project” which takes a number of individuals, from varied backgrounds and experiences and lets people come in and “book” them for 20 minutes. Not a bad idea, if you want to know what a CBC reporter goes through during his day, or if you’re interested in one of Ottawa’s most outspoken drag-queen’s… some really interesting stuff to glean off them I’d think.
We only had about 10 minutes with Giacomo Panico, reporter for CBC Radio, first thing in the morning, it was about -26C… I really wouldn’t have wanted more than 10 minutes anyway since, after a bit of setup, my hands were pretty-much frozen. We also didn’t have access to the library that early, which meant limited contextual background options. That’s the Ottawa Public Library sign behind him there, but that’s about it. You can see his eyelashes frosting up from his bike-ride that morning.
Zelda had an evening availability, so we were able to invade my small local library as a backdrop. I originally tried some shots in the stacks, but with books jetting out and the only option of booming a softbox over the bookshelves it just didn’t have the “look” I had envisioned. While my editor sat with Zelda, though, I framed her up with a simple wall of books behind. Library + Zelda = human book project. Simple enough yah? You can check out this edition of the KT here.