Aaron Leitz Photography

Below are some of my favorite photographs of Joule – the other fabulous restaurant in The Fremont Collective. Unlike the photos of The Whale Wins, most of the evening photographs of Joule were shot on a tripod as it was just too dark to get the kind of shots I wanted handheld.

Here are some images of the new remodel project at the 5th Avenue Red Lion Hotel in downtown Seattle that we photographed a few weeks ago, including its brand new tricked out fun-n-games restaurant/bar “Frolik.”

I’ve been spending a couple of days over the past few weeks photographing the Fremont Collective – another awesome project developed by the gentlemen at Evolution Projects.

Much like the Kolstrand Building I photographed a while back, the Fremont Collective used to be an old vacant eyesore of a warehouse. Now it’s home to Evo, a rad ski/snowboard shop, and two amazing restaurants – The Whale Wins and Joule.

For the restaurant spaces, the architect (Heliotrope Architects) and the contractor (Dovetail GC) wanted strong architectural photographs but also wanted to capture the vibe and feel of the spaces when filled with people. So we decided to photograph during regular dining hours with real patrons. All the images were taken handheld so that I could move quickly and stay as inconspicuous as possible – no tripod or additional lighting was used. The challenge was to capture the employees and patrons as they interacted and moved around the space while still paying close attention to the architectural elements and overall composition of the photograph – as I had to get everything right in a single exposure.

Here are a few photographs of The Whale Wins:

This photo shoot for Ditroen and Umpqua Bank was certainly an adventure. As soon as I arrived I started feeling a bit queasy, which was strange because the new Umpqua Bank store is a wonderful and relaxing space. We managed to get one photograph before I was hit with full-on food poisoning. After a day spent at the hotel wallowing in misery I rallied and we got some great shots. Maybe “adventure” wasn’t the right word to use….