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Summer is in full swing, and most of you by now are snapping away on your mobile devices. At Canvas Press, we like to think it’s one’s duty to document life with photography. Most of us now have mobile phones. In many ways, it’s become far more convenient to take a picture with your phone instead of your point and shoot camera. Plus with social media like Facebook and Twitter, many of us are spreading our summer-loving photos all over the internet, sharing them with family and friends instantly. But with all the mobile apps out there, which one should you choose?

Enter Instagram. A fun-loving, easy way to snap photos, apply cool effects, and see images of other people you follow. Plus, you can geotag your images as well as post them to Facebook, Twitter, and other social media sites. All from within one cool photo app. 

For those of you who are social media savvy, Instagram offers an entire online community of photo enthusiasts who can view your photo stream, as well as “Like” and comment on your images.

If you’re familiar with Twitter, then you’ll feel right at home using mentions and hashtags from right inside the app, allowing you to tag people in your images or categorize them. There’s even a stream for popular photos, allowing you to browse some of the most interesting and inspiring images created by other Instagram users.

And the best part about Instagram is that it’s free! Yup, you heard right. It doesn’t cost a dime. The only shortcoming is that currently it’s only available for the iPhone. But there are rumors that an Android version might be in the works.

Customers of ours are already sending in their Instagram photos to create square Gallery Wraps of their favorite candid moments. Everything from snapshots of friends to cool vacation photos.

What better way to document your summer than by snapping away and sharing your retro candid photos than with Instagram?

Do you have any Instagram photos you would like to share? Post the link to it in the comments section below along with the title of your image. Happy Summer!

You can follow us on Instagram by searching for username “canvaspress”. Here are some of our favorite Instagram photos:

Father’s Day is what some of us would refer to as the followup holiday for Mother’s Day. However, at Canvas Press, we like to look at it as a day to celebrate everything different from Mother’s Day.

Instead of celebrating baking cookies, or flowers, or making lovely greeting cards, Father’s Day is a day to celebrate cookouts, fishing, and doing absolutely nothing. Who else is better at shrugging off doing the laundry? Or who is usually guilty for eating the last Girl Scout cookie but still placing the empty cookie box back in the pantry? Or better yet, dads are the best at acting like they had no idea the family dog had an accident in the living room carpet in order to avoid cleaning up the mess.

But before we dump on Dad for his supposed shortcomings when it comes to housework, his fatherly qualities outshine all else. Who’s better at teaching you how to clean out the exhaust port on a Lawn-Boy mower? Dad. Who’s always the first to vanquish even the ugliest of spiders? Dad. And who can develop some of the most unorthodox uses for duct tape? Dad.

So, for this Father’s Day, we challenge you to go beyond the safe zone of getting Dad a new tie. Forget the golf supplies and tacky shirts. Get Dad something that is just for him, maybe even something that Mom would never approve of hanging on the wall. Whether it’s a Gallery Wrap canvas of his favorite longhorn bull, or an Alumiprint of his latest hotrod addiction, Dad deserves a gift that makes him smile every time he walks past it in the man cave.

Dads, this one’s for you. From all of us at Canvas Press, we appreciate all the dads out there keeping it real. Happy Father’s Day!

*photo credit above: courtesy of Dustin Meyer

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Canvas Press recently did a project of large scale canvases with float frames for Lanx, a medical device company out of Colorado that designs spinal implants. They sent in dozens of beautiful wildlife shots to spruce up their blank new walls, and they knew that photos on canvas in float frames was just the look they wanted.

Executive Assistant Renee Bohlen, in charge of the project, shared the details with us. “We recently consolidated our offices into one space and had no art on the walls.  The office was drab and was bringing the office morale down.  As we are a Colorado company, management had the idea of employees submitting their own Colorado nature themed photos.  We picked the favorites and had them enlarged and framed to decorate the walls…

The colors really livened up the office and people are excited to have their pictures displayed.  We plan to do another round of photo submissions to fill in some of the remaining empty spaces. Our thought is down the road we will auction off some of the favorite pieces, donate the money to charity and then replace them with new submitted photos.  This was a very successful and meaningful project for the employees.”

Soon they’ll post name plates next to each piece that explain who took the picture, where it was and the title of the piece named by the photographer. This gives the employees a great sense of participation and recognition by their company. The skill and quality of the photographs are professional-grade. As an artform, photography is very technical (when you want it to be) and we’ve seen many customers who work in hi-tech industries that take amazing photos and really bring their creative side out by printing with us. It is great to see a company rewarding employees for their talent, Lanx sounds like a wonderful place to work!

If you have an office with boring, empty walls share this idea with your management and give us a call. Canvas Press can help you create a positive working environment that allows everyone to participate by printing their photos on canvas.

A customer of Canvas Press, John from Florida had a great idea for custom art in his home and sent us his story along with before and after photos of his canvas project.

It has been a pleasure working with you this first time, and I expect to continue.  The outcome is substantially better than I expected. A little background: Last year, we remodeled our family room, leaving a space above the fireplace for a painting up to 32 x 42 inches, with a plan to find the “right” painting either here in Florida or in Europe on one of our trips.

In June we stayed in Paris with family, visited Monet’s gardens in Giverny, France one rainy Sunday afternoon.  The home is famous for the gardens and water lily ponds, subjects of many of his paintings.  We took several point-and-shoot photos of the grandchildren and gardens, one of which I sent to you for printing on canvas.

The results are spectacular!

John took the original image with a Canon A530 Powershot and modified it with Photoshop to remove some people in the shot and add more details and plants in bloom. He then used a painting software to add brush strokes to the image, creating a true ‘Monet’ feel to his shot of Monet’s garden. We printed it as a canvas gallery wrap with mirror border so that we didn’t have to crop any of the artwork. John added acrylic gel and varnish to the finished canvas once it arrived to enhance the look of a painting and hung it in the spotlight!

Just like the saying goes, if you want something done right you’ve got to do it yourself! John’s search for the perfect painting led him to create his own. If you have a vision of art and just can’t seem to find it, try going out and taking some shots for yourself! It’s okay if you aren’t tech-savvy or don’t have the equipment to do all the enhancements John did on his own. You can let Canvas Press take care of it with our major retouching and OilWorks enhancements.

Canvas Press worked with a marketing firm in Maine to prepare artwork for a new McDonald’s restaurant in Bangor, Maine. The canvases were rushed in time for the grand opening and put just the right finishing touches on the restaurant. The sepia toned photos on canvas showed families, the Ronald McDonald House and historical photos of the restaurant chain. A hint of teal accent divided the collages and was used to create a color border for the sides.

Alison of No. 16 Photography has some unique and creative photography. When she contacted us about doing a large restaurant project we were excited to help and see what amazing shots would be included. Here are a few pictures of the finished results and a testimonial from her, we’d like to thank her very much for the kind words!

I couldn’t be more pleased with Canvas Press’s quality and service!

As a professional photographer, I do an extreme amount of research before committing to a product. Past reviews, incredibly helpful and pleasant customer service, and extraordinary offers and pricing convinced me at once that Canvas Press was the right choice for my photos.

My first order with Canvas Press included three custom sized black and white images. When I received them, I was incredibly happy to see that they were just as the way I had previewed them on the easy-to-use website. When I was contracted to do 33 photo canvases for a restaurant, I knew that Canvas Press could handle it and guarantee the quality I desired. ALL 33 canvases were perfect. Canvas Press’s safe shipping of all 33 canvases was and is unsurpassed.

There is no doubt that I will continue to use Canvas Press for all of my photo canvas needs. The quality of canvas and use of inks is superb. Each canvas that I have ordered is clear, sharp and rich in color. The stretching of the canvas itself on my gallery wrapped projects is just as superior.

I thank you for all your wonderful help and support. Your customer service reps are the best I’ve ever dealt with. The friendly staff is always so very helpful with any and all of my questions and/or concerns.

Thank you again for your wonderful business!

Alison, No. 16 Photography