Christmas and Halloween seem to get the lion’s share of everyone’s holiday decoration budget, but there’s no reason to leave out Thanksgiving, especially when photo to canvas prints make such unique and beautiful decorations.
While the images of Christmas – Santa, reindeer, angels, stars, and evergreen trees – and those of Halloween – jack-o-lanterns, ghosts, witches, and black cats – are quite particular, those associated with Thanksgiving are somewhat less so.Halloween shares its pumpkins with Thanksgiving – though they have generally become pies by then – and Christmas shares its turkey and lavish family dinners.Crisp days, autumn leaves changing color, and football – either participating in friendly family games, or watching the pros on TV – are things we associate with both Thanksgiving and the fall season.The only things that Thanksgiving doesn’t seem to share with the rest of the season are the images of our pilgrim forefathers.
With so many possibilities, Thanksgiving really should get more decorative attention.Thanksgiving reminds us of family, friends, and food, and the memories that combination can make also serve as great ideas.A few examples:
Norman Rockwell’s ‘Thanksgiving’ painting of the family seated at the table in the foreground as the grandmother presents the golden turkey and the grandfather prepares to lead grace is a true American icon.Why not re-enact the painting with your own family?A white table cloth, an oven-roasted turkey, and enough people are all you need.A photograph like that would be not only a one of a kind Thanksgiving decoration but a treasured family photograph.
Another family picture idea: dress up as pilgrims.Costumes are available or easy to make if you’re a bit crafty with a sewing machine and a glue gun.It’s something that will make a great memory year after year.
Football season – and football weather – is another great idea to explore.Some families play touch football before Thanksgiving dinner – to work up an appetite – or afterward – to work off the pumpkin pie.A photo of your family scrambling around in the fall leaves would make a beautiful printed canvas; even better if you have family team jerseys.If your clan is more the ‘weekend warrior’ and ‘armchair quarterback’ type, snap of shot of everyone on the couch in the living room watching the game.
Once you have the digital photos you want to transfer to canvas, send them to Canvas Press and we’ll take care of it from there.Your holiday printed canvases will be not only beautiful, but durable and easy to care for.Gallery wrapped canvases need no frame, so there is no glass that might break while hanging or storing.While the quality of your printed canvas will be such that you may want to display it all year, if you do want to use it just for seasonal decoration, just keep it in a cool, dry place where it’s safe from moisture.When you bring it out for the holidays, your stretched canvas will need only a light dusting – if that – and it’s ready to hang.
If you want to know more or get some guidance on a project, visit www.canvaspress.com and let us show you how Canvas Press can make your holidays brighter.Email us at the website or call (888) 784-5553 and we’ll be glad to help.
Experience: Engineering and Manufacturing Management, Technical Sales
Favorite Canvas Press Order: Black and White of my son, Logan
Funniest on-the-job Story: Shortly after leaving Freescale, I went to have lunch with an old friend at Whole Foods. After discussing my new opportunity with Canvas Press, suddenly Kristin and I were being paraded through the Whole Foods offices downtown, and we were introduced to some folks working on the office décor. My first sales call happened before I actually started working the new job!
Favorite Color:Bright Yellow!
Dream Vacation: Fishing and camping deep in the Alaskan wilderness. With a guide.
Pets: Gus, adorable dog and faithful friend to Logan and Skye. Siamese cats Toby and Phoebe.
Music: Shinedown and 30 Seconds to Mars
Reads: Favorite book is Gates of Fire by Steven Pressfield. More recently Outliers by Malcom Gladwell was fascinating.
Last Movie Watched: Gran Torino – funny and a bit sad, but definitely worth watching
Guilty Pleasure: Sharing a bottle of wine and cooking a big meal!
On a Saturday I can be found: Playing tennis, running, and then undoing it all with a plate of wings at Plucker’s!
2009 Resolution: Try a new career outside of Freescale! And lose 20 pounds. Doing great on the first resolution – going backwards on the latter…
Experience: M.A. Advertising The University of Texas at Austin
Favorite Canvas Press Order: The 50+ piece order we did for UT, of course. Hook ‘Em
Funniest on-the-job Story: I vote Caroline’s story.
Favorite Color: Olive Green
Dream Vacation: Dubai & Japan as well as the Victoria Albert Museum in England. My minor is the history of fashion so any costume museum will do.
Pets: My boxer Mabel Rose
Music: Elton John
Reads: Click, The Social Network Business Plan: 18 Strategies That Will Create Great Wealth
Last Movie You Watched: The Reader – Kate Winslet is AMAZING. The moral implications presented in the film are hard to get out of your head. I am still thinking about it.
Guilty Pleasure: All things B Spears, celeb gossip sites, romance novels
On a Saturday, I can be found: landscaping my backyard
2009 Resolution: To see how long I could go without buying clothes. I lasted 2.5 months until I needed sweaters for an Angel Fire, NM ski trip.
Canvas Press recently completed a 53 piece order for The McCombs School of Business MBA Program Office at The University of Texas at Austin. The prints ranged in size from 16″x12″ to 63″x48″ and revolved around 6 themes.
On-Campus Architecture Austin-based photographer Blake Justice chose Gallery Wrapped - Colored Border canvases to display his staircase, door and hardware images. He achieved a matted look for his prints by leaving extra white space on the front of the prints. The black border on the canvas sides complemented the thin black outline framing each of his photos.
Iconic Austin Landmarks 6th Street, Austin City Limits, the downtown skyline, the Katz’s Deli Cadillac, the Lone Star bus at the Broken Spoke, and Fran of Fran’s Hamburgers are a few subjects displayed in this series. It seems there is never a shortage of quirky subjects on the streets of this capital city.
Prominent Alumni Cheetos Brand Manager Marisa Jarrat and Whole Foods National Marketing Director Heather Kennedy are two alumni whose name, position, company and graduation date are featured on the alumni wall in the main reception area.
Faculty “CEOs don’t make, sell, or service anything. Their primary job is to create a culture in which all of those things are done well.” – Management professor James W. Fredrickson
Texas Wildlife Landscapes across Texas and, yes, lots of cacti. Ouch!
Students’ School-related International Travel Students travel to the Great Wall, Chile, Delhi, the Kremlin and Athens through McCombs School classes.
A local courier delivered this large order to the home of the longhorns and installation was done with the aid of a professional framer. Security hangers were used for several of these prints. These hangers are useful for heavily trafficked spaces such as schools and hotels. Security hangers are available upon request.
While I personally bleed burnt orange, as a company we do not discriminate amongst institutions of higher learning and would love to help your school fill its empty walls.
Job: Operations – I handle the day-to-day business, customer service, image formatting & printing, sometimes even a little shipping.
Experience: I have a degree in photography from St. Edwards University. I’ve worked as an assistant for several wedding & portrait photographers in Austin. Now I own my own photography business.
Favorite Canvas Press Order: There is a woman who travels the world with her husband. They always take a cute photo together in front of something iconic where they are. She then has them printed in black and white with red text saying the place and year. She’s ordered at least 10 canvases so far in varying sizes. I can only imagine how neat they all look together and I can’t wait for the next order to see where they have been!
Funniest on-the-job Story: I was the last one out and closing the shop by myself. I went to shut the loading dock door which is suspended about 20 feed in the air. I reached for the rope but it was not there. I looked up and it was neatly wrappe din a loop on the latch – also 20 feet in the air. I’m 5′3″….. looking at even our tallest ladder makes me uneasy. After moments of wondering what on earth I was going to do I called Renee – to chastise her for her superwoman strength – she had flung the door and rope so high. After a good laugh she told me to use one of the long stretcher bars to knock the rope down. Fortunately it worked!!!
Favorite Color: Green
Dream Vacation: Around the world trip/cruise – I’d like to see every continent, of course photographing it all.
Pets: An orange tabby cat, Rudy
Music: I am a huge Bon Jovi fan. I almost died when we got an order for 55 canvases of the band.
Reads: Why couldn’t I answer this a few months ago when I was reading something intellectual like Garcia-Marquez? Now I’m into James Patterson, one of the Women’s Murder Club books.
Last Movie You Watched: W. I finally got around to seeing it and really enjoyed it. Not too negative, not too positive – pretty good job Olive Stone.
Guilty Pleasure: Crime dramas – I could spend a whole day watching Law & Order, NCIS, Bones, etc.
On a Saturday, I can be found: vegging out
2009 Resolution: The clichés – lose weight, get in shape, get organized
One of you recently posted a comment on our blog asking,
Is there any way I can save pictures taken out of focus on my d60 Nikon?
Those nifty crime shows have led us to believe any blurry image can be made sharp with the right computer software. While this is not true, you can use Adobe Photoshop to add a small amount of sharpening.
Filter< Sharpen< Unsharpen Mask
Sharpening more than 150% at a radius of 1 will cause your images to look grainy and computer generated.
Tips for Preventing Blurry Snapshots
The lens on Single Lens Reflex (SLR) cameras should be set to auto instead of manual focus.
Take multiple shots. 9 times out of 10 you will have one print that is not blurry in the bunch.
Find a source of stabilization such as a tripod or fence.
Take a step back. It is hard for your camera to focus if you are extremely close to the subject.
Point-and-shoot cameras usually have face detection software therefore you do not need to adjust your camera settings.
When using an SLR try manually selecting your focal point. This allows you to control your focus.
Storage ideas to organize your digital and print images and negatives so they will last a lifetime.
Since digital photography has only become popular within the last decade, you probably have boxes of old prints and negatives shoved in the back of a closet somewhere. You also may have a lot of camera equipment if you are a hobby photographer, and maybe you have even started collecting some antique or unique cameras and photo gear.
We’ve talked before about photo organization, as it pertains to organizing your digital files on the computer. Now that it is the beginning of a new year, let’s talk about organizing the rest of your life as it pertains to photography. (more…)
Built with style, the new Apple iPhone is a very functional device. I recently purchased the new phone and I’ve been excited daily to keep playing with it. There are a few quirks with the iPhone, but overall I’m impressed and I can’t wait to see what the next generation iPhone will bring.
One of the features of the new iPhone is that like most other mobile phones today, it has a built-in camera for those of us that can’t live without a camera. The camera is not the best camera found on mobile devices; however, I was surprised to discover that you can create a quality image from the iPhone to have printed as a canvas, so let’s get into the details. (more…)
If you are like me and capture digital pictures in almost every circumstance, the frustration of organizing all of these has crossed your mind once or twice. Two common options are (1) installing software on your computer to help keep track or (2) uploading all your pictures to an Internet site like Flickr. With the first option, the software to organize your pictures is likely to require you to open its user interface (i.e. application) to manage your pictures, and you will be responsible for transferring this application to another computer when you upgrade. With the Internet upload option, which I partially use, the idea of having all your pictures labeled, grouped, and constantly backed up does have its advantages; however, I’m not a big fan of uploading every picture I’ve ever taken out on the Internet. (Call me old-fashioned.) In both cases, there’s likely to be a license or subscription to purchase. (more…)
One of the features of the new iPhone is that like most other mobile phones today, it has a built-in camera for those of us that can’t live without a camera. The camera is not the best camera found on mobile devices; however, I was surprised to discover that you can create a quality image from the iPhone to have printed as a canvas, so let’s get into the details.