We had so much fun with our summer photo contest on Facebook and we hope you did too. We’re bringing it back now for a Halloween Photo Contest! Send us your cutest costumes and scariest pictures. Kids, pets, families, even photo art of creepy places like abandoned buildings or cemeteries… Show us your creative side.

Accepting submissions from now until Sunday October 25 at Midnight. It is very important that you follow all of the instructions for submissions or your entry may not be accepted.

• Each entrant may submit only ONE (1) image
• Image must be in .JPG format
• Image should be of good resolution, but no more than 5MB in size
• Only images received through 11:59 pm CST October 25, 2009 will be considered.

Instructions

Email images to info@canvaspress.com with the subject line ”Photo Contest.” Include your name, phone number and a title or caption for the image.

You will receive a confirmation email within 12-16 hours of receipt that your photo has been entered. If you do not receive an email your attachment may not have been received, please try again or contact us for help.

If the winning canvas does not fit as a 16×20 gallery wrap, a canvas of equal or lesser value may be substituted.

The winner will be contacted immediately upon the contest closing time. If the prize is not claimed within 14 days, it will be given to the image with the next highest number of votes.

Starting Monday morning, October 26 the entries will be posted in a gallery on our Facebook Fan Page for voting through Sunday, November 1. The winner will be the image with the most “likes” and that lucky photographer will win a 16×20 canvas gallery wrap of the photo!

In order to vote for an image you must become a fan of Canvas Press on our Facebook page to interact with the photo galleries and tag, comment on or “like” images.

When you’re planning a pet photo for printing on canvas, you’re going to want to make it a special photo. Standard portraits of your dog sitting or even striking a show ring pose will certainly emphasize your dog’s beauty and are a great choice. For many dog owners, though, it’s their pooches personalities that they really want to shine through in a portrait, and less formal poses might be more appropriate for that. Something that can really add to a great portrait of your dog is a costume.

That may sound odd at first, but one of the many joys of having dogs is the fact that they will generally allow you to dress them up in silly costumes. Also, unlike many other pets, e.g. cats, rabbits, and iguanas, to name only a few, dogs actually seem to enjoy playing dress up. Well, some of them enjoy it. Some dogs just put up with it because they know it makes us happy, which is yet another wonderful thing about the canine species. In any case, dogs and costumes just seem to go together the same way kids and costumes do, and when you think of kids and costumes, it’s only natural to think of Halloween.

A Halloween portrait of your dog is a great choice for printing to canvas. If you have children, you can get them in on the act as well, but it’s fine even if your pup is your only ‘kid’. Pictures of dogs in Halloween costumes are almost as common as those of costumed children and a lot of work and creativity can go into these. My friend Bonnie had a Cairn terrier, and what costume idea could be better for a Cairn terrier than Dorothy from ‘The Wizard of Oz’? Bonnie even made her pup tiny red-sequined ‘ruby slippers’ for her paws. ‘Dorothy’ looked kind of lonely, though, so she asked a couple of other dog-owning friends over and before long, ‘Dorothy’ had been joined by a Chow mix ‘Cowardly Lion’, an Airedale ‘Tin Man’ in aluminum foil leggings and a funnel cap, a friendly mutt of a ‘Scarecrow’ and one pug in a Flying Monkey outfit. Once they got everyone settled down, it made a delightful – and very funny – picture. Definitely something worth going up on a wall.

Dog costumes are all the rage and can be bought at most pet stores. Clown costumes are always a hit, especially since most dogs are natural comics, and it’s rare not to see at least one English Bulldog in a pink tutu for Halloween. While you can spend a lot of money on the perfect dog costume, if you’re the least bit creative you can make your own. Ingenuity and a great idea can go a long way in costuming. Witness the Dalmatian I saw at a Halloween dog parade whose owner had turned her into a milk cow with a set of cardboard horns and an ‘udder’ made of pink balloons. One the other end of the scale was a five year old girl in riding togs – jodphurs, boots and jacket, the whole works – leading her ‘steed’: a spotted Great Dane in a saddle and bridle. Now that, I thought, would have made a perfect send-up of the classic ‘equestrian portrait’.

Planning a Halloween portrait of your dog is great fun. If your pooch is on board with wearing a costume, you’re only limited by your imagination. While we can’t dress up your dog for you, if you need help with ideas for your project just call us at (888) 784-5553 or email us from our website www.canvaspress.com and we’ll be glad to help.

-Karen

Name: Wesley

Job:Sales

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…

Name: Cassie

Job: Online Marketing

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  6^th 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.

Name: Caroline

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