Continuing our series on Holiday pictures and decorations…

If you’re planning a pet portrait, especially one to be printed on canvas, incorporating a seasonal theme is a great way to add color and interest.  With the fall and winter holidays approaching, Christmas might be the first theme that comes to mind, but don’t ignore the other holidays of the season.  More and more, people are appreciating Thanksgiving as a holiday that has all of the food and togetherness of Christmas, but almost none of the stress.  Thanksgiving is a perfect day for doing nothing but eating, napping and playing, so it stands to reason it would make a perfect theme for a photo portrait of your cat.  While dogs might give cats a run for their money in the eating and playing department, when it comes to napping, kitties are the hands-down champions.

While you might be tempted to dress Rover up in a black pilgrim’s hat and musket for a Thanksgiving portrait, it’s an urge you should resist with Fluffy.  Cats have a natural dignity that is foreign to most dogs, and, unlike them, tend to be insulted when you try to adorn them with silly hats.  Though where Thanksgiving is concerned, I should probably note that this ‘natural dignity’ will fly completely out the window should you leave the half-eaten carcass of your turkey out in an accessible area.  I distinctly remember one Thanksgiving where my Uncle Ronald’s cat, Oliver, ate his way inside an unattended turkey and was discovered trapped beneath the wishbone when my cousins went to the kitchen for a sandwich.  Much to Oliver’s consternation, his embarrassing predicament was indeed captured on film, and while it’s not the sort of thing most people would want to stage for a portrait, it does offer some ideas.

Allow your cat – just this once – on top of the table after everyone has eaten but before the dinner plates have been cleared away.  A photo of Miss Kitty licking her chops and looking pleased with herself while surrounded by the remains of mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie would make both a one-of-a-kind portrait and an amusing memento.  Football is another welcome diversion of the season, so why not use a jersey from your favorite college or pro football team as a background for your cat’s photo?  Drape it over the back of your sofa or a chair and wait for Kitty to come investigate.  (Since cats always want to be where they’re not wanted, shooing her away from it once should guarantee her continued interest.  If she resolutely ignores it, however, try sprinkling it with a little catnip.  If that fails, break out the leftover turkey.)  Another idea would be to use your own family as a backdrop.  Nothing says ‘Thanksgiving’ quite like a sofa-full of groggy relatives napping after dinner with a contented kitty curled up amongst them.

There’s hardly a more familial holiday than Thanksgiving, and if you consider your cat to be a member of your family, then a Thanksgiving theme would be perfect for a portrait of your feline friend.  If you need any pointers, call us at (888) 784-5553 or email us from our website www.canvaspress.com and Canvas Press will be glad to help.

-Karen from CanvasPress.com

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