I sent this photo via email to be made into a canvas print.

A few weeks later a huge FedEx box showed up in my office.  I was pretty surprised because I thought I would be getting an 8×10 inch print.  Much to my surprise it was 16×24 inches and beautiful.  I was blown away.

This is my first print on canvas and I must say, it is a very interesting look.  I hung it on a wall in our living room, above our funky chair.  It is a good location because that is Olivia’s chair for tv viewing and playing on the laptop.

While typically one cannot see the texture of the canvas because the position of the chair naturally keeps the viewing distance at least four feet, at night when there is only one lamp on in our living room shimmers of light sparkle from the print.  This may or may not be a good thing depending on your personal tastes, but I like it.  It is kind of difficult for me to describe, but the word shimmer comes to mind.  It does not obscure the image at all, just adds some interest.

Here is a close up of the print with very harsh side lighting to accentuate the texture of the canvas.  It is not a great representation of the quality of the actual print, but should help show the difference of canvas compared to a typical print on paper.

One of the things I like about having an image printed on canvas and then stretched around a frame is that there is no need to worry about a frame.  With the canvas stretched over what is essentially a wood frame, it will look absolutely great just hanging on your wall.  Below is a side view of the image hanging on the wall.  It is just under two inches this and the image wraps all the way around the frame, so it looks good from any angle.  The only gotcha is that you might want to think about what is at the edges of the image.  I personally like the gallery wrap option that takes the image all the way around the edges.  However, you can choose a white edge, black edge, blurred edge or a mirrored edge.

Unfortunately the piece did not come with an easy method for hanging, but a couple simple eye screws and picture wire solved that problem in less than five minutes.  Considering people have different methods they prefer for hanging pictures on the wall, I think it is best that the canvas came with nothing as apposed to something that I did not like and would have to remove.  My preference is to have the piece hang snugly up against the wall, so that is why I went with the eye screws and wire.

Another small benefit is that this very large image is very light.  I did not weigh it, but I doubt it is over four or five pounds.  While this might not be a big deal to most, I live in an old home with plaster walls.  To only need one small Ook hanger is huge!  No trashed walls when hanging.

While I received this for free, the price listed on their website of $78 plus $15 shipping is more than fair.  To get a professionally printed image at this size is going to cost a minimum of $20 and probably more.  If you then add in a frame and matting, the price is easily going to go above $100, no shipping.  If you cannot do the framing yourself, don’t forget to add that charge.

Overall my opinion of the canvas I received from Zaza Gallery is that it is gorgeous!  I find the colors to be deep, rich and accurate.  The quality of the printing is great.  I can see detail in the individual hairs in the fur lining of Olivia’s hood.   The quality of the product is top notch and I could not be happier.  I have already started thinking about the next canvas I want to order.  After all I have two daughters.

My one piece of advice if you order a canvas, don’t think of it as simply a print to put on the wall.  This is truly a piece of art that will be a focal point in our home.

What would a typical day of mine look like as a bunch of small video clips?

After all, I have this great, portable video camera that is easy to quickly turn on and start recording.  Why not use its best features?  So the other day (Tuesday if it makes a difference to you) I decided to record some of the interesting and not so interesting things that happen.  There was nothing out of the ordinary planned, with the exception of meeting Kate and her baby daughter, Madeline, for lunch.  But I hoped that putting all of the typical, mundane things that I do together in a relatively short video might prove to be interesting.

Was I right?  You be the judge.  Watch the video and let me know.  Is it interesting, or am I way too self absorbed?

Watch the video on YouTube.

Olivia brought home this wonderful piece of art that is a house decorated for Christmas.  It is made up of 11 individual pieces of notebook paper and each page is a different room.  She notes that most of the windows have Christmas lights on them.  Starting at the top

Attic
Playroom  -  Office
Guest Room  -  Parents’ Room  -  Kids’ Room
Dining Room  -  Family Room  -  Living Room  -  Kitchen
Basement

Click the image for the original size on Flickr and see all the detail.

It is not often that Lily is calm, but the other night she was kicking back on the arm of the chair relaxing.

But playing around with it in Lightroom allowed me to salvage something.  I kinda like the look of Maria “RealFitMama” Sparks in the photo above.  There are more photos from the day, all taken with my Lensbaby at my photo site, all in the Saturday at Bread Co gallery.

This is Molly.  One of my favorite images from a day long shoot of three friends for senior pictures.

On a very hot weekend at the end of June, I was asked to photograph my niece Katie’s softball team, the BNGSA Red Hots.  It is my niece’s softball team.  I managed to make it though the day game where I am pretty sure it was 100 degrees in the shade, but of course there is no shade on a softball field.

I started with a team photo and then got some action shots of the team while they were warming up.

I even pulled out my Lensbaby to try for some fun, artistic shots.

The afternoon game was fun, and although they worked hard, the Red Hots were unable to pull off the win.

I returned for the evening game to find out it would be delayed for almost an hour.  It was right before sundown, so I used the time to get some posed shots.  I went for a dynamic look, trying to balance the ambient with flash from the side.  Some images work better than others.

As the sun went down, the pretty lighting went away, so it was time to pull whatever I could out of my Pentax.  Fast action and low light don’t always mix.

I played around with some slow shutter speeds to really show action, but did not get anything I loved.

Fortunately, I got a couple shots I like and the Reds Hots hung on to win.

The one rather odd shot is my niece and her friend, Kayli showing off their scars from their Automated Introverted Cardiac Defibrillators.

To see all of the photos from the day, please visit my Smugmug gallery.  As is my typical method, the full resolution photos are available to download and take to your preferred photo lab.  Because, however, some people ask how they can donate or pay for my time, I make prints available for a relatively small price.  A 4×6 is only $1 and 8x10s are $5.  So, feel free to download or buy a print, just enjoy.

Here is my first test of the portfolio

I had the honor of photographing Mark Barnes and his family for Mark’s campaign.  I made a bunch of photos (hopefully some will be useful), but this is quite possibly my favorite.  It is just Mark sitting on the steps in his house as I was setting up all of my gear to try to get a good family portrait.  When I saw Mark on the steps I thought it might be a good photo so I grabbed a light stand and fired off a couple shots.  Mark was great because he did not try to pose or do anything special for the camera.

Camera:  Pentax K20 Tokina 19-35, 3.5 lens  ISO 200 Aperture f/5.6 Exposure 1/180

Lighting:  SB-25 @ 1/2 power (I think) into a silver umbrella to camera left triggered with AlienBees CyberSyncs.

Post Processing with Lightroom.

Mark’s campaign is one of the reasons I have taken so long to post this and Friday’s POTD.  I not only got to photograph Mark, but I also get to help on his campaign with the website, or as I like to say, New Media Management.  My hope is to get Mark a website (www.barnesforucity.com – but not live yet), get him on Facebook, have his photos on Flickr, and create his own YouTube channel.  Perhaps I will even get him to post on Twitter, but I am not sure if there are enough U. City residents who Twitter to make it worth the effort.  Maybe when he wins, we will get Twitter going and encourage people to follow his progress for improving University City Schools on there.

I hope that I don’t miss too many more days of photography, but the campaign is really exciting.

Plus if that is not enough, I have also started helping Steve Zwolak (a.k.a. Mr. Z) from UCCC with a video project he is doing.  It is not being released yet, but if you are interested in early childhood education, specifically literacy, watch this five minute video, Developmental Lines.

See the rest of my Photo Of The Day posts here or just look at the photos on Flickr

Thanks for reading my ramblings,