Event Photos Courtesy of Justin Van Leeuwen
CanvasPop’s headquarters were a full house on January 24th as we hosted Photo-Tripping with Younes Bounhar. His presentation about travel photography inspired event-goers to take their photos to the next level and get tips from a pro.
What were some of Younes’ most impactful tips?
Before you leave:
• Research your trip and take note of interesting festivals, events and seasons
• If you’re bringing new gear, make sure it works, it works for you, and you know how to use it
• Bring what you need and use what you bring
On your trip:
• Create narratives or a story through your trip
• Identify your subject and draw attention to it
• Remove distractions, simplify the background
• Put people in their context and give them a sense of place
Four of Younes’ amazing travel photos on canvas provided a great backdrop to the event. These beauties were taken on his trips to Morocco and Spain.
Stay tuned for some video clips from Younes’ chat and more events from the CanvasPop floor!
Younes Bounhar eats, sleeps and breathes photography. His photos have been featured in several magazines in Canada and abroad including Canadian Geographic, PhotoLife, PhotoSolutions and Photography Monthly.
Our Instagram Tagging contest is still going strong!
We’ve had more than 3,100 entries so far and they’re still pouring in.
Check out some of the winners so far.
Want to win one of your Instagram photos on canvas?
How to Enter the Contest:
Tag your Instagram images with #CanvasPop in Instagram and type: “I want this photo printed on canvas with #CanvasPop” to be automatically entered to win!
(If you’re trying to tag an old photo, insert “I want this photo printed on canvas with #CanvasPop” into the photo’s comment section.)
Contest Rules/Conditions:
Maximum of 5 entries per person.
US and Canada residents only.
Your photo will also appear on our Instagram site for thousands to see. We’ll be featuring some of the winners here, too.
Winners must pay shipping ($14).
We’ll choose 1 photo a week to print on canvas. Cool, eh?
Don’t have Instagram? Join the fun and download it for your iPhone to start taking amazing photographs to print on canvas or share online via Twitter, Facebook and Flickr.)
Keep up to date on what’s happening at CanvasPop through our Instagram account or follow us on Followgram! Happy tagging and good luck!
Love,
#CanvasPop
In honour of our upcoming travel photography lecture, Photo-Tripping with Younes Bounhar, we’re giving away two of Younes’ stunning photos on canvas.
How to enter:
Simply vote on your favorite one for a chance to win!
Contest Details:
We’ll randomly pick two voters (one voter per photo) and they’ll win their preferred photo as a 20×30″ CanvasPop canvas!
One entry per person. Open to residents of the USA and Canada.
Don’t worry if you can’t attend Younes’ lecture—stay tuned for some video after the event!
CanvasPop Presents: Photo-Tripping with Younes Bounhar
• Be inspired to take your photos to the next level
• Discover how to make great travel photographs
• Get expert tips on how it’s done in the field
• Improve your portraits and landscape shots
• Have your questions answered by an industry pro
When: January 24 • 7pm
Where: CanvasPop • 6 Hamilton Avenue North, suite 004 • Ottawa, Canada
RSVP: heathersb@canvaspop.com
Make sure you book your space early!
It’s been a snappy week at the Consumer Electronic Show (CES)! We’re featuring Photojojo’s most noteworthy camera stories from CES—that means a round-up of the newest releases and fanciest features of the hottest new cameras.
Polaroid
The Polaroid Z340 and the SC1630 Smart Camera.
Like many Polaroid fans, we weren’t sure how to feel about the shift from analog to digital. Polaroid must’ve read our minds because they’ve kicked the look of their Z340 back a couple of decades, and we like it.
Fuji
The Fuji X-Pro1
It’s Fuji’s new mirrorless! What makes this one shine is its large 16MP sensor and the fact that it has an interchangeable lens mount (with 3 lens options) — something the X100 and X10 were missing.
Canon
The Powershot G1 X
Fanciest point-and-shoot ever? Yes.
At $800, it’ll cost you a pretty penny, but at least you’ll have a ginormous 14.3MP sensor to photograph that penny. That’s about as big as a DSLR’s sensor! The other rad thing about this camera is that its lens is f/2.8 to f/16 which means you can get some nice depth of field.
Nikon
Nikon’s D4 DSLR
The D4 is indeed Nikon’s newest, and it’s an awesome beast of camera. A full-frame 16.2MP sensor and 204,800 ISO means you can capture photos in incredibly dim light. Plus, it’s equipped with a 3D Matrix Meter III, a really long name for its ability to measure light and color very precisely. It’s going for $6,000, but it’s as good as it gets when it comes to Nikon DSLRs.
These are just a few of the most noteworthy CES findings, check out Photojojo’s full list and start shooting! You’ll be on your way to creating personalized art on canvas in no time.
When’s the last time you took to the sky? Today is Amelia Earhart Day and we’re excited to celebrate the anniversary of the first solo flight across the pacific. Amelia became the first person to accomplish this feat on January 11, 1935.
In the spirit of Amelia—one of the world’s most celebrated aviators—we’re giving away a free 16×20″ photo on canvas to a lucky person who shares an aviation-inspired photo. Be creative!
Post a photo on Facebook, share it on Twitter, or leave us a link in a comment here to enter. We’ll choose a winner on Thursday morning.
Good luck and happy flying!
REUTERS/Blair Gable (CANADA)
Our friend, Ottawa photographer Blair Gable, is a member of CanvasPop’s Pro community and shares his insights and behind-the-scenes thoughts right here on our blog. Here are some of Blair’s tips on using remote cameras.
Sometimes photographers need to be able to take photos from places they are not allowed to be in person. This is where remote cameras come in. With the right equipment, a photographer can rig-up a camera just about anywhere and trigger it from far distances. For the majority of my purposes I use remote cameras to photograph an alternate angle during the NHL hockey games I shoot for Reuters.
Most often I have a remote camera in the rafters—above the video screens—to shoot a top-down angle on one of the nets (usually the net with the hottest goalie). You lock in the setup, preset your focus/exposure and cross your fingers.
Here is the gear you need:
1. a camera
2. a lens
3. a triggering cable
4. zip ties
5. a tripod head
6. a clamp
7. safety cables
8. triggering devices
9. a carabiner
The lens goes on the camera, the triggering cable is attached to the camera, the zip ties secure the lens to the tripod head, the clamp attaches the tripod head to a secure surface, the safety cables loop through each piece of equipment, the triggering device is attached to the camera and the carabiner attaches the security cables together.
You can trigger the cameras two ways: 1) by pressing the test button on your transmitter to capture specific frames or 2) by mounting the transmitter in the hot shoe of the camera in your hands – this makes your remote camera take a picture each time you take a picture (which means a lot of pictures of nothing around pockets of good action photos). I use option 2.
Safety is the most important thing here. If any piece of equipment comes loose or detaches from the setup it is important that it not go very far—hence all of the security cables. A lens falling from that height could kill someone or a triggering cable hitting the ice could get your credentials pulled and the privilege of having remotes in the arena could be taken away from all of the other shooters.
If you have any specific questions about the gear needed or the setup please leave them in the comments section or reach me on twitter @gablehead. Good luck!
Blair’s main photo above was taken during the 2010 hockey season—Buffalo Sabres’ goalie Ryan Miller stops Ottawa Senators’ Alex Kovalev’s shot on net in a shoot-out during their NHL hockey game in Ottawa December 4, 2010.
Follow Blair on Twitter (@gablehead) and let him know what you’d like to see here next.
Thanks, Blair!
We’ve had our eye on talented iPhoneographer extraordinaire Jack Hollingsworth for awhile now, especially all the amazing photos he’s been posting on his Instagram account (@photojack). Jack is a well-known 30-year career veteran photog who is “in love” with the iPhone as a capture device. He deeply believes that, when all is said and done, the iPhone may just be remembered as the most influential capture device ever in the history of photography. Wow!
When Jack approached us about helping to make the set of his worldwide online broadcasted 2-day seminar a memorable one, we were thrilled to print Instagram photos for him. Looks great, right?!
Tune in to Jack’s action-packed workshop on January 5-6 from 12pm to 7pm EST by visiting creativeLIVE (www.creativelive.com/live) where you can expect to get the low-down on:
- Stellar camera replacement apps (Camera+, Hipstamatic, Instagram)
- All the geek tools and gadgets you’ll need to pimp out your iPhone
- 26 tips to make you a great iPhoneographer
- Apps & Workflow (for people who want to raise their game)
“Morning in the Field” by Steve Smith
The CanvasPop team is loaded with photographers, designers and creative minds, so when we heard that Steve Smith—one of our Customer Experience Reps—is a winner in this year’s Eco Art Contest we had to shine a spotlight on his talent.
Steve is one of 40 photographers between the age of 14 and 24 who will have their work exhibited this winter in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada at Dows Gallery on the Rideau Canal Skateway and have the chance of being awarded one of three top prizes.
When asked about his winning photo, he said: “My shot was taken in Chelsea, Quebec just outside Gatineau Park. We got up really early trying to catch the sunrise in the park but stopped at an abandoned barn off the road. The sun was still low enough to give a nice golden cast to everything.”
Steve first became interested in photography about 5 years ago and likes photographing empty urban scenes, especially at night. “They have a completely different look and the lighting can make an otherwise banal subject look really neat,” he says.
He found out about the contest last year when he saw the exhibition on the Rideau Canal. “Since I recently finished my degree in environmental studies, I thought the theme was really important. It ended up being a cool way of connecting my education and passion!”
We’ll be strapping on our skates and speeding down to catch a glimpse of Steve’s photo as it lights up the exhibition later this month.
Wow, 2011 has been a blast! Looking back at the highlights, it’s hard to choose just a few to reminisce about here. But if you twist our arm, here are some of our faves:
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CanvasPop was featured on Candice Olson’s new show, Candice Tells All, in March. She ordered a beautiful triptych canvas print and the results left the homeowner speechless! Watch the clip.
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We spruced up our head office and expanded! Our main office got a face lift (including a DJ booth!) and we also opened up a new production facility in fabulous Las Vegas.
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We launched a new product—Instagram photos on canvas! Instagram is a popular iPhone photo sharing app and our large format iPhoneography canvas prints took off when they launched in November.
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We were featured on Good Morning America on a segment about personalized holiday gifts.
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Our biggest shipment ever left the door in December and we captured the CanvasPop Box Shuffle video.
Thank you for following along with us this year! All of us at CanvasPop wish you good health, great photos and lasting memories as we head into 2012.
