On March 29, 2011, I announced the launch of my new canvases suitable for people who are looking to receive fine-art-prints at a very affordable prices. If you happened to miss that post, I will quickly bring you up to date. We work and purchase our materials from a highly recognized media company that specializes in award winning inkjet canvases, fine art paper, photo paper, and varnishes. The canvas that we use is a super-heavy-duty 20.5mil, Optical-Brightener-Additive (OBA) Free, highly water resistant, and bright white consistent poly-cotton blend canvas. It also boasts a 15% measureable improvement in dmax and color gamut compared to any other canvas available on the market today. Our canvas, unlike some canvas printing companies is archival certified through the Fine Art Trade Guild. Each of our printed canvases are sealed with a proprietary true matte varnish that provides the industry best protection against UV, Fungal, Scuffs, Fading, Cracking and Tearing damage. We even go a step further and use a varnish that is also certified by the Fine Art Trade Guild. We print all our canvases using genuine Epson Ultrachrome pigmented archival ink, ensuring that you received nothing but the best quality. Our canvases are true Giclée prints and are never emulsion transferred.

We are currently offering 10x16x1.25 wrapped canvases for $80 shipped. That is about 37% cheaper then most canvas printing labs, that use questionable methods and materials. You read an overview of our materials, so now I will explain our process.

Process:

We work on color calibrated monitors and printers to ensure that all colors are accurate to your images. To do this we provide free color correction prior to printing at your discretion. We can also perform image enhancements such as black and white conversions, sepia conversions, oil-painting effects and water color effects. We also provide basic retouching services including exposure correction, color correction, red eye removal, date stamp removal, and removal of minor dust, scratches and blemishes absolutely free at your discretion.

After preparing your image we send it to one of our Epson printers. Your images are printed at 1440dpi at low speed to ensure maximum detail, color graduation, and contrast. We then place your image in a secure location and allow it to air dry for a period of 24-hours to allow the ink to outgas. Once your canvas has completely dried, we seal it with a true matte varnish. After the varnish as dried we place it on the stretching bars, trim it and wrap the canvas. After everything is completed and inspected your canvas is packaged and shipped to you. During the entire process, your image(s) are handled by a human and are never done automatically.

For more information and details please see our other posts regarding prints and canvases at http://blog.charlesshowalter.com/2011/03/31/printing-information/ and http://blog.charlesshowalter.com/2011/03/29/out-with-the-old-in-with-the-new/.

After all of these months, I have not posted any images of our canvases. So today, I decided that I would go ahead and provide a real sample:

I spent the past 3-nights up in Julian, CA with Family for a quick getaway. We spent our entire time up there just relaxing, talking, listening to music and enjoying the outdoors. We did happen to find a fantastic pizza & sandwich place called Hereos Deli. Their 12” Pepperoni pizza is fab and their BBQ Shredded Chicken Sandwich is as equally good. Between Miner’s Dinner, Fajita Grill and Hero’s Deli, Hero’s Deli is by far the best.

I have been to Julian several times and it wasn’t until this last trip that I realized that Julian still has a standing holding cell for suspicious people back in the day. It’s a small building and only holds two people, one in each cell. It was very interesting to check out. It was cool to be able to enter the building and walk around. I did want to enter a cell, but they keep them locked for security purposes. I was tempted to head back to our cabin and get the keys that looked like they would fit the cell doors and try them out. Julian’s Holding Cell:

One of the nights, I did go out in the freezing wind to take some sunset shots. I did pick the perfect night as there was some amazing colors in the sky that I could not pass up. The following image was the last image that I shot that night and it so happened that I went out just in time to capture an amazing array of colors in the sky. The colors you see in this image is what my camera captured. Truly stunning!

This next image is the same image as above, but I took it a step further and turned it into an artistic piece. This image is quite popular on my facebook page, but I am having a hard time duplicating the results in the full size image. I will play with the full size image of these and see if I can match the results as this would make for a great canvas print.

While up there I decided to practice some natural light portraiture photography. This is one area that I am greatly trying to improve in. I have shot most of my portraiture work in studio or using studio strobes, so natural light portraiture photography is a new area for me. I have concluded that I need to learn how to see light and how it relates, because it is different for landscape and wildlife photography.

Lastly just random images. I will eventually add more to this section as I edit more.

It has been approximately 6-months since that last time I have done portraiture photography. This past weekend, my cousin convinced me to finally do another session in a dress that we had bought her a few months back. I’ve been wanting to shoot at Glen Arbor Park for a while now, so I decided we will give it a try. Glen Arbor is a awesome place to photograph at, but in our case it turned out to be the wrong location. For the type of dress that she was wearing, we have determined that a more urban style location would have worked a 1000% better. Lesson Learned. Our next session will be more planned out, as this one was a last moment idea. My Aunt and I are already looking at several different locations to do feature sessions at. She assisted, during this session.