Summer Days Out With Great Photo Opportunities

While regular family portraits and holiday snaps are great for canvas prints, there are plenty of other photo opportunities you can consider if you'd rather have something a little different on your wall. It seems that we're getting a long-awaited good summer this year and with the school holidays upon us, here are some ideas for great days out that will give you some fantastic images for your prints.

Keep an eye on local listings for any special events that are taking place in your area. Summer is the time for fairs and fêtes, with rides, candy floss and hook-a-duck fun - so head down with friends or family and don't forget your camera! It's also carnival season, which means colourful costumes and dancing - join in with the party and snap a vibrant shot to brighten up your walls.

Whether staying in the UK or holidaying abroad, a visit to a theme park will guarantee smiling faces and plenty of excitement; get a shot of the family getting soaked on a water ride or meeting their Disney hero or heroine. If you're zooming around on a fast and furious ride, it's pretty much impossible to hold a camera steady for a suitable snap, but most theme parks have static cameras mounted at the most thrilling points of their major attractions - and many of them now offer digital versions of these photos too, so you can send them off for printing onto canvas. Some popular parks in the UK include Alton Towers, Thorpe Park, Drayton Manor, Chessington World of Adventures and Blackpool's Pleasure Beach.

A day or 2 in London will give you an awesome digital collection to choose from. Take a trip on the London Eye, go old-school on the Cutty Sark, visit the Queen at Buckingham Palace, or spend some time in the Tower of London or the London Dungeons if you're feeling brave! You can also snap a picture with your favourite pop star, actor or sporting hero at Madame Tussaud's (albeit in wax form!) or get celestial at the Planetarium. The opportunities for great photos in the capital are endless - make sure you've got a high capacity memory card!

Love animals and fancy a wild picture for your wall? There are loads of zoos and safari parks dotted around the country, popular with kids and adults alike. Make sure your camera has a good zoom and ensure you keep your windows up in the lion enclosure! A self-captured photo of an exciting animal in your home is much better than a stock photo and will bring back memories of your adventures.

Depending on where you live or how far you're prepared to travel for an adventure, there are lots of more unusual places to visit for a great day with the family and some really unique photo opportunities. Legoland is a firm favourite and model villages will give you come amazing perspective shots. You can also consider Cheddar Gorge, Wookey Hole, Portmeirion, Brimham Rocks or the Forbidden Corner. Look them up online and do a route finder to see how long they'd take to get to - all of these will offer you the chance to take some incredible images for much more unusual family portraits or stylised shots for your canvas prints.

We hope we've inspired you with these ideas - remember that canvas prints don't have to be standard portraits or shots of pretty landscapes. There's no limit to the types of images you can hang on your wall, just venture out and use your imagination!