Click, clickaway!

I've just spent a day at Southwold in Suffolk in the UK. It's a place I know well because I spent many a happy holiday there when I was a child. I've not been back for many years so yesterday was a real treat, especially as I am now looking at it through artist's eyes.

Southwold (and the nearby village of Walberswick) have been a painters paradise for many years and you will often find paintings of these places in magazines and books on art. Yesterday I could see why. The harbour area is particularly interesting from a painting point of view, but because I was with my wife and my sister and we only had a few hours there, I had no oportunity to paint or even sketch. So I snapped away on the camera.

The wonder of digital cameras is that you can do this with great liberty. I took loads of photos - just aiming the camera roughly in the direction of my subject, clicking and hoping to get something. But I know that when I then upload the photos onto my pc I'll be able to edit, crop, lighten, increase the contrast and do all sorts of wobndrful things with them that I will have plenty of great reference material for paintings.

So, my advice is this - don't wait for the perfect shot or the perfect scene before taking a photo. Just click, clickaway and then find the perfect composition later on your computer. And happy painting!