Pictures on the move

No, not travelling paintings! Next time you are a passenger on a road journey (Lawyers,police, health and safety, etc - note the word 'passenger'!!), keep your camera handy and take photos out of the car window of the landscape as you are travelling along. A digital camera is a must but it can be a compact as opposed to an SLR (I have used both, prefer SLR but results are OK using my compact) Clean windows/windscreen are preferrable but not essential. Watch the road for lorries/trees/houses in the way. But...........if you see what could be a reasonable picture/reference, then part press your shutter button to focus, then press again to take the photo (most cameras work like this). Make sure when you focus that the camera is focussing on the distance, not the raindrops on the window! You will be amazed at some of the pictures you take, and because of the lack of detail they are great to use as reference for painting. I've got photos of Stonehenge and hills in the Lake District, as well as clouds and rainbows. Because they are digital if you have, for instance, a lorry in the picture, you can delete the whole image - what have you got to lose? My husband usually drives and he has become accustomed to shouting 'Lorry' or 'Trees' as I'm looking through the viewfinder and he is concentrating on the road, but I have got some memorable photos of the journeys we have made, as well as getting ideas for paintings. You often see images that you would never get unless you stopped the car, (not a good idea in the middle of the M6!!), got out and walked to the side - you may be pleasantly surprised.