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At the end of last year, I took some photos of people in Norwich city centre, with a view to making paintings out of them - developing the old 'candid phtography' concept and making something personal out of the rather snatch'n-grabbed street images. In the end, I found two photos suitable for painting. I was attracted by the clothes and body language of the people, as well as by the contrasty shadows. Then the weather became grey, grey and more grey - weeks and weeks of it - and I put the project on hold. One of the paintings (Three Girls: Norwich) found its way into my web-page 'A Few Paintings', and I've just added the other (Shopping in Norwich).

Yesterday I had another voyeuristic session taking photos in Norwich, and I'm hoping to develop at least four of these into paintings.

When I take photos with a view to making paintings out of them, I'm in a different mindset from when I'm taking photos that are going to be 'photos'. Photos have to make a statement in their own right, one way or another, and often I like them to be a bit quirky. So out of the ones I took yesterday, although the quality isn't brilliant, the one of the men and the ice-cream cone is my favourite as a 'photo' - though I don't think I'll be making a painting out of it. You'll find it below. Another quirky photo I took recently is the one (below) of pigeons at Kew Gardens. (I was there last week, and for some reason my camera was drawn to the ducks and geese more than it was to the plants!)
Men and Cone, Norwich:


Pigeons feasting at Kew: