Before the days of cell phones, gathering photographic references was much more challenging than it is today. Rarely did people have a camera with them, unless they intended to go out and capture images to use for painting references later. Today, however, most artists carry a phone and have a camera available to them at all times. While this aids capturing images, many artists are probably like me, and have hundreds, if not thousands, of photos stored on their phone or tablet for use as source material for paintings. Not all those images are useable, however, and many may be useable, but not particularly useful.
Periodically I go through my photos and eliminate the ones that are out of focus, contain the tip of my finger, or were taken in duplicate, triplicate, or more. Once I have deleted those photos, I go back and remove any that don'tto look for elements in the photo that tell a good story. Perhaps a tree is leaning in a particular way or people are walking down a street with a certain demeanour. Maybe a crowd is observing something, or a dog is happily prancing alongside its owner. In perusing photo references, I'm on the lookout for particular details that, if included in a painting, will draw the viewer in and make them feel a part of the narrative.
