This journal records my day to day activity mastering art photography after 10,000 hours deliberate practice
Hours 10,815 to 10,880
30th June 2026
Hours 10,878 to 10,880
(3h) finishing and publishing the “Spring 2026” post
29th June 2026
Hour 10,877
(1h) updating this journal and associated Flickr site
28th June 2026
Hour 10,876
(1h) editing the Moldovan images, including many from Milestii Mici the world’s largest wine cellar:
- “Vintage Wine Abstract”, above
- “Portrait of Dystopia”, below
27th June 2026
Hours 10,874 to 10,875
(2h) working on the review, one year on, of my FRPS for the “Spring 2026” post
26th June 2026
Hours 10,872 to 10,873
(2h) adjusting the colour balance on all the Moldovan pictures shot last weekend and creating “Rusty Blue Pipe Diptych” above
25th June 2026
Hours 10,870 to 10,871
(2h) processing images shot over the weekend in Chisinau (Moldova) and Tiraspol (Transnistria), including creating “Rusty Blue Pipe Triptych”, right
24th June 2026
Hours 10,866 to 10,869
(3h) updating and preparing better quality images for my draft article about this 10,000 hour project for the Royal Photographic Society
(1h) Amersham coffee club
23rd June 2026
Hours 10,863 to 10,865
(1h) shooting urban landscapes in Chisinau, Moldova
(2h) updating my draft article about this 10,000 hour project for the Royal Photographic Society
22nd June 2026
Hours 10,861 to 10,862
(1h) shooting at Milestii Mici, the world’s biggest wine cellar
(1h) updating this journal and the “Spring 2026” post
21st June 2026
Hour 10,860
(½h) travel photography Tiraspol, Transnistria
(½h) updating the “Spring 2026” post
20th June 2026
Hours 10,858 to 10,859
(1h) National Art Museum Chisinau
Milton Glaser: Art is Work
- You can only work for people you like
- If you have a choice, never have a job
- Some people are toxic, avoid them
- Professionalism is not enough or, the good is the enemy of the great
- Less is not necessarily more
- Style is not to be trusted
- How you live changes your brain
- Doubt is better than certainty
- On aging – rule number one is that “it doesn’t matter”
- Tell the truth.
(1h) writing up
Right, by the Romanian artist, Carmen Chitan
19th June 2026
Hours 10,856 to 10,857
(1h) HENI Talks YouTube: “David Hockney Tribute“
Art never changes”
David Hockney
The above quote posits that art was just as good in the days of cave painting as it is today. It posits that art is what is left after one has removed all technique and intellectualism
(1h) recreating the “Double Water” image, right
18th June 2026
Hours 10,854 to 10,855
(2h) working on the “Spring 2026” post, including:
- adding the top 10 images and associated text
- a section, under Distinctions, reviewing my successful FRPS submission and what’s next
17th June 2026
Hours 10,852 to 10,853
(1h) reprocessing “Village Man at Home”, above, so that his wife appears enigmatically in the background
(1h) finalising the selection of top 10 image for the “Spring 2026” post
16th June 2026
Hours 10,850 to 10,851
(1h) further processing of the “Caravan Platform” triptych
(½h) HENI Tals YouTube: “Paul Nash: The Landscape of Modernism“
Nash is often said to treat trees a substitutes for the human form, particularly in his war paintings
“Harbour and Room”, 1932-36, is thought to be his first surrealist painting, and uses techniques/ motifs directly borrowed from both Magritte and de Chirico.:
- Fireplace, mirror, coving and missing wall are all distinctly Magrittian
- The arched windows at the water’s edge are suggestive of a de Chirico’s piazza
“Landscape from a Dream” (discussed on the 10th) was produced two years later and shows markedly more mature style
(½h) writing up this journal
15th June 2026
Hour 10,849
(1h) Editing and processing the Caravan Platform images from the weekend
14th June 2026
Hour 10,848
(½h) shooting contemporary images in a caravan park
The platform is blank canvas upon which anything could be built. In reality we know it will host a caravan of, only a few, sizes and designs that are already installed in the complex
The picture is intended to be optimistic as this is a place where families, couples or other groups of people come to enjoy a break for their normal routines
(½h) updating this journal
13th June 2026
Hour 10,847
(1h) updating the “Spring 2026” post with the “Freud, Jung and Lacan”
12th June 2026
Hour 10,846
(1h) updating this journal
11th June 2026
Hours 10,844 to 10,845
(1h) selecting top 10 images for the “Spring 2026” post
(1h) reprocessing the “Assamese Boat People” image above
10th June 2026
Hours 10,840 to 10,843
(1½h) processing and delivering images from yesterday’s WorkAid shoot
(1h) Amersham Coffee club
(1h) part 1 of BBC Documentary “British Art at War: Bomberg, Sickert and Nash” which concentrated on Paul Nash and gave me an improved appreciation for his work as a surrealist
Right, 1936-38, “Landscape of a Dream” probably Nash’s most surrealist image which shows influence from Magritte, an artist he was known to admire after having seen his work during the first “International Surrealist Exhibition” in 1936. An exhibition he helped organise and also exhibited in
YouTube: “Paul Nash. Landscape from a Dream. Discussed by Edwin Mullins, 1938“
(½h) updating this journal
9th June 2026
Hours 10,835 to 10,839
(3h) shooting WorkAid’s 40 year celebration – was the only photographer, I didn’t even see anybody using a smartphone
(2h) editing and processing the day’s images
8th June 2026
Hours 10,833 to 10,834
(2h) creating the “V2 Threshold of Liberty” which combines my V2 image shot at the Imperial War Museum last week with some of my Magritte images and a modified version of the framework used in my original On the Threshold of Liberty” image
The inclusion of the human figure gives a sense of scale
However, the perspective gives the impression that the scene is being view from over half way up the 4-5 meter high walls
7th June 2026
Hours 10,831 to 10,832
(2h) creating a versions of Magritte’s On the Threshold of Liberty, featuring my Magrittian images and a V2 rocket, as shot at the Imperial War Museum last week
6th June 2026
Hour 10,830
(1h) creating a second version of the Abstract entry for the exhibition, below:
5th June 2026
Hours 10,828 to 10,829
(1h) updating yesterday’s notes about the “Freud, Jung and Lacan” post, both below and in the post itself
(1h) creating a first version of a potential entry for the Amersham Photographic Society’s annual exhibition – an abstract image with explanatory text surrounding ir
4th June 2026
Hours 10,826 to 10,827
(½h) processing the images shot on Tuesday
(1h) discussing my “Freud, Jung and Lacan” post with a friend who asked (or prompted me to think about) the following questions – two answers given to each question; the first is my initial reaction; the second, after some research:
- what’s the difference between “the unconscious” and “the collective unconscious”?
- Freud posited that our thoughts and behaviours are controlled by our unconscious. Hence the shocking claim that we are not in control of our own thoughts. The unconscious is shaped by events in childhood as an individual. Jung expanded this theory with the concept of the collective unconscious, underlying the individual unconscious, which represent spiritual forces and is manifest in the form of archetypes which are common to all people at least within the same culture. Lacan shifted the emphasis from spiritual influence in the unconscious to that of society
- The unconscious is personal, formed largely in childhood and consisting of:
- repressed memories
- unresolved conflicts
- hidden wishes/ fears
- sexual and aggressive drives
- The collective unconscious, as defined by Jung, consists of inherited structures common to all humanity and are manifest in myths, religions, dreams and art across cultures. Lacan, rejected the concept of spirituality, arguing instead that what appears universal is a consequence of language, culture and social structures
- what is an example of a Jungian archetype?
- common beliefs such as the dominance of good over evil [factually incorrect, this is more of a narrative pattern in which archetypes, interact I will update the article]
- archetypes are recurring character types, psychic structures or symbolic structures that are common across cultures. Example archetypes are:
- hero
- wise old man
- great mother
- child
- trickster
- shadow (those aspects of ourself that we refuse to acknowledge)
- given that Magritte didn’t practice automated painting as advocated by André Breton, was he a surrealist?
- Magritte painted paradoxical juxtaposition as they occur in dreams
- whilst he rejected Breton’s prefefred method of automatism, adopting instead a pictorially controlled practice to disrupt rational perception and expose the instability of language, image, and reality
- what has this post got to do with art and how is it relevant to my project?
- Freud was the dominant influence shaking up art of the early 20th century
- I’m looking to continue my project of reinterpreting the surrealists in a contemporary context which includes looking at the influence of psychoanalysts beyond Freud
(½h) updating this journal
3rd June 2026
Hours 10,823 to 10,825
(1h) Amersham Coffee Club
(1½h) editing and processing images shot yesterday
(½h) updating this journal, creating and populating a Tracey Emin Flickr album
2nd June 2026
Hours 10,820 to 10,822
(½h) updating this journal
(1h) shooting at the Imperial War Museum London, elements for potential new versions of Magritte’s “On the Threshold of Liberty”
(1h) Tate Modern including revisiting the Tracey Emin exhibition
(½h) Stoke Poges Photographic Club – mainly social but with some meaningful photographic discussion
1st June 2026
Hours 10,815 to 10,819
(3h) updating the “Fred, Jung and Lacan” post by connecting it with specific artists and art works
(1h) updating this journal including all the new month admin
(1h) creating the “Central Portal I” abstract, below
Strange behaviour of the spherize filter in photoshop: cropping finished image has the impact of changing the shape of the sperized component, probably as a result of changing the size of the pre-filtered image. This may have something to do with it being a smart object, but was unexpected
(May 2026)
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