Ten Thousand Hours Photography

10,000 Hours Deliberate Practice Learning the Art of Photography

April 2024

10,000 hours deliberate practice mastering photography
Ten thousand hours deliberate practice mastering the art of photography

This journal records my actual 10,000 hours deliberate practice mastering photography

Hours 8,562 to 8,663

(May 2024)

30th April 2024

Hours 8,660 to 8,663

(½h) updating this journal mainly with comments from yesterday evening’s PDI final at the Amersham Photographic Society

(1½h) creating a panel of my Magritte inspired images for a potential RPS Fellowship panel

RPS Fellowship Panel 10,000 hours deliberate practice mastering photography

(2h) Stoke Poges Photographic Club – PDI Set Subject Final:

Image…..Comment
“Moving Clouds”

Set subject: “Big Sky”

20 but not the overall winner
“The Dogfather”

Held back – 19

The window frame is perhaps a tad too bright and dominant relative to the dog. However, better appreciated than when it was first entered into competition on the 26th March

29th April 2024

Hours 8,656 to 8,659

(1½h) creating the new version of “My Double Secret” using the self-portrait shot 2 days ago

(½h) updating this journal and the Flickr site

(2h) Amersham Photographic Society PDI finals – judge Panikos Hajistilly FMPA, FBIPP, FSWPP, very technical

Image…..Comment
“Vilnius Post Soviet Realism”

Did not understand this image, particularly the light area in the foreground
“Rush Hour Spaghetti”

Would have been better had all the three instances of the background been in exactly the same position

28th April 2024

Hours 8,653 to 8,655

(1h) shooting over 120 exposures of the fire used in the “Wish You Were Here” image, right

(1½h) adding the fire to the image right and selectively blurring the background

(½h) updating this journal

27th April 2024

Hours 8,649 to 8,652

(2h) shooting images for a new version of the Magritte “My Double Secret” and the men shaking hands for a uniquely my version of “Wish You Were Here”, right, for the Amersham Beyond challenge to create a Pink Floyd album cover

(2h) editing and processing the above shots to create the image minus the flames

26th April 2024

Hours 8,647 to 8,648

(1h) creating the revised version of the “Pleasure Principle” image, left. Changes include:

  • expanding the glow on the head so that the outline of the man’s head is no longer visible
  • slight changes of background colour
  • toning down of the handkerchief so that it matches the tie

Again correcting the slope of the table with Puppet-warp, feels a bit of a bodge. Better to get it correct at the shooting stage, but failing that, surely there is a better way than puppet warp

(1h) preparing PDI’s for the Final at the Amersham Photographic Society, next Monday:

  • Rush Hour Spaghetti
  • Vilnius Post Soviet Realism

Also editing “My Double Secret”, right, with the realisation that this needs a complete reshoot as the main subject is not sufficiently sharp

25th April 2024

Hours 8,645 to 8,646

(1h) updating this journal with notes from yesterday and researching Maggi Hambling and Desmond Morris as favourite painters; adding to my Artistic Timelines spreadsheet

(1h) starting the reworking of the “Pleasure Principle” image discussed at yesterday’s Amersham Colour Group meeting

24th April 2024

Hours 8,643 to 8,644

(½h) updating this journal

(½h) researching photographers’ websites:

Quick visit to the, hard to find, Gallery 63 in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, which houses their “Modern Art” collection – small but very impressive pieces. Of particular interest were:

  • small painting by Maggi Hambling “Portrait of Francis Bacon” – fantastic, best in the room
  • large Francis Bacon painting of Peter Lacy in a seated position, made just a few weeks before his death
  • small Leucian Freud
  • surrealist painting by Desmond Morris “The Dove” right

Unfortunately the Ashmolean has a strict no photography rule in this gallery, so I was unable to record these myself – “The Dove”, above by Desmond Morris

(1h) Amersham Colour Group, extensive discussion of my “The Pleasure Principle” image:

  • the bokeh/ lens flare close to the man’s head looks like “bunny ears”
  • perhaps too much outline of the man’s head
  • the Magritte original was much more yellow

Generally though, the picture was thought to be my best yet

23rd April 2024

Hours 8,641 to 8,642

(1h) at the Tate Modern visiting some old favourites but also collecting ideas and a few iPhone photos for a potential post on the Yoko Ono exhibition

The white chessboard, “play it by Trust” left, struck me as an example of paradoxical surrealism. However, as a conceptual work the piece is both a symbol and creator of peace; inevitably the players lose track of whose piece is whose and after a bit of conversation decide to go and have a coffee

(1h) researching the websites of top UK architecture firms:

Top tips from Forbes for building a clean uncluttered website:

  • Consistency of colours, fonts and sizes – almost automatic with most tools
  • Lots of photos – at least 50%
  • Single call to action

[No time recorded for the SPPC meeting which was a lecture about the British Canal system including the 7 wonders of the Waterways; quite interesting but hardly deliberate practice in photography]

22nd April 2024

Hours 8,634 to 8,640

(1h) shooting the “Son of Man in Drizzle” photo, left

(2h) processing the image, left:

  • not sure if I like the black post on the right of the wall
  • is the apple too small?
  • apple over exposed?
  • shot at 70mm f/20 ISO 800 – good depth of focus from apple stem to eye
  • top button showing and lapel fold – risky
  • reversed left arm – still too subtle

(½h) updating this journal and Flickr site

(1½h) finishing editing and processing the weekend’s wedding shoot

(2h) Amersham Photographic Society – Lecture by Warren Alani – “Talk Sports”

21st April 2024

Hours 8,630 to 8,633

(4h) editing and minimally processing the 552 images shot yesterday:

  • 438 images imported to Capture One Pro (obvious duds removed at the thumbnail level)
  • 138 “keepers” exported to Lightroom then sent to Mark for consideration in the final selection

20th April 2024

Hours 8,626 to 8,629

(4h) prep and shooting Natalie and Adrian’s wedding (supporting Mark)

19th April 2024

Hours 8,623 to 8,625

(2h) planning and preparing for tomorrow’s wedding shoot where I’m supporting Mark Collins the main photographer

(1h) revising posing couples for weddings including my favourite YouTube: “How to Pose a Couple“

18th April 2024

Hours 8,620 to 8,622


(½h) updating this journal

(½h) researching the work of Jill Furmanovsky who was also with Hipgnosis

(2h) Amersham PiC Group

17th April 2024

Hours 8,615 to 8,619

(½h) updating this journal, mainly with the comments and results from yesterday evening’s print competition at the Stoke Poges Photographic Club

(1h) updating my Surrealism talk to include a section on influence on contemporary culture

(1h) Amersham Coffee Club where the group were very complementary about my “Canary Wharf Time Shift” shot on the 14th (image below at that date)

Image left, “High Notes”, from Monday evening’s shoot

(½h) experimenting with my new 2x tele-converter – photos taken without leaving my desk chair

Pretty sharp: notice the moisture bubbles on the left side of the apple and the shallow depth of focus

ISO 1600 1/500 s 400mm f/5.6

(2h) editing and processing Monday’s music shoot images – “Pletrum Catch” below:

16th April 2024

Hours 8,609 to 8,614

(3h) editing and processing the 500 images from yesterday evening’s music shoot at the Amersham Photographic Society

(1h) preparing prints for this evening’s print competition, details below.

(2h) print competition at the Stoke Poges Photographic Club; set subject “Tools of the Trade” + Open, judged by Amanda Wright

Image…..Comment
“Piste Basher”

Held back and 19

Good composition, lighting from the machine creates a natural vignette, lots of detail in the snow, well presented

A little burnt out on the snow in front of the machine where the head lights are most intense
“Baby Babirusa”

17

Would have been nice to see more of the animal’s eye. Too much empty space on the right of the image; could cut off about half of this
“The Pleasure Principle”

20

Amanda pointed out that she owns a Gary Numan album with this title and similar artwork on the front.

15th April 2024

Hours 8,603 to 8,608

(1h) selecting and preparing prints for Wednesday’s Amersham Coffee club meeting including the “Lady and the Poet” image, left which was:

  • shot yesterday with Yin
  • I approached the poet and Yin persuaded the woman (who was watching me shoot the poet) stand next to him and be part of the picture
  • background subtly darkened and desaturated

(½h) updating this journal and Flickr site

(1h) Sean Tucker YouTubes:

(1½h) YouTube: “Photography in a Shrinking Natural Habitat – FIAP Photo Academy“, fabulous artistic nature photography from Marco Gaiotti

(2h) Amersham Photographic Society – shooting musicians workshop

14th April 2024

Hours 8,598 to 8,602

(3h) shooting in London with my friend and mentor, Yin Wong, including:

  • Canary Wharf
  • Brick Lane
  • Shorditch

(½h) updating this journal

(1½h) processing today’s images – 218 exposures converted to 40 TIF files exported from Capture One to Lightroom, plus 4 ready processed composites (1 shift picture – “Canary Wharf Time Shift” above; “Reflection Triptych” right; and a 2 panoramas: “Portrait and Self Portrait I & II” below)

13th April 2024

Hours 8,596 to 8,597

(1h) preparing prints for next week’s competition at the Stoke Poges Photographic Club, including:

  • straightening up the table (using puppet warp in photoshop)
  • adding a wider drop shadow to the sides of the image than the top. This better emulates the shadow created by a lightbox with lights at the sides; making it look 3-dimensional
  • printing my “Memory (of Nefertiti)” on Photorag, Baryta and metallic papers to create a maquette for a potential entry to the Royal Academy’s Summer Exhibition , next year

(1h) updating this journal

12th April 2024

Hours 8,594 to 8,595

(1h) reshooting &

(1h) processing my version of René Magritte’s “The Pleasure Principle”, right

I am quite pleased with this image, which i think is:

  • totally minimalist, i.e., nothing extrinsic
  • a good representation of Magritte’s original
  • teasing hint at the original eyes and mouth
  • subtle posture of right hand suggesting desire

11th April 2024

Hours 8,590 to 8,593

(2h) shooting “The Pleasure Principle” above

(2h) mono group meeting my image below was appreciated for

10th April 2024

Hours 8,585 to 8,589

(1h) shooting Wednesday’s “Son of Man” image left

(1h) Amersham Coffee club

(1h) YouTube on path creationby PIXimperfect:

(1h) processing the “Son of Man” image above

(1h) creating a more elegant implementation of the Pink Floyd inspired “Division Bell” image right:

  • all the solid lines (except eyes) in the left face are defined by a single path, which is preserved in the file
  • the right figure is constructed as a copy of the left, so is just as flexible

9th April 2024

Hours 8,580 to 8,584

(3h) creating the “Division Bell – Line Drawing” right, inspired by the Amersham Beyond Group’s challenge to create a Pink Floyd album cover

(2h) at the Stoke Poges Photographic Club “Cutlery” team competition – my contribution below

Image…..Comment
“Salvador Dali’s Fork”

I was cajoled into jointly judging the above competition with fellow advanced photographer

8th April 2024

Hours 8,574 to 5,879

(1h) shooting the “Son of Man” image right

(2h) processing the above image, current issues include:

  • apple out-of-focus
  • left arm not reversed

(½h) processing a mono version of “Salvador Dali’s Fork” below:

  • section of sub-branch next to fork is in focus, grabs the attention, and is therefore distracting
  • far prong not as sharp as it could be
  • angle of fork with prongs well separated from back of spoon/ background – good

(½h) updating this journal

(2h) at the Amersham Photographic Society, print competition – no skin in the game

7th April 2024

Hour 8,573

(½h) updating this journal

(½h) updating my surrealism presentation and notes to include Giorgio de Chirico and Max Ernst

6th April 2024

Hour 8,572

(½h) identifying my priority art museums for our forthcoming visit to Paris:

  1. Centre Pompidou
    • Europe’s largest collection of modern and contemporary art
  2. Louvre
    • biggest and most famous
  3. Musee Picasso
    • Picasso
  4. The Pinault Collection – Bourse de Commerce
  5. Musée d’Orsay
    • impressionist and post-impressionist art
    • fabulous architecture in a former railway station
  6. L’Orangerie
    • Monet’s collection of water lily paintings

(½h) Desmond Morris “The Lives of the Surrealists”

“I believe that the best thing to do is to have one eye closed and to look inside, and this is the inner eye. With the other eye you have it fixed on reality, what is going on around you in the world.”

Max Ernst

5th April 2024

Hours 8,570 to 8,571

(1h) working on “Salvador Dali’s Fork” below making the cut out a little more accurate

(½h) preparing images for next week’s “Cutlery” team competition at the Stoke Poges Photographic Club

(½h) updating this journal

4th April 2024

Hours 8,567 to 8,569

(1h) shooting

(1h) processing the cutlery images for the Stoke Poges Team competition next week

Right: “Once a Spoon”

Below: “Salvador Dali’s Fork”

(1h) YouTube:

3rd April 2024

Hours 8,565 to 8,566

(1h) creating a first draft of the “Journal Banners” post

(1h) Amersham Coffee club

2nd April 2024

Hours 8,563 to 8,564

(2h) reading Desmond Morris’ “The Lives of the Surrealists”:

  • Andé Breton defined strict rules for the official Surrealist group which lead to many members being expelled including:
    • Salvador Dalí
    • Max Ernst
    • Alberto Giacometti
    • Stanley Hayter
    • Henry Moore
    • Robert Motherwell
    • Picasso
    • Yves Tanguy
  • Expelled artists who continued creating surrealist work were known as para-surrealist
  • Other artist that either left the movement or declined to join include:
    • Marc Chagall
    • Giorgio de Chirico
    • Paul Delvaux
    • Frida Kahlo
    • Paul Klee
    • René Magritte
    • Joan Miro
    • Man Ray
  • Artist that broke the rules but got away with it include:
    • Hans Arp
    • Leonora Carrington
    • Marcel Duchamp
    • Roland Penrose
    • Dorothea Tanning
    • and Breton and Mesens themselves
  • Edouard Mesens played Breton’s role within the English Surrealists
  • Francis Bacon applied to join the the Surrealists but was decline by Mesens on the grounds that his art was (wrongly, according to Morris) thought to be religiously influenced. Morris includes Bacon in his book on the basis that the themes of crucifixion, etc. relate to his sadomasochistic fantasies

1st April 2024

Hour 8,562

(1h) updating this journal including all the new month admin

(March 2024)