Ten Thousand Hours Photography

10,000 Hours Deliberate Practice Learning the Art of Photography

April 2025

This journal records my actual 10,000 hours deliberate practice mastery of art photography

Hours 9,596 to 9,730

(May 2025)

30th April 2025

Hours 9,728 – 9,730 – Moremi, transfer to Mababe, stopping en route for a Mokoro ride on the Khwai river

(1½h) shooting on both land and water

(1½h) editing and processing the images so far

  • Red Veined Dropwing Dragonfly, above
  • River Guide, left
  • Lone Zebra, below

29th April 2025

Hours 9,713 to 9,717 – Moremi National Park

(2h) shooting first thing in the morning

(2h) editing and processing images from this morning and yesterday evening

(1h) shooting in the evening

  • Little Bee-Eater, above
  • Elephant Portrait, left
  • Grey Go-Away-Birds, below

28th April 2025

Hours 9,707 to 9,712 – Moremi National Park

(3h) shooting first thing, on morning game drive

(1½h) editing and processing the morning’s images

(½h) updating this journal including

(1h) shooting on evening drive

  • Lilac Breasted Roller Hunting Dragonfly, above
  • Roaring Lion, right
  • Majestic Lion, below

27th April 2025

Hours 9,703 to 9,706 – Okavango delta, the fly to the Moremi National Park

Shooting in the Okavango Delta Maun Botswana

(1h) shooting first thing in the morning, self-portrait, left, shot in the grounds of the lodge

(½h) editing and processing this morning’s images

(½h) updating this journal including starting a new banner for May

(2h) shooting in the Moremi National Park on afternoon game drive

Female Baboon with Infant Faces Off Hostile Male

26th April 2025

Hour 9,702 – arrive Johannesburg transfer to Maun in the Okavango Delta, Botswana

(1h) starting, writing and publishing the “Progress Milestones by Hour” which cross-references each of the 1,000 hour milestones with the dates at which they were achieved

25th April 2025

Hours 9,700 to 9,701 – Leave for Botswana on the evening flight to Johannesburg

(1½h) processing images from yesterday’s fabulous trip to Whipsnade Zoo including “Red-Billed Hornbill Triptych” above and “Great Grey Owl” below

(½h) updating this journal and the images in the associated Flickr site

24th April 2025

Hours 9,694 to 9,699

(4h) intensive shooting at Whipsnade Zoo with my friend and mentor, Yin Wong (who just happens to be a Fellow of ZSL, so I get in for free), including at least and hour and a half amongst the wallabies who roam free through the park. Many mothers with young still in their pouches

  • Wallaby with joey, above
  • Bateleur Eagle, bottom

(2h) editing and initial processing:

  • 1,480 exposures
  • 145 imports to Capture One Pro
  • 46 exported to Lightroom

23rd April 2025

Hours 9,693

(½h) Sean Tucker YouTube: “Is your Photography any Good?” – judge your own work by the following 3 words:

Intention:
do you set out with purpose		“All great acts are rule by intention.
What you mean is what you get”
Brenna Yovanoff
“Intentionality fuels the master’s journey. Every master is a master of vision.”
George Leonard
Consistency:
have you developed a distinct and recognisable “look” that you can repeat at will		“Consistency is the heartbeat of mastery. It transforms fleeting sparks into enduring flames.”
Farshad Asi
“There is nothing worse than a sharp image of a fuzzy concept.”
Ansel Adams
Originality:
is your look identifiably yours		“A poor original is better than a good imitation”
Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Very pertinent to where I am in this project

(½h) writing up the above video and this journal

[six hours that don’t count driving to Hatfield, Bristol and back, collecting the final mounted prints and delivering my F panel submission to the Royal Photographic Society]

22nd April 2025

Hour 9,692

(1h) selecting and processing PDIs for the Stoke Poges finals

[Lots of time driving around collecting prints, collating and doing on-line admin for my potential RPS Fellowship submission]

21st April 2025

Hour 9,691

(1h) reviewing and fixing errors in the “Surrealism 100 Years on” post and updating this journal with all the links to it

20th April 2025

Hours 9,689 to 9,690

(2h) working on the “Surrealism 100 Years On” post

19th April 2025

Hours 9,687 to 9,688

(3h) working on the “Surrealism 100 Years On” post

18th April 2025

Hours 9,685 to 9,686

(½h) shooting the Stoke Poges Easter service by the flagpole and procession

(1h) editing and processing the above

(½h) creating thumbnails to populate the Presentation Layout for my prospective Fellowship panel

17th April 2025

Hours 9,679 to 9,684

(2½h) implementing the edits to my F panel suggested by Chris Palmer yesterday, including completely recreating:

  1. the Magritte poster image, left
  2. “By Double Secret”, below, with the Charles Babbage’s Difference Engine internals in sharp focus

(1h) ordering mounted prints

(½h) updating this journal

(2h) Amersham PiC Group

16th April 2025

Hours 9,674 to 9,678

(½h) updating this journal, mainly with comments from yesterday evening’s competition at SPPC

(1½h) Amersham Coffee and Lunch clubs including discussion of Sarah Lipman’s recently exhibited print and another submitted to the Taylor Wessing portrait prize, and Monday’s presentation by Linda Bembridge

(1½h) looking at options for reorganising my potential F-Panel with Chris Palmer, including replacing “The Conversation” which he considered to be weak with “Man and Woman”, right

(1½h) implementing the changes suggested by Chris

15th April 2025

Hours 9,667 to 9,673

(2h) finishing re-editing my F panel images to address the issues identified by Martin Warner

(½h) creating 2 new versions of my Statement of Intent

(1h) creating photoshop actions to produce JPegs for printing 16×20 with at least a 1 inch white boarder, stroke and nice drop shadow

(½h) creating and checking the JPegs for printing, and ordering “trial” prints on Hahnemuhle Photorag paper

(½h) updating this journal

(½h) finishing and publishing the “Winter 2024/25” post

(2h) Stoke Poges Photographic Club – print competition, set subject: “Book Titles”

Image…..Comment
“Do AndroidsDream of Electric Sheep”

16

Clever idea, but lacking in impact
“Industrial Human Condition”

Straight to 20

This is a very clever picture, the block of maroon on the right provides essential balance

Very well executed
“Man with Alpine Chough”

18

Well presented and mysterious, but didn’t quite get the concept; not as strong as some of the others

14th April 2025

Hours 9,659 to 9,666

(½h) updating this journal and Flickr site with the images created over the last couple of days

(2h) adding to the “Winter 2024/25” post:

  • top 10 images
  • technical skills
  • new artists & philosophers

(3h) re-editing F panel images

(½h) creating 2 new versions of my Statement of Intent; one developing the “Becoming Magritte” theme, and the other very much shorter – sending to Laurie Turner for comment

(2h) Amersham Photographic Society – presentation by Linda Bembridge FRPS, ‘Abstract a Little Landscape’ – fabulous abstracts, often hand-finished with gold paint

13th April 2025

Hours 9,651 to 9,658

(2h) reshooting the self portraits, with head displaced, right, or replaced with mobile phone, image 7

(4h) recreating the the above pictures, managing the shadows is the hard part

(1h) editing other images to address issues identified by Martin Warner

(1h) preparing and ordering an example mounted print

12th April 2025

Hours 9,647 to 9,650

(½h) updating this journal

(1½h) reshooting the “Into the Blue” image with greater ambient light, left

(2h) processing this image

11th April 2025

Hours 9,641 to 9,646

(6h) working on my potential F Panel including:

  • editing and processing the “Into the Blue” image, above, shot yesterday
  • editing and reshaping the “” image, right, particularly focusing on the feet and ground shadow
  • editing and reshaping a number of other images to correct photoshop errors identified by Martin Warner
  • creating a photoshop action to automatically smooth a jagged line; useful on masks where a selection has left a stepped diagonal. Works by:
    • bluring a selection
    • expanding the selection a tad
    • resharpening using the levels tool
  • working out the sizing of images if flush mounted on 40×50 boards

10th April 2025

Hours 9,636 to 9,640

(1h) finishing off the processing done yesterday for my F panel

(1h) updating this journal

(1½h) shooting an “Into the Blue” image, right; version with curtains doesn’t panel as well as the version without above

(½h) preparing prints for next week’s “Book Titles” competition at the Stoke Poges Photographic Club

(1h) Amersham Mono Group

9th April 2025

Hours 9,630 to 9,635

(1h) finishing the recreation of the “Sunny Eye” image based on the eye image shot yesterday

(1h) at the Amersham coffee club, mainly looking at Jeremy Schrire’s excellent street photography of India, New York and London

(½h) shooting a new background for my “Industrial Human Condition” image

(3½h) recreating:

  • “The Industrial Human Condition”, above
  • “Magritte’s Mirror Image”, right, where the image in the mirror is an exact copy on the man outside (just slightly smaller and less contrasty)

8th April 2025

Hours 9,625 to 9,629

(1h) updating this journal, mainly notes from yesterday

(½h) deciding upon and preparing 8 images for my gallery entry on the Amersham Photographic Society’s website

(½h) updating “The Human Condition”, left, with suggestions made my Martin Warner yesterday

(½h) shooting eye photos of my nephews for an alternative “False Mirror” image

(1½h) editing and processing the above images and starting a reconstruction of the image

(1h) Stoke Poges Photographic Club where Chris Lloyd and I were judging the fun team competition

7th April 2025

Hours 9,620 to 9,624

(1½h) cutting and preparing print mounts for this evening’s competition at Amersham Photographic Society

(1½h) with Laurie Turner revising the panel for my prospective Fellowship panel:

  • “Magritte’s mirror image” needs the 2 subjects to be exactly the same and no maroon frame, as this makes it less obviously a mirror
  • Eye – needs reshooting
  • Statement of Intent should perhaps be more personal
  • Perhaps change title to “Becoming Magritte – 100 Years On”

(2h) Amersham Photographic Club – Print competition, by entries below:

Image…..Comment
Rene Magritte Missing Wall Lovers“Missing Wall Lovers”

20 – Second Place

Very dark contemporary image of the kind one rarely sees on the judging circuit
Magritte The Human Condition RPS Fellowship panel“The Human Condition”

18

Would maybe have like to see the feet of the easel

[Martin Warner suggested that I make the picture on the easel properly square, i.e., remove the blob in the top left corner, and perhaps add a bit of differentiation in the bottom right corner – both easy to do]

6th April 2025

Hours 9,619

(1h) processing the Stoke Poges Singers image, below

5th April 2025

Hours 9,614 to 9,618

(1h) shooting at the Stoke Poges Artisan Market

(2h) editing and processing images from the market

(1h) preping and shooting the Stoke Poges Singers in St Giles Church

4th April 2025

Hours 9,613

(1h) preparing PDI’s for the Print Competition at Amersham on Monday

3rd April 2025

Hours 9,607 to 9,612

(1h) updating this journal, organising the Whipsnade photos and Flickr Album

(1½h) shooting “Magritte’s Maroon Mirror Image”, right

(1½h) reprocessing the image, right

(2h) at the Amersham Beyond Group

2nd April 2025

Hours 9,603 to 9,606

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

(½h) reprocessing Barb’s favourite black dog on black background image; denoising, despotting and desaturating the background, and outputting to a higher resolution JPeg

(1½h) great discussions with Laurie Turner, Jeremy Schrire and Mark Seymour

(1h) editing and processing yesterday’s images from Whipsnade

1st April 2025

Hours 9,596 to 9,602

(4h) at Whipsnade Zoo, with my friend and mentor, Yin Wong, practicing using my new 400mm lens and shooting 616 exposures

(1½h) editing the day’s images down to 81 (long list, determined in length by the lack of time to trim further)

(1½h) Stoke Poges Photographic Club – zoom lecture by Molly Hollman: “Creative Flower Photography”

  • follow your photographic heros, even if you never post yourself
  • Instagram is a great source of daily inspiration

(March 2025)