February 2026

This journal is my contemporaneous record of mastering the art of photography through ten thousand hours of deliberate practice

Hours 10,478 to 10555

(March 2026)

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28^th February 2026

Hours 10,554 to 10,555

(½h) updating this journal

(1½h) updating the “100 Years of Surrealism, 10,000 hours of photography and an F Panel” presentation

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27^th February 2026

Hours 10,552 to 10,553

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26^th February 2026

Hours 10,549 to 10,551

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25^th February 2026

Hours 10,547 to 10,548

(1h) Amersham Coffee Club

(1h) further animating the Cast of Surrealist slide on the “100 Years of Surrealism, 10,000 hours of photography and an F Panel” presentation

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24^th February 2026

Hours 10,545 to 10,546

(1h) preparing prints for the evening’s competition that I didn’t, in the end, enter

(1h) Stoke Poges Photographic Club – three of a kind competition

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23^rd February 2026

Hours 10,541 to 10,544

(1½h) writing the script for the Women Surrealists in my “100 Years of Surrealism, 10,000 hours of photography and an F Panel” presentation – particularly Frida Kahlo

(½h) updating this journal

(2h) Amersham Photographic Society – zoom lecture by Julian Elliott “Around the World” – “observatories” in Tokyo are view points for the city sometimes free/ sometimes charging a fee

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22^nd February 2026

Hours 10,539 to 10,540

(2h) writing the script for the Women Surrealists in my “100 Years of Surrealism, 10,000 hours of photography and an F Panel” presentation – mainly Leonora Carrington & Dorothea Tanning

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21^th February 2026

Hours 10,537 to 10,538

(1½h) writing the script for the Women Surrealists in my “100 Years of Surrealism, 10,000 hours of photography and an F Panel” presentation

(½h) updating this journal

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20^th February 2026

Hours 10,534 to 19,536

(3h) Watching the BBC’s “Becoming Frida Kahlo“

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19^th February 2026

Hours 10,525 to 10,533

(2h) working on my “100 Years of Surrealism, 10,000 hours of photography and an F Panel” presentation mainly text for the Cast of Characters

(2h) watching the 2002 Miramax film “Frida” staring Salma Hayek, Alfred Molina and Edward Norton (as Nelson Rockefeller)

(½h) updating this journal

(1h) adding images to the above presentation

(2h) Amersham PiC Group meeting

(1½) watching the more recent, 2024, documentary film: “Frida”

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18^th February 2026

Hours 10,523 to 10,924

(½h) creating a new version of “Three Dogs on the Beach” as suggested by yesterday’s

(½h) updating this journal

(1h) Amersham Coffee Club

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17^th February 2026

Hours 10,519 to 10,522

(2h) Stoke Poges Photographic Club – Print competition – set subject: “Minimalism”

Image	…..	Comment
		Set Subject: Minimalism “Three Dogs on the Beach” 17 Too much sky and might have been better with the dogs on the right, as people read pictures left to right, and the negative space after the main subject tend to lead the eye out of the picture
		Set Subject: Minimalism “Omani Seascape After Hiroshi Sugimoto” 20 – first place Creative and certainly minimalist
		Open “Half a Strong Woman” 16 Lighting too harsh for a female subject; hard shadpw under the chin very unflattering Creative composition
		Open “Salvador Dali’s Persistent Memory of Agadir” 18 Works well, did not fully appreciate reference to the original artwork

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16^th February 2026

Hours 10,517 to 10,518

(2h) Amersham Photographic Society – PDI Competition – no skin in the game

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15^th February 2026

Hours 10,515 to 10,516

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14^th February 2026

Hours 10,514 – travelling home from Andora

(1h) working on my “100 Years of Surrealism, 10,000 hours of photography and an F Panel” presentation

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13^th February 2026

Hours 10,512 to 10,513

(½h) shooting just before dawn

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

(1h) working on my “100 Years of Surrealism, 10,000 hours of photography and an F Panel” presentation

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12^th February 2026

Hours 10,509 to 10,511

(½h) updating this journal

(2½h) researching and adding notes to my “100 Years of Surrealism, 10,000 hours of photography and an F Panel” presentation

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11^th February 2026

Hours 10,507 to 10,508

(½h) shooting at first light

(½h) processing the morning’s images

(1h) adding notes, primarily relating to the Dada period, to my “100 Years of Surrealism, 10,000 hours of photography and an F Panel” presentation

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10^th February 2026

Hour 10,506

(½h) making notes about Dada and the transition to Surrealism

(½h) processing the street images shot after dark yesterday evening

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9^th February 2026

Hours 10,504 to 10,505

(½h) updating this journal

(1h) researching and understanding the distinction between Paradoxical and Atmospheric Surrealism

Paradoxical Surrealism	Atmospheric Surrealism
René Magritte	Paul Delvaux
Elements clearly depicted but removed from their normal psychological associations	Dream like quality
Feeling of Isolation	Emotional dislocation
Logical contradiction	Moody/ eerie
Asks: “What does this mean?”	Asks: “Why does this feel so familiar?”

(½h) shooting in the evening

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8^th February 2026

Hour 10,503

(1h) making notes for the first, (“Follow the Money”), part of the “Surrealist Cast of Characters” slide of the “100 Years of Surrealism, 10,000 hours of photography and an F Panel” presentation, planned for the APS on 30^th March

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7^th February 2026

Hours 10,499 to 10,502

(1+1h) processing images from Oman, mainly cleaning up ICMs, and adding to this journal

(2h) at the Final of the North West Federation of Camera Clubs annual competition my one PDI entry fared indifferently:

Image	…..	Comment
		“Chameleon Catching Worm” 16 Good natural history shot, good background, but looks a little bit tilted and could do with straightening, and perhaps a little bright on the underside of the body

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6^th February 2026

Hours 10,496 to 10,498

(1h) updating this journal, mainly with notes from yesterday’s Amersham Beyond meeting

(1+1h) creating panels using the Lightroom technique advocated in the Martin Addison YouTube: “Making Panels in Lightroom Part 1” & “Part 2“

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5^th February 2026

Hours 10,492 to 10,495

(1h) researching Dali’s, 1931, The Persistence of Memory for my presentation of my reinterpretation for the Amersham Beyond group meeting this evening:

• locust/ grasshopper in The Great Masturbator (1929), symbolises phobic terror, specifically fear of penetration
• locusts generally are connected to biblical plagues, devastation and divine punishment
• ants represent frustration and decay

Cockroaches are only used in more contemporary art where they depict:

• poverty usually in an urban environment
• biological survival without nobility
• the life that persists when meaning collapses – survival without dignity

Cockroaches are not used in vanitas paintings as these usually depict domestic luxury

(1h) creating “Half a Strong Woman” and the mono version of “Tuscan Evening” as suggested by the judge in the recent competition, below:

(2h) Amersham Beyond Group – presenting my images below

Image	…..	Comments by the Viewers
		“Blue Green Abstract” On the big screen, it looks fantastic, it really needs to be displayed very large The more you look at it the more you see The horizontal ICM in the “Portal” area works well against the vertical in the rest of the picture
		“Reinterpretation of Salvador Dali’s, 1931, The Persistence of Memory” Dreamy background is Morocco vs Catalonia, and the iconography represents contemporary angst and existential threats The locust represents the biblical plague that heralds the end of the world, atop the melting SmartPhone embodying the technology and AI that will ultimately take over all meaning and purpose from our lives The SmartWatch Mounted by the cockroach is enslavement by technology, survival without meaning, and life without dignity Boneless self-portrait, with time washing over me, is defeat in the face of the inevitable “I didn’t get the memo about this needing to be a cheerful reinterpretation”

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4^th February 2026

Hours 10,489 to 10,491

(1½h) editing and processing images from yesterdays workshop on continuous lighting at the Stoke Poges Photographic Club, and last week in Oman

(½h) updating this journal

(1h) Amersham Coffee Club

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3^rd February 2026

Hours 10,484 to 10,488

(1h) transferring the recent Oman images from Capture One to Lightroom for further editing, categorisation and processing in Photoshop

(2h) watching and making notes on the Great Art Explained YouTube trilogy “Hieronymous Bosch, The Garden of Earthly Delights” (1490-1510), Part 1, Part 2, Part 3:

• when displayed, the triptych was usually closed showing the relatively dull, monochrome, depiction of God’s 3rd day of creating the earth, under a dome or “firmament”, separating land from the sea and creating the Garden of Eden. 2mx2m square when closed; 4mx2m when open. It opened only on holy days to show the contrasting painted panels inside
• Bosch was a direct contemporary of Leonardo da Vinci
• hardcore Christian propaganda with anti-Semitic and anti-Islamic messages
• Bosch was a member of The Illustrious Brotherhood of our Blessed Lady (one in sixteen people were employed by the church in ‘s-Hertogenbosch, his town), and he received many commissions from them
• symbolism:
  • hollowed out fruit – female genitalia
  • fish out of water – a reminder that the world order is in chaos
  • owl – represents the Devil himself
  • toads – poisonous and demonic – the Devils henchmen in Hell
  • empty shells, etc. – lack of spirituality, leading to sin
  • pearls – purity and virginity
  • fruit, such ad blackberries, with multiple seeds – promiscuity
  • rock formation in the shape of a weeping face, the biblical Golgotha (“skull hill” or “Calvary”) in Jerusalem where Adam’s skull was buried in a cave, directly underneath the spot where Jesus was crucified – used by Salvador Dali as a self-portrait – the connection with Golgotha is disputed/ unsubstantiated
  • being blindfolded – suggestion that the person has the capability to see the light but refuses
  • non-religious music considered sinful through association with other sins
  • bagpipes – infernal instrument; symbolic of lust as they resemble a scrotum and penis
  • Skull – momento mori – reminder that life is short but eternity lasts forever
• Dutch expressions:
  • “Swimming in the sea of Venus” is a Dutch expression for falling in love
  • “pluck fruit” euphemism for having sex
• The sale of indulgences by the church, i.e. payment of a fee to secure a place in heaven following a transgression, was common at Bosch’s time but banned shortly after his death and led to the Reformation
• Ergot, a toxic mould found on bread, common in Bosch’s time, contains a form LSD; suggesting that Bosch might have been influenced by hallucinations

(2h) intensive shooting at the Stoke Poges Photographic Club workshop on continuous lighting

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2^nd February 2026

Hours 10,480 to 10,483

(1h) transferring images of Oman from laptop to main computer with further editing and processing of images for this site

(½h) prep prints for this evening’s competition

(½h) updating this journal

(2h) Amersham Photographic Society – Print competition – my entries below:

Image	…..	Comment
		“Double Abstract” 17 Maybe a photograph of a roof; right side more interesting
		“The Unavoidable Face of Capitalism” 18 Clever, with a message and very well done

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1^st February 2026

Hours 10,478 to 10,479

(1h) editing and processing images from the last few days

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

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(January 2026)