January 2019 – Contribution to my 10,000 Hours Photography
Purpose of Journal
This Journal records my actual time spent learning the Art of Photography through 10,000 Hours Deliberate Practice.
Hours 1,643 to 1,801
31 January 2019
Hours 1,795to 1,801
Two hours Street Photography in London, plus visiting the Tate Modern.
Actually found myself alone in the Rothko Room which was a rare delight. To say that it was a spiritual experience might be stretching the point. However, I did enjoy the contemplative nature of the work somewhat more than I did when I first visited at the start of this project on 24th November 20117.
Also saw works by diaristic photographers:
and the social documentary photographers:
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Two hours writing up the above and updating the “Top 100 Photographers of All Time” post.
One hour processing images shot today.
30 January 2019
Hours 1,790 to 1,794
An hour writing notes from Steven Galvin’s talk yesterday evening and trying out better ways of extracting images from their backgrounds. Also realised that I had a fairly good technique when I wrote the post “Learning Architectural Photography.”
Just completed four hours straight working on the “Top 100 Photographers of All Time” post. Now up to photographer 85; 15 more to find and I think I’m going blind in the process, although definitely learning a lot.
29 January 2019
Hours 1,783 to 1,789
Five hours updating the “Top 100 Photographers of All Time” post. Biggest discovery was Nick Knight British fashion photographer that I had previously not known; outstanding innovative work.
Two hours at the Stoke Poges Photographic Club – Steve Galvin talk: “How to cheat at photography”.
28 January 2019
Hours 1,779 to 1,782
Ted talk “Slow Motion Multitasking” Tim Harford posits the benefits of working on multiple projects at the same time. Apparently, many great scientists and other creative people do this/ have done this:
- Ideas from one field can often be applied to another
- mental cross-training
- overcome mental blocks or plateaus by completely, but temporarily, switching what you’re working on.
Moved skiing images from laptop to main computer using Capture One EIP format files.
An hour editing Austrian images and updating this journal.
Two hours at the Amersham Photographic Society: PDI Competition
| Image | Comments from Amanda Wright (judge). | |
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Winter diptych of trees and frozen lake 18 Good sense of season. Nice matching colours in the images |
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Impressions of Borough Market 17 Not sure about the top of the image, perhaps you were under some sort of awning. Great that the man in the middle is almost completely sharp despite everything else being blurred. |
Ideas for other images:
- Cityscapes with zoom ICM
- Flowers or other items encased in ice and backlit.
27 January 2019
Hours 1,774 to 1,778
An hour updating this journal and associated Flickr site with images shot earlier this week.
An hour creating the following composite of a straight woodland image 37% superimposed on the same scene shot with dramatic vertical ICM. Lots of time spent colour balancing and toning.
An hour watching “Cezanne in Provence“:
- One of the few artists admired by Picasso
- Childhood friend of the famous French author Emile Zola
- Cezanne was a contemporary of the other Paris based impressionists but saw himself, and his work, as more provincial and deliberately primitive
- Primitive stylised technique seen as a precursor to cubism.
Two hours working on images including the following:
26 January 2019
Hours 1,771 to 1,773
An hour culling images from the last couple of days and exporting from Capture One to Lightroom Classic CC.
Two hours processing the above images.
25 January 2019
Hours 1,766 to 1,770
When shooting landscapes, portraits, or when I’m trying to be creative, I often find that I want to take a quick straight shot of something else and find myself worrying about all the camera settings I’ve changed and need to reverse, e.g., if I’ve switched off the Stead Shot I usually need to remember to switch it back on again when I next use the camera. Its easy to forget. Therefore, I have often wished for a button on my a99ii that would instantly reset everything to total auto. However, after further thought, my ideal would be one-button adaptation to the following shooting scenarios:
- Street: Quick and Easy Street Photography
- Action: Moving Subjects
- ICM: Intentional Camera Movement.
| Mode | ….. | 1 – Street | ….. | 2 – Action | ….. | 3 – ICM |
| ISO | Auto | Auto | 100 | |||
| Exposure control | Aperture | Aperture | Manual | |||
| Aperture | f/2.8 | f/2.8 | f/16 | |||
| Shutter speed | n/a | n/a | 1/4 sec | |||
| Focus mode | AF-S | AF-C | MF | |||
| Focus Area | Flexible Spot | Expanded Flex Spot | n/a | |||
| Metering Mode | Highlight | Multi | n/a | |||
| Steady Shot | On | On | Off | |||
| Auto Review | Off | Off | 2 Sec | |||
| White Balance | AWB | AWB | AWB | |||
| Quality | RAW | RAW | RAW |
An hour setting my camera to achieve the above and updating this journal. Not quite one button adaptation but nearly: twist the dial and then hit the confirm button.
Half an hour updating this journal with respect to yesterday’s member development evening about FIAP entries, followed by another half hour when coming home from London in the afternoon.
An hour shooting street in Borough Market and the Tate Modern – very much enjoying my new quick settings which see to be working well.
An hour watching YouTubes including:
- The Art of Photography: “Creative Photography vs Technical Photography” Ted Forbes highlights Martin Munkacsi who, whilst much less famous himself, was a major influence on Richard Avedon
- Pierre T. Lambert: “Snow Street Photography” – take away message: use a longer focal length to ensure than more falling snow is captured.
- Allan Markman: “Macro Still Life Photos” absolutely tremendous work produced from arrangements of found objects. Have added Markman to my list of all time great photographers.
Final hour simultaneously uploading yesterday and today’s images to Capture One and updating the “Top 100 Photographers of All Time” post.
24 January 2019
Hours 1,759 to 1,765
Up early to deal with technical problems with the long-term time lapse which stopped working yesterday afternoon.
Half an hour further balancing the Burnham Beeches Black Diptych of yesterday, plus half an hour updating this journal.
An hour and a half shooting mainly ICM images at Stoke Park – temperature below freezing, lots of snow on the ground.
Two and a half hours processing images from previous days.
Two hours at the Amersham Photographic Member Development evening: Paul Keene – FIAP competitions from the first person in the UK to achieve triple diamond status. Following thoughts and tips:
- Use FIAP competitions to try out images for PAGB; if they never get accepted for a FIAP salon they are unlikely to do well with the PAGB
- Average hit rate is about 25% for acceptance
- Very simple images that tell a story do best
- Shots of London or other UK cities can do well in international Travel competitions
- Know your audience look at the images that did well in the previous year’s salon before entering that competition.
23 January 2019
Hours 1,753 to 1,758
An hour writing up this journal for the events of the last couple of days.
An hour processing images and creating the following diptych.
Half an hour shooting at Langley Park.
Three and a half hours processing images from Langley, further tinkering with the above diptych and creating other images.
22 January 2019
Hours 1,745 to 1,752
Clear crisp morning bright blue sky; two hours shooting at Burnham Beeches, producing 293 exposures.
Two hours culling and processing images from this morning’s shoot.
How the weather can change in three hours: now snowing quite hard; out for an hour shooting at Stoke Common.
An hour processing those images.
Two hours at the Stoke Poges Photographic Club: Talk on legal right of photographers. In general, it is legal to photography anybody when the photographer is standing on public property and police have no power to stop you or to ask you to delete any images. However,
- Most land in the UK is not public property even though the public many in some circumstances have rights of access, e.g., London parks & Trafalgar Square, and shopping centres. Special bye-laws apply in airports, Tube and railway station.
- Police can move you on if you cause an obstruction or are otherwise interfering with the flow of traffic or pedestrians. Shooting in the same place on the Tube for more than 15 minutes requires a permit.
- Taking shots of people on two or more occasions constitutes harassment. So you can’t chase people around.
- Intellectual property issues occur if you are photographing people (everybody owns rights relating to the image of their own face), privately owned buildings.
21 January 2019
Hours 1,738 to 1,744
Five hours working on the “Top 100 Photographers of all Time” post up to entry no. 40.
Two hours at the Amersham Photographic Society: Ron & Maggie Tear “The Big Print Show”
20 January 2019
Hours 1,732 to 1,737
Shot to the right taken at about 12:30 in the morning as a test in anticipation of the lunar eclipse; nice clear sky. Up at 5am, and hopes dashed due to complete cloud cover.
Full day researching Ernst Hass, John Free and John Franks and others for my “Top 100 Photographers of all Time” post. Having apparently lost my initial draft of that post, I had to recreate it and worked on the content all day. Now up to photographer 23 out of my top 100.
19 January 2019
Hour 1,731
Read a great quote from the Michael Freeman “50 Paths to Creative Photography” book:
- “Creativity doesn’t suddenly blossom at the magic number of 10,000 hours. It grow – maybe in fits and starts – more and more as you put the time and effort in.”
Chapter 9 – Full Immersion
Time working on the ICM Borough Market images.
Researching images for the Skin and Blister Band, who I might get to shoot for.
18 January 2019
Hours 1,726 to 1,730
3 hours updating images as a result of feedback from yesterday’s PIC group presentation of my proposed changes to my LRPS submission.
An hour further updating the Camber Sands images – part of trawl for alternative pictures to submit.
An hour updating this journal and the associated Flickr site.
17 January 2019
Hours 1,720 to 1,725
Was tempted out by the first flurry of snow at dawn this morning; which stopped the moment I left my front door.
Some ICM practice in Hastings Meadow and an hour and half reviewing and processing the images.
Actually, I like them quite a lot. Particularly the image below. Although, it is slightly unbalanced in terms of tonality (favouring the right side – sky slightly brighter on the left but not enough to compensate). A further hour spent “experimenting”.
Two hours at the PIC sub-group of the Amersham Photographic Society presenting my failed LRPS panel and replacement images.
Issues were with images:
1. Halo around main image and magenta colour cast
5. Portrait should have the face completely in focus
7. Halo around the buildings and bridge.
| Old Image | ….. | Revised Image | ….. | Steve & Chris’s Comments |
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Still needed some work to prevent highlights being blown in the robes of the second penitent. (Actually done in the image shown). “Not a strong image.” Suggest replacing. |
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Much better portrait, although still worth considering replacing. Ensure that the ear is not cut off when the print is mounted. |
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Chalk and cheese! This one’s good enough. |
Steve didn’t like the Llama shot (2), and Chris felt that the sky in image (4) was too cyan. In general images 1, 2, 4 & 5 could usefully be replaced with ones of higher quality. [Counter to this was the view expressed on the actual assessment day: the triangle of predominantly blue images (2, 4 & 7) was a strong compositional element of the panel itself. Would have been even better were this extended to be a “W” shape including images 6 & 10].
Steve and Chris agreed that the bottom row was now fine, although Chris suggested swapping the orders of images 6&7 and 9&10 to create greater tonal balance [to some extent also achieving the “W” compositional effect suggested above].
16 January 2019
Hours 1,716 to 1,719
First hour updating this journal mainly with the results of yesterday’s PDI competition at Stoke Poges Photography Club.
Half an hour reading the Joseph Albers book “Interaction of Color”. [Note to self: buy the iPad ap. so that I can try the experiments myself.]
An hour shooting largely ICM images at Borough Market. This is the first time I have visited the market, which was not at all what I expected; more food oriented and European that other markets such as Spitalfields.
An hour at the Tate Modern mostly shooting people interacting with the art. Some shots incorporating rotational camera movement.
Half an hour updating this journal on the train home.
An hour uploading and starting the culling process of the 211 exposures made today; first cull to 46.
15 January 2019
Hours 1,709 to 1,715
First hour updating this journal with notes from yesterday’s competition and updating the associated social media sites.
One hour reading and contemplating Michael Freeman’s 7th path to creative photography: “Zen & Photography.” As Freedman states, practically, Zen is all about practice, which fits in well with the objective of this project. 3 key Zen lessons:
- Practice to transcend technique so that art becomes an “artless art” growing out of the unconscious:
- always be looking for potential images, with an in-built frame vision
- become so adept at using the camera that you can pick it up and shoot without thinking.
- Live completely in the moment – become totally immersed in and aware of the finest nuances of the scene in front of the camera
- Strip things back to the barest of essentials – create images that contain only those elements required to communicate what is to be said. Eliminate all distractions.
Hour processing yesterday’s images from Langley including the diptych to the right.
Two hours working on the “Top Photographers of All Time” post.
Two hours at the Stoke Poges Photographic Club – Print Competition: “Insects” and Open
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“To be a Bee” 17 Limited colour palette, looks at though it was shot in a studio [backhanded complement]. |
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“Reflections of Stoke Park” 16 Sky washed out, may have been better if even more of the top half of the image were cut off. PDIs are better in landscape. [Better as a print as there is more detail in the sky which is lost when projected.] |
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“Orange Pink and Blue Greens at Dawn” 16 Not very interesting! Again, as a portrait format, would have been better as a print. |
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“Walking Away from Labour” Held back – 19 Nice colour popping and movement in man’s feet. |
14 January 2019
Hours 1,703 to 1,708
Half an hour shooting in Langley Park very flat light, so practising ICM.
Two and a half hours working on the “Top Photographers of All Time” post
An hour preparing images for both today and tomorrow’s print competitions.
Two hours at the Amersham Photographic Club – Print competition.
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“Your Thoughts are Behind You” 16 Appealing image well seen. However the image is more about the street art than the connection with the man. [Actually in the print it is clear that the graffiti is super sharp and the man is just slightly soft. Would have been better the other way round.] |
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“Impressions of Frost at Stoke Park” 16 Almost Japanese feel to the image – very much enjoying the trees to the left. However, the block of orange in the trees to the right is overpowering. Good technique – worth persisting with. |
Best images of the evening:
- General: Impressions of Borough Market by
- Advanced: Two birds by
13 January 2019
Hours 1,697 to 1,702
First hour:
- Updating this journal
- Further editing the Camber Sands images – simplified and more dramatic colour toning
- Update Tags on Yesterday’s Parkrun images.
An hour finishing the Camber Sands images and publishing the Flickr Album
An hour collating information for a post about the top 100 photographers, as suggested as the first path in Michael Freeman’s book “50 Paths to Creative Photography“.
Two hours watching the the YouTube: “Impressionists, Session 1” and updating this journal.
Another hour starting a post on “Top Photographers of All Time”.
12 January 2019
Hours 1,691 to 1,686
An hour and a quarter shooting 793 exposures as the official Park Run photographer Black Park. There were 775 athletes. In addition to pre-race shots and the obligatory posed volunteer image, the goal is to get a shot of most runner at the start, and all of them just before they finish. Hence the large number of exposures. Two and three quarters hours culling to 328, and a further hour creating the following cover shot, updating the Flickr site, Black Park Parkrun Group, and this journal. (See my blog post: “Photography for Parkrun: Black Park“).
Shot from a set of steps to provide a viewpoint above the heads of the runners.
Key camera settings:
- Aperture priority
- Auto ISO so that it keeps the shutter speed close to 1/250 sec, i.e., no ISO constraints
- Aperture c. f/9.0 for shots at the start and as wide as possible elsewhere
- Continuous auto-focus
- Extended spot focus
- Whole screen monitoring
- Auto white balance
- Burst mode during the start, single shot at all other times.
Fifth hour: Colour toning the Camber Sands images in an attempt to achieve dramatic yellow-blue contrast.
Final hour YouTube: “The Art of the Impossible: MC Escher and Me – Secret Knowledge” BBC Documentary by the cosmologist Professor Sir Roger Penrose. Photographic ideas that occurred to me:
- Is it possible to combine exposures to achieve impossible Escher like architectural images?
- Combine still life with street photography so that the images blend seamlessly.
11 January 2019
Hours 1,687 to 1,690
3 hours finishing Diptychs and Triptychs for the Amersham Beyond group.
YouTube: “Piet Mondrian Art Documentary” shows the gradual progression of the artist’s work from classical Dutch landscape painter to his unique geometric abstract style.
10 January 2019
Hours 1,682 to 1,686
Three hours working on my Diptychs and Triptychs to produce a style which may lead to a presentation at Amersham and Beyond. Settings that seem to work are as follows:
Time spent watching YouTubes:
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“The Life and Work of Yves Klein told by Rotraut [his wife]” – the mono colourist
- BBC Art Series: “1/6 The Rules of Abstraction” – apparently there are no rules. So badly panned in the comments that it is remarkable that episodes 2-6 in the series were made or certainly uploaded to YouTube. Lots of emphasis on attempts to represent the spiritual and the role of theosophy in the works of the early abstract artists such as Paul Klee and Piet Mondrian. Mondrian represented that the vertical lines in his painting represented the male and the horizontal the female.
- A few clips on pour painting.
9 January 2019
Hours 1,679 to 1,681
First hour, updating this journal with the sky images taken yesterday.
An hour updating the Camber Sands image to enhance the blue-yellow contrast using colour balance in Photoshop.
I liked the simplicity of the above image in terms of both colour and composition.
Three elements:
- Lots of foreground negative space
- Sun rays pointing at figures on shoreline
- Figures themselves silhouetted against a white and blue sea.
An hour working on Diptychs and Triptychs following a request by Steve Brabner of Amersham and Beyond for a potential presentation.
8 January 2019
Hours 1,670 to 1,678
Shooting the January edition of the Hasting Meadow Skys from all angles at 6am, 9am, 12 noon, 3pm and 6pm. So up early and in the dark. (Hour and a quarter shoot time.)
| West | ….. | North | ….. | East | ….. | South |
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| 6am 16mm f/9 | 6am 16mm f/9 | 6am 16mm f/9 | 6am 16mm f/9 | |||
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| 6am 35mm f/9 | 6am 35mm f/9 | 6am 35mm f/9 | 6am 35mm f/9 | |||
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| 9am 16mm f/9 | 9am 16mm f/9 | 9am 16mm f/9 | 9am 16mm f/9 | |||
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| 9am 35mm f/9 | 9am 35mm f/9 | 9am 35mm f/9 | 9am 35mm f/9 | |||
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| 12noon 16mm f/9 | 12noon 16mm f/9 | 12noon 16mm f/9 | 12noon 16mm f/9 | |||
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| 12noon 35mm f/9 | 12noon 35mm f/9 | 12noon 35mm f/9 | 12noon 35mm f/9 | |||
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| 3pm 16mm f/9 | 3pm 16mm f/9 | 3pm 16mm f/9 | 3pm 16mm f/9 | |||
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| 3pm 35mm f/9 | 3pm 35mm f/9 | 3pm 35mm f/9 | 3pm 35mm f/9 | |||
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| 6pm 16mm f/9 | 6pm 16mm f/9 | 6pm 16mm f/9 | 6pm 16mm f/9 | |||
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| 6pm 35mm f/9 | 6pm 35mm f/9 | 6pm 35mm f/9 | 6pm 35mm f/9 |
An hour updating this journal mainly with thoughts from yesterday’s talk at the Amersham photographic Society.
Updated the following image which although shot on the 10th May last year, was rediscovered yesterday and, I think, has competition potential. The Japanese Atrium Image, shown two down, was shot prior to the start of this 10,000 hour project, but has done well in competition. I think (hope) this is better.
An hour working on the Camber Sands images: enhancing saturation and contrast in Capture One Pro to bring out blue-yellow contrast of sky and sand.
An hour and a half watching “Behind the Artist” YouTubes: the last part of Pompidou and “Phillipe Parreno – Staging an Exhibition” about the conceptual artist’s radical transformation of the Palais de Tokyo (Paris) in 2913, to include installations involving multiple mediums including film, music, dance and robots.
Two hours at the Stoke Poges Photographic Club.
7 January 2019
Hours 1,663 to 1,669
An hour finishing processing images from the Cliveden Cross Country Run,
Three hours selecting and processing images for the forthcoming APS and SPPC competitions, reminded myself of some of my best stuff that I had forgotten about.
Completed the PAGB “Awards for Photographic Merit” application form.
An hour working on a new workflow which will more effectively store RAW files alongside the processed images, necessary for FIAP submissions. Watched the Joe Cornish YouTube on editing with Capture One:
- Turn image upside-down to better see the abstract qualities of the image
- Use the advanced colour editing tab on a new layer to achieve colour separation in selected parts of the image.
Two hours at the Amersham Photographic Society – Speaker: Victoria Hillman “Creative Nature” key thoughts as follows:
- Use an LED light in the field to illuminate plants from underneath or behind
- When compositing shots, use one image as a frame for another – this can be applied to all genres of photography
- Use macro to create creative abstracts, e.g., ferns shot contre jour
- Try shooting the stream in Hastings Meadow (needs sunshine).
6 January 2019
Hours 1,659 to 1,662
Half an hour shooting runners at the Cliveden 10k cross-country race.
Half an hour watching the Behind the Artist series YouTube: “Pompidou” (an hour long but I fell asleep, which reflects my tiredness more than my interest in the video).
An hour catching up on Instagram then starting to process images from this morning.
Two hours learning how to creating a time lapse video from the still shots using Lightroom (YouTube Scott Donschikowski) then using this to process the images captured for WG Carter, my corporate client (see my post: “Learning Architectural Photography“).
5 January 2019
Hours 1,657 to 1,658
An hour watching the Behind the Artist series YouTube: “From Pablo to Picasso” which covers the early part of the artist’s life and the events leading to his invention of Cubism. As a child and young adult Picasso studied deeply and copied/ stole from all the great classical artists, achieving early acclaim for his academic artistic prowess with medals from the top salons. The invention of photography and his perceived need for painting to provide something that photography cannot was a key motivator behind the non-representational aspects of his portrait of Gertrude Stein borrowing this time from traditional African art to provide a simplified and purer expression. Les Demoiselles d’Avignon (1907), usually recognised as the first cubist painting, is a development of this technique and motivated by the urge to create a more emotionally realistic alternative to Henri Matisse’s “happy” fauvist style.
Hour watching “Behind the Artist: Paparazzi” which makes an argument for the paparazzi aesthetic.
4 January 2019
Hours 1,654 to 1,656
An hour processing the following three semi abstract ivy-on-tree images from yesterday:
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Each required 5 layer adjustments:
- New layer for cloning; remove distractions, bright spots in background trees, litter on grass and edge clutter
- Hue/ Saturation; make grass more natural looking, or in the case of the final image to make the yellow in the ivy pop
- Colour balance; add colour contrast starting with:
Cyan-Red Magenta-Green Yellow-Blue Shadows 10 -10 -10 Mid-tones 0 0 0 Highlights -10 10 10 then selectively scaling back and adjusting the mid-tones to make it look more natural
- Masked curves adjustment applied to the middle of the truck of tree and where the ivy is; lighten and add a little contrast
- Unmasked curves; lighten and add a tad more contrast overall.
An hour updating this journal and associated social media sites.
An hour working on images from Camber Sands shot on the 14th December.
3 January 2019
Hours 1,650 to 1,653
An hour shooting at Stoke Park just after dawn, very flat light so had to work hard to find anything worth photographing. However, very pleased with the following:
Two hours processing images from this morning and yesterday.
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An hour watching the YouTube: “Behind the Artist Series: La Corbusier” about the French-Swiss architect and purist painter born Charles-Édouard Jeanneret. As an architect La Corbusier used reinforced concrete to create innovative houses, particularly for the masses in cities, where the floors were held in place independently from the walls. This provided considerably greater flexibility of design and allowed them to become “factories for living in”, i.e., spaces optimised for the activities of the people living in them. His principles of minimalist design is manifest in the Villa Savoye which, whilst a relatively small free standing domestic dwelling, is considered to be one of the most important architectural designs of all time using basic geometric shapes such as cylinders and cubes.
2 January 2019
Hours 1,646 to 1,649
An hour shooting at Burnham Beeches; poor flat light so concentrated on practising Impressionist Woodland Photography techniques.
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Two hours finishing and publishing the “Second Review of Autumn” post.
One hour processing images shot this morning.
1 January 2019
Hours 1,643 to 1,645
An hour each working on:
- updating this journal including adding a new menu structure grouping journal pages by year
- working on the “Second Review of Autumn” post.
- working on plan for the year.