This journal records the details of my 10,000 hours deliberate practice fine art photography apprenticeship.
Hours 3,146 to 3,247
31st January 2020
Hours 3,242 to 3,247
Five hour straight editing landscapes from Patagonia.
An hour working on social media (Instagram).
30th January 2020
Hours 3,236 to 3,241
An hour working on Patagonian Landscapes. Followed by another hour producing B&W versions of the same images.
Two hours watching “Basquiat” the 1996 biopic/ of American postmodernist/neo expressionist artist Jean-Michel Basquiat directed by Julian Schnabel, another neoexpressionism artist.
An hour working on the People shots from the South America trip.
An hour working on social media.
29th January 2020
Hours 3,230 to 3,235
Two hours at Cafe Africa in Amersham mainly discussing my Gaucho prints.
Two hours updating the Gaucho images in the light of the comment from above. And starting work on a few of the Landscapes.
An hour and a half at the Colour Group of the Amersham Photographic Society.
Half an hour, categorising images from Patagonia.
28th January 2020
Hours 3,226 to 3,229
Two hours editing images from Patagonia.
Two hours at the Stoke Poges Photographic Club – Three of a Kind Competition.
27th January 2020
Hours 3,220 to 3,225
Two and a half hours editing and preparing images for:
- Next week’s Graffiti themed competition at the Stoke Poges Photography Club (SPPC)
- This week’s SPPC “Three of a kind” competition
- Cafe Africa in Amersham this Wednesday.
Half an hour researching Jean-Michel Basquiat one neo-expressionism, first discovered by me two days ago, but apparently dominated the art market from the mid 1970’s to mid ’80s. Taking influences from most of the radical art movements up until that time, it was a reaction to the conceptual and minimal art of the ’70s.
An hour further editing of images from South America.
Two hours at the Amersham Photographic Society; PDI competition, no entries personally.
26th January 2020
Hours 3,218 to 4,219
Two hours editing the Gaucho images.
25th January 2020
Hours 3,215 to 3,217
An hour’s YouTube:
- Nigel Danson: “The Secret to Black and White Photography Success“
- Sean Tucker: “How to deal with critics and trolls online“
- Sean Tucker: “How to nail exposure using manual mode” essentially, expose for the highlights, which pretty much remain the same from scene to scene in street photography unless the overall lighting changes. Use the histogram – pretty much as I do at the moment
- Art Assignment: “The case for abstraction“.
An hour editing images
An hour watching: David Bowie and Julian Schnabel interview on “Basquiat” (film in which they appeared and directed respectively; biography of contemporary artist Jean-Michel Basquiat) in which they make the following observations about art:
- “The basic tools of art transcend genres” David Bowie
- “Anyone can do art. However, the sale of art is controlled by the artworld” Julian Schnabel.
24th January 2020
Hour 3,214
Returned from trip to South America. Transferred images from laptop to desktop as per my “Second Revision: Workflow at 2,000 Hours“. Then importing the 590 3-star images into Lightroom Classic.
23rd January 2020
Hours 3,212 to 3,213
Two hours processing images whilst travelling.
22nd January 2020
Hours 3,209 to 3,211
Half an hour culling and processing images from the last few days.
Then a further two and a half hours processing.
21st January 2020
Hours 3,205 to 3,208
An hour and a half sunrise photography, followed by another half hour later in the morning. The goal was to make an original image of the Moai.
An hour processing the above.
Half an hour shooting Santiago city centre, including the the newly renamed “Dignity Square”, where there were a few protestors.
We luckily met the following graffiti artist working to cover up the tags and slogans, left by protestors, that deface this latest creation.
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Final half hour processing yesterday’s images.
20th January 2020
Hours 3,202 to 3,204
Half an hour shooting in the morning, followed by half an hour processing.
An hour shooting in the afternoon, followed by an hour processing.
19th January 2020
Hours 3,198 to 3,201
Three hours reviewing images from the last couple of weeks:
- Converted all 2 star images to either 3 or 1 stars
- Reviewed all current 3 start images, demoting many to 1 star
Total cull 650 images.
Half an hour shooting – first look at the Easter Island Moai.
Half an hour processing those images.
18th January 2020
Hour 3,197
Half an hour shooting whilst travelling.
Half an hour processing images.
17th January 2020
Hours 3,193 to 3,196
Three hours processing images.
One hour shooting at sunset.
16th January 2020
Hours 3,191 to 3,192
Half an hour processing images from the last few days. [At least 2 hours spent dealing with storage issues on my computer, but this is time that doesn’t count.]
An hour shooting landscapes as part of a 5 hour trek.
Half an hour shooting a model, outside, at sunset, using an off-camera flash.
15th January 2020
Hours 3,188 to 3,190
Two hours early morning landscape shoot.
An hour processing the morning’s images.
14th January 2020
Hours 3,186 to 3,187
Half an hour shooting at daybreak, followed by a further half hour processing those images and updating this journal.
Another half hour shooting whilst travelling, followed by another half hour processing those images.
13th January 2020
Hours 3,181 to 3,185
An hour shooting at day break.
An hour processing images and updating this journal.
An hour and a half shooting, including a lot of wildlife.
An hour and a half processing today’s images.
12th January 2020
Hours 3,178 to 3,180
Three hours processing images from the last couple of days hiking activity and updating this journal.
11th January 2020
Hour 3,177
One hour shooting during a 9 hour trek.
10th January 2020
Hours 3,175 to 3,176
An hour shooting as part of a 7 hour hike.
One hour processing images from yesterday and today, updates to this journal and the”Time Analysis at 3,000 Hours” post.
9th January 2020
Hours 3,171 to 3,174
An hour processing yesterday’s images.
An hour landscape photography whilst travelling south in Argentina.
A further two hours processing images from yesterday and this morning.
8th January 2020
Hours 3,165 to 3,170
Two hours shooting with our guide in Buenos Aires.
An hour processing.
Three hour highly productive night shoot.
7th January 2020
Hour 3,164
Half an hour shooting during a visit to the Bunos Aires Cemetry, where Eva Peron is buried, followed by half an hour processing.
6th January 2020
Hours 3,162 to 3,163
Two hour completing the post: “Time Analysis at 3,000 Hours” which breaks down how I’ve been spending my time by the categories defined by the academics working in the fields related to the 10,000 hour theory.
5th January 2020
Hours 3,157 to 3,161
Half an hour starting “Pablo Picasso: A collection of 855 works” will store for watching at a quiet time, i.e., on a plane or train sometime.
Half an hour reviewing the images from the International Landscape Photographer of the Year 2019. Reviewing the principle of landscape photography, learnt at the end of December, in the context of these pictures.
An hour working on some of the multiple-exposure images shot on the 23rd December 2019 including the following:
An hour catching up on the YouTubes I subscribe to:
- Sean Tucker: “Documentaries, Books, Meet Ups and Emails (A 2020 Channel Update)” – remains my favourite channel due mainly to Sean’s philosophy of life
- Nigel Danson: “The difference between Good and Bad Photographers” – essentially the commitment to learn and improve
- Pierre Lambert: “Why I hate this 135mm f/1.8 lens” just like the one I have – too big and tight for street photography
- Adorama: “The 5 Primary Lighting Patterns and Their Purpose” – most flattering to most dramatic:
- Flat
- Butterfly
- Loop
- Rembrandt
- Split.
Two hours finishing and publishing “Review of Autumn 2019“.
4th January 2020
Hours 3,151 to 3,156
An hour and a half watching and writing up; “Kirk Varnedoe speaks to Charlie Rose about Pollock“:
- To appreciate a Pollock (a drip painting) one needs to see it in real life to appreciate:
- a sense of scale
- the different textures gloss and matt
- the different techniques used with the same painting
- the intricacies of the details, and how these details support the overall image
- Relationship with alcohol:
- always know as a hard drinking, hard fighting man. Probably exaggerated for effect, at least initially. He started out in California, where he is know to have adopted a sophisticated European persona, but dressed like a cowboy after moving to New York
- “Sullen and tight-lipped when not drinking; aggressive and volatile when drunk.” However, never used to drink in the studio and “many of his pictures portray a sophisticated, feminine quality that contradicts his image as a person”
- in c. 1948 he worked with a doctor who managed to keep him off the booze for two years, which were the most productive and his creative high point
- 1950 was probably his most productive year, including working with a film crew to document the creation of some of his most famous works
- At the end of filming he took a drink and didn’t stop until the end of this life six years later.
- Breakthrough moment:
- 1947 when he put the canvas on the floor
- he “became part of the painting rather than merely observing it”
- painting became an almost balletic process
- “gave a new freedom to artists all over the world.”
- Later work:
- post 1951, abruptly stop drip-painting
- became darker and more figurative
- newer work was less popular with collectors
- his alcoholism deepened.
Two and a half hours finishing processing the images from the 23rd December.
An hour shooting and processing the following:
Half an hour watching and writing up Adorama’s “Rembrant Lighting“:
- Characterised by an inverted triangle on the unlit cheek of the model
- Works with both hard and soft lighting (more subtle and difficult to see using soft light).
Half an hour watching and writing up Adobe Creative Cloud “Find Your Artistic Voice – 3 Tips to Develop Your Creativity“:
- Understand and embrace who you are – strengths and weaknesses
- Make time for creativity – practice every day
- Focus on the things you can control – don’t worry too much about number of social media likes, etc. (unless this is core to your business plan).
3rd January 2020
Hours 3,148 to 3,150
Half an hour updating this journal and the “Review of Autumn 2019” post.
Half an hour watching and taking notes on “Visual Story Telling” mainly the effect of different lens focal lengths:
- Telephoto lens:
- Brings the subject closer to the background, e.g., dramatic effect of people at the seashore; if you can’t see their feet they often look as though they are in the waves
- When looking just at a person’s face, has a flattening effect and makes the face look broader.
- Wide angle:
- Exaggerates distance between subject and background
- Reduced depth of focus
- Can make people’s faces look comically narrow with a large nose
- 50mm: most natural; pretty much as we see it.
An hour working on the images of the 23rd December.
An hour watching: “Henri Matisse vs. Pablo Picasso: MoMA curators interview“, notes and jottings:
- Whilst Picasso is famous as a cubist and Matisse as a Fauvist, the totality of their respective oeuvres are more similar than this would suggest
- Matisse and Picasso stole each others’ ideas all the time. This was common practice amongst artists and Picasso was perhaps the most prolific. “What he sees today, appears on his easel tomorrow” Alberto Giacometti said of Picasso, “he doesn’t look with two eyes, but two cameras; I don’t want him in my studio!”
- Both artists were aware of their place in the history of art and very familiar with what has been done before them.
2nd January 2020
Hour 3,147
Half an hour updating this journal, and getting my new flash working which yesterday evening my camera, after previously working perfectly, claimed was an “incompatible accessory.” Problem was probably just that I last used it off-camera; once both units were reset for on-camera operation, all was fine.
Half an hour updating the “Review of Autumn 2019” post.
1st January 2020
Hour 3,146
Half an hour updating this Journal including all the first day of the new year admin.
Half an hour reviewing images from last month and ideas for other multiple exposures:
- Super imposing the silhouettes of travellers across the scene to show people moving.
- Start from the analysis and build the image top-down
- Emulate the images of Canan Tolon discovered last month.