July 2019 – Contribution to my 10,000 Hours Photography
July’s contribution to my ten thousand hours photography apprenticeship.
Hours 2,415 to 2,550
31 July 2019
Hours 2,549 to 2,550
Two hours working on the CPAGB Informal Advisory Day post. Shot the following macros with my 100mm lens and half power ring flash:
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30 July 2019
Hours 2,547 to 2,548
An hour finishing the selection of images for the horticultural show. Exported to Lightroom and made a Flickr Album.
An hour writing a first draft of a post about organising images for my CPAGB submission.
29 July 2019
Hours 2,545 to 2,546
Two hours working on the horticultural show images – feel I could have done this so much better.
Tips for next year:
- Establish exactly what they want, what they are going to use the images for and when they need them. Perhaps shoot much less or with a simplified workflow straight to jpeg
- Make a list of priority shots – agreed with organiser
- Get a good cover shot
- Remember the 5 shot types – from my post: “Second Revision: Workflow at 2,000 Hours.“
- Flash images of award winners, bounce off tent ceiling and use a catchlight card. The one image where I did this worked well.
- Shoot award winners from eye height.
28 July 2019
Hours 2,539 to 2,544
First hour, culling images from yesterday’s horticultural show. Realised what a gem of an opportunity it was yesterday to photograph the flower whilst the judging was occuring, i.e., exclusive and uninterrupted access to fabulous specimens, ideally presented.
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An hour selecting images for this afternoon’s informal CPAGB advisory session with the Amersham Photographic Society. [May write a post on this along the same lines as my LRPS Advisory Day.]
Four hours in Amersham at the advisory session.
27 July 2019
Hours 2,533 to 2,538
Five hours shooting the 2019 Stoke Poges, Wexham and Fulmer Horticultural Show including 3 hours shooting the exhibits, an hour shooting the stalls, brass band, etc., and another hour at the prize giving. Making friends with my 100mm Macro lens with all it’s focusing challenges.
An hour importing the 438 images to Capture One Pro and starting the culling/ selection process.
26 July 2019
Hours 2,531 to 2,532
First hour updating Henley Traditional Boat Festival images to lighten the faces of subjects. This simple adjustment made a surprising difference to the impact of several images.
An hour preparing a submission to the 4th Sonar Bangla International Salon in India including some new Street images..
25 July 2019
Hour 2,530
An hour updating this journal, editing some of the Henley Traditional Boat Festival images and exporting to social media.
24 July 2019
Hours 2,524 to 2,529
** Mini milestone: received notification of my first FIAP Award – “Diploma from APG” from the Georgian Drag Salon 2019 for my “Autumnal Diptych” image.
First Three hours working through yesterday’s images – mainly character portraits from the Black Country Museum.
An hour watching Lisa Langell’s presentation to B&H “Photography is a journey“. Ideas for photos:
- Multiple exposures of flocks of flying birds
- Flowers of animals shot against a white board backdrop.
An hour reading the Tate publication “Art Photography” by David Bate, I have previously read “Photography: The Key Concepts“.
An hour preparing a submission to the 4th Sonar Bangla International Salon in India.
23 July 2019
Hours 2,519 to 2,523
Four hours shooting at the Black Country Museum with Yin Wong and (later) Ruth from the Amersham Photographic society.
An hour loading today’s 535 images into Capture One Pro and initially culling.
22 July 2019
Hours 2,513 to 2,518
First hour sorting prints, need best 10 for the informal CPAGB advisory session this coming Sunday in Amersham. Also some need reprinting and then there’s the new composites, etc.
Next hour culling and processing images from the last few days.
Third hour selecting new potential CPAGB print candidates and taking these to the printers (last part of this doesn’t count as deliberate photography practice.)
Three hours further processing yesterday’s images.
21 July 2019
Hours 2,505 to 2,512
First hour culling images from yesterday evening.
Five hours shooting with Yin Wong (fellow member of the Amersham Photographic Society, author of the two book on Street photography I bought recently, speaker at APS, ARPS and EFIAP Platinum) – just him and me. Wow – still slightly in awe.
Tip of the day: “Once you have taken a shot, think about how it could be improved; what’s good about it and what can you change to make it more interesting.”
A further hour culling images from yesterday.
Final hour shooting the excellent jazz trio at the Thames Traditional Boat Festival.
20 July 2019
Hours 2,500 to 2,504
First hour updating this journal with images from the last few weeks – trying to address the backlog.
Three hours at the Thames Traditional Boat Festival in the evening shooting the bands playing and the illuminated sail past.
Final hour importing and initially culling the 507 images made during the evening.
19 July 2019
Hours 2,493 to 2,499
First hour: created a new version of the “lest we forget” soldier in Burnham Beeches with the artifacts where the crossing wires were removed blurred somewhat.
An hour updating this journal.
Three hours shooting at the Thames Traditional Boat Festival in Henley where I was the official photographer.
Two hours loading today’s 341 images into Capture One Pro, culling (to 72) and initial processing.
18 July 2019
Hours 2,484 to 2,492
Half an hour shooting the revised macro shot of the seed below. This time using my ring flash and a much smaller aperture.
An hour and a half shooting, mainly grasses after the rain, in Burnham Beeches.
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Two hours processing the above images
An hour and a half watching “Peggy Guggenheim: Art Addict“.
An hour exporting images from Capture One Pro to Lightroom Classic, further editing, categorising and adding to Flickr.
Half an hour updating this journal.
Two hours watching the film biography “Pollock” about the eponymous abstract expressionist.
17 July 2019
Hours 2,476 to 2,483
An hour processing the following macro image of a seed I thought was attractively positioned on the windowsill of my bathroom this morning.
Three hours working on the Sunflower 2019 submission, including processing the Morecambe Bay image below.
Two hours submitting images to the “Bon Voyage 2019” FIAP Salon.
Two hours collating data on how I’ve been spending my time since I started this project with a view to writing a post on this subject.
16 July 2019
Hours 2,591 to 2,595
Four hours processing images from Morecambe Bay and the Lakes in Capture One Pro including the production of the following B&W landscapes:
One hour completing the admin and processing images for the Sunflower 2019 FIAP Salon.
15 July 2019
Hours 2,589 to 2,590
An hour processing images from the last few days and updating this journal.
Second hour transferring images of Morecambe Bay from my Laptop to Desktop in line with my “Second Revision: Workflow at 2,000 Hours” post.
14 July 2019
Hours 2,467 to 2,468
Processing images shot yesterday. Notes:
- Setting the white balance to Shade rather than Cloudy, which would have been a more accurate description of the weather; or auto, which would probably have defaulted to Cloudy; gave much better results that I could see there and then.
- Should have attempted to get lower so that I had people’s heads above the horizon. Also find a position to get above others. (Dog and giraffe).
- Really needed a plan with a draft shot list when I set out. If only: get establishment shot, a few portraits, group shots, detail shots, and something a little bit different: “the decisive moment”.
Half an hour’s night photography in the evening.
13 July 2019
Hours 2,465 to 2,466
Loading yesterday’s images into Capture One Pro and culling.
Shooting during the Morecambe Bay walk; and loading those images into Capture One Pro.
12 July 2019
Hour 2,464
An hour updating and adding images to this journal.
A few minutes shooting in the Lake District – School Knott as below
11 July 2019
Hours 2,462 to 2,463
An hour working on the Ledenhall Market ICM diptych shot on the 4th July, and updating my Instagram feed. Potential elements of another diptych, or matching images for a panel below:
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Second hour watching YouTubes:
- Nigel Danson: “I hate summer but it massively improves my photography“
- Pierre T. Lambert: “Improves your photography fast by shooting in black and white“
- rewatching Simon Schama’s “Power of Art” documentary on Marc Rothko.
10 July 2019
Hours 2,457 to 2,461
First hour identifying the following as my favourite image of this style shot so far and decomposing its elements:
Construction:
- Composite of 7 images
- Alternate multiple/ screen blend modes
- Opacities to provide equal emphasis to all layers
- differential colour toning:
- Shadows (+10, 0, -10)
- Highlights (-10, 0, +10)
- sharpening via a copied layer converted to B&W (Yellow filter), High Pass filter with radius of 47 pixels, blendmode: Overlay.
Second hour updating the “Second Revision: Workflow at 2,000 Hours” post to include a section on practical management of RAW files.
Third hour producing a revised version of “The Lovers” statue at St. Pancras Station London, with the layers aligned to provide a focus of the couple’s kiss.
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Fourth hour adding other images to this journal.
Fifth hour watching they YouTubes:
- “Exploring Travel and Street Photography“
- Sean Tucker’s excellent: “The Artist’s Ego: Learning Balance“
9 July 2019
Hours 2,454 to 2,456
Two hours finishing processing the images shot on the 4th July. A further hour identifying top images from this selection for a Lightroom collection and the further refining this list for a set to upload to Flickr.
I love the following two images, which might work well in a panel together.
8 July 2019
Hours 2,449 to 2,453
Five hours processing the multi-exposure images shot on the 4th July
Interesting pair of images below:
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7 July 2019
Hours 2,447 to 2,448
Updating this journal and associated Flickr site with images from the last few weeks. Then experimenting with alternative aspect ratios for several of these images to achieve a more pleasing overall image.
6 July 2019
Hours 2,444 to 2,446
First hour and a half finishing the last composite from the set shot on Friday 21st June, together with a number of straight images, and exporting to Lightroom Classic.
Half an hour publishing the Hang Gliding images and generally tidying up my electronic workspace.
Third hour loading into, and processing in, Capture One Pro the images shot earlier this week at both the Speedlite course and Shooting in London on the 4th. Culled images from the Speedlite course 117 to 6. Key issue is the super shallow depth of field on the 135mm f/1.8, which when fully open often means that only one of the model’s eyes is in focus.
5 July 2019
Hour 2,443
An hour working on the last of the composites shot on Friday 21st June.
4 July 2019
Hours 2,440 to 2,442
Half an hour writing up notes from yesterday’s Speedlite training course.
An hour and a half street photography in London mainly gathering potential multiple exposure in the City. A little bit of experimentation with Zoom ICM which resulted in the following diptych.
An hour watching YouTubes and the final episode of series 4 of Sky Arts’ Master of Photography.
3 July 2019
Hours 2,432 to 2,439
First hour working on semi abstract composites from Friday 21st June.
Seven hours on the RPS Speedlite training course at Amersham Studios.
Using TTL will be an improvement when using off-camera flash at events like Angela’a 70th birthday party on the 23rd June.
Short vs broad lighting to show the shape of the face and to provide a slimming effect.
The sweet-spot for a beauty dish is 3x diameter from the model.
Standard low-key three light set up:
- Ensure background black and camera exposure shows nothing but darkness
- Hair light:
- Set up first
- Use a grid to stop too much spillage
- Key light:
- Set to TTL (at least initially)
- Wide softbox to generate as defuse a light as possible
- Position just above eye height (slightly lower than 45 degrees)
- Use exposure compensation to adjust for light or dark clothing
- Reflector to fill-in under chin
- To be really fancy light the background with a gel or blast a white background with a white light.
TTL fires a pre-flash which means people tend to blink. To avoid this, switch to manual flash.
High speed sync fires a series of flashes over the duration of the exposure.
Still need to:
- practice setting up these lights so that they become second nature
- experiment with variations on the 3 light set-up
- learn how to set high speed sync and flash exposure compensation on my a99ii.
2 July 2019
Hours 2,427 to 2,431
First hour processing the Hastings Meadow Sky images shot yesterday and updating this journal.
Second hour creating a new version of the “Selling Bric-a-Brac Abstract on the South Bank of the Thames” below. [High Pass Radius: 29.1] Very abstract – not sure! Maybe a crop with some merit in as homage to Rothko.
Three further hours processing further composites – some good, others less so.
1 July 2019
Hours 2,415 to 2,426
An hour early morning updating this journal, including all the new month admin and updating the gallery for entries from after 2,500 hours.
Two hours shooting July’s selection of skys from Hastings Meadow at different times of day, as below.
| West | ….. | North | ….. | East | ….. | South |
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| 7am 16mm f/9 | 7am 16mm f/9 | 7am 16mm f/9 | 7am 16mm f/9 | |||
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| 7am 35mm f/9 | 7am 35mm f/9 | 7am 35mm f/9 | 7am 35mm f/9 | |||
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| 10am 16mm f/9 | 10am 16mm f/9 | 10am 16mm f/9 | 10am 16mm f/9 | |||
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| 10am 35mm f/9 | 10am 35mm f/9 | 10am 35mm f/9 | 10am 35mm f/9 | |||
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| 1pm 16mm f/9 | 1pm 16mm f/9 | 1pm 16mm f/9 | 1pm 16mm f/9 | |||
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| 1pm 35mm f/9 | 1pm 35mm f/9 | 1pm 35mm f/9 | 1pm 35mm f/9 | |||
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| 4pm 16mm f/9 | 4pm 16mm f/9 | 4pm 16mm f/9 | 4pm 16mm f/9 | |||
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| 4pm 35mm f/9 | 4pm 35mm f/9 | 4pm 35mm f/9 | 4pm 35mm f/9 | |||
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| 7pm 16mm f/9 | 7pm 16mm f/9 | 7pm 16mm f/9 | 7pm 16mm f/9 | |||
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| 7pm 35mm f/9 | 7pm 35mm f/9 | 7pm 35mm f/9 | 7pm 35mm f/9 |
9 hours creating 18 multiple exposure composites from images shot on Friday 21st June and processing some of the straight images, still many more to go.