June 2019 – Contribution to my 10,000 Hours Photography
Purpose of Journal
This Journal records the actual time spent during July 2019 towards my ten thousand hour photography apprenticeship, i.e., the deliberate practice learning the art of photography. In particular, these journal pages will contain references to:
- Images as they are made
- References to source materials
- Thoughts that might, or might not, later form part of a full post.
Hours 2,296 to 2,414
30 June 2019
Hours 2,412 to 2,414
An hour processing images for the Persato Salon applied to yesterday.
Two hours finishing and publishing the “The first 2,500 Hours – Review at 25%” post.
29 June 2019
Hours 2,410 to 2,411
An hour selecting images and competing the application for the Perasto Salon 2019 Montenegro.
An hour watching YouTubes including the PTS “Easily Smooth and Soften Skin in Photoshop | High-End Retouching Techniques” which gave the following tips:
- Change the blend mode on the spot healing brush to “Lighten” to remove darker blemishes and “Darken” to remove lighter ones.
- The Camera Raw Filter has sliders for texture, clarity and dehaze, which can used as follows:
- Reduced first texture then clarity to smooth the image
- Perhaps add a little sharpening, if the whole of the image is looking too soft, do this with the masking value raised to apply only to edges
- Should be applied to the underlying objects combined into a Smart Object. Therefore allowing filter values to be altered.
- Masked to only the areas of the image where this smooting is required.
- Alternatively, combine two copies of the underlying layers, one with gaussian blur applied and the other with high pass filter with the same radius, In this was the high frequency elements of the image are smoothed out. Combine using the “Linear Light” blend mode and opacity of c. 50%.
28 June 2019
Hour 2,409
Updating this journal and getting organised regarding FIAP salon submission, and creating the multi-exposure composite of Borough Market.
27 June 2019
Hours 2,407 to 2,408
Early morning half hour or so shooting in Gray’s Field with Harley the dog.
At least an hour and a half selecting, formatting and submitting entries for the 3rd International Photo Salon «Georgian Drag – 2019», entered the Open Colour, Landscapes and People sections.
26 June 2019
Hours 2,490 to 2,406
An hour working on “The first 2,500 Hours – Review at 25%” post adding top posts.
Next two hours processing images from yesterday’s club outing to the memorial gardens and making the following triptych, which I quite like.
An hour collating the Top 10 Images from the First 2,500 Hours for inclusion in the aforementioned post.
An hour shooting in Hastings Meadow and The Big Field Stoke Poges.
An hour reviewing 2019 FIAP Salons and planning submissions.
An hour watching episode 5, series 4 of Sky Arts “Master of Photography”.
25 June 2019
Hours 2,396 to 2,399
First hour of the day toning the 50 or so Hang Gliding images shot at the weekend as RAW files in Capture One Pro, then exporting to Lightroom Classic.
Second hour practicing batch processing the Hang Gliding images in Lightroom Classic after watching the YouTube: “Actions & Batch Automation in Photoshop“. All the images with gliders on the ground pretty much need the same treatment.
Third hour sorting images in Flickr and distributing to the people who attended Sunday’s party.
[Lots of time spent moving files about to free disk space in my main computer – but this doesn’t count toward my 10,000 hours.]
One hours macro photography at the Memorial Gardens with the Stoke Poges Photographic Society, practicing using my 100mm macro lens and ring flash (see my kit).
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24 June 2019
Hours 2,388 to 2,395
First hour of the day processing images from yesterday’s party in Capture One Pro and exporting to Lightroom Classic, as per my “Second Revision: Workflow at 2,000 Hours” post. Then a second hour, transfering the Hang gliding catalogue from my laptop to desktop and in parallel working on the party photos in Lightroom.
Then Three hours processing the final cut of 50 party image in Lightroom classic, including quite a lot of tricky remedial photoshop.
An hour watching episode 4, series 4 of the Sky Arts Master of Photography.
Half an hour watching the Sean Tucker YouTube: “Balancing Sunlight and Strobe in Portraits” which relates very closely to the type of images I was shooting at the party yesterday, mainly outside. Some thoughts, stimulated by both the video and the extensive amount of remedial editing I’ve had to do, below:
- I was tending to shoot with my memory mode 1, with metering set to Highlight, boosted by a full power off-camera flash, often held by my wife. This led to fairly unpredictable exposures outside with some images very over exposed if the flash was too close. Indoors things worked better if the flash was bounced of the ceiling
- 45 degrees forward, 45 degrees up, seems to be the consensus for the best position to get a support light; ideally arrange so that this is directly oposite the sun which is acting as a hair-light
- one of the issues with the current memory mode 1 is Auto ISO which led to some grainy images on a couple of occasions.
Other half hour watching the PTS YouTube “2 Little-Known Filters to Remove White Edges (Fringing) from Cut-Outs in Photoshop“, which talks about the Minimise and Maximise filters. Filed under Other, these, rather strangely, act on a selection, either expanding or contracting it, with a little more control than the expand selection option.
An hour working on “Meals from a Phonebox” image from last week in London.
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Having produced the second version, that I initially thought was an improvement, now I’m not so sure.
23 June 2019
Hours 2,385 to 2,387
An hour shooting a 70th birthday party.
Two hours culling, from over 200 to 53, and processing the day’s images in Capture One Pro.
22 June 2019
Hours 2,382 to 2,384
Half an hour first thing in the morning shooting a hot air balloon we could see just outside of our hotel room in Tewkesbury.
An hour shooting hanggliders flying and being towed by a microlite on an airstrip near Dufford.
An hour and a half processing the day’s images in Capture One Pro.
21 June 2019
Hours 2,377 to 2,381
First hour of the day working on the draft “The first 2,500 Hours – Review at 25%” post.
Three hours shooting potential multi-exposure composites in London including the following image:
An hour importing 441 images into Capture One Pro.
20 June 2019
Hours 2,371 to 2,376
An hour working on the draft “The first 2,500 Hours – Review at 25%” post.
Next hour watching the YouTube from the Photoshop Training Channel: “All Blending Modes Explained” which complements the research I was doing in this area yesterday evening.
An hour considering the requirements of an ARPS submission and how my Multiple exposure work from London may fit into this.
“Requires:
- a body of work/project of 15 images of a high standard
- a written Statement of Intent
- creative ability and personal style (what makes your work unique to you)
- evidence of complete control of the technical aspects of photography
- Photography which communicates a creative vision (fine art).”
Wrote a draft Statement of Intent.
An hour at the Edvard Munch: “Love and Angst” exhibition at the British Museum. Well curated and presented, with impressively good lighting of the paintings and lithographs. This is the first time I have visited the British Museum, which is an impressive building in its own right. However, ram packed full of tourists and school trips at this time of year. [Note to self: visit again in January/ February.]
Another hour watching the “Edvard Munch – Documentary“.
Final hour working on the “The first 2,500 Hours – Review at 25%” post, mainly adding the section about goals and aspirations for hours 2,501 to 5,000.
19 June 2019
Hours 2,366 to 2,370
First hour spend adding images to this journal and creating the following version of my most abstract multiple exposure below.
Two hours finishing and publishing the “Review Spring 2019” post.
An hour creating the following version of my most abstract multiple exposure, using yesterday’s tapered line technique to boarder the image.
An hour learning about the mathematics behind photoshop blend modes:
- Photoshop Training Channel “Blend Modes Explained“
- Wikipedia “Blend Modes“
18 June 2019
Hours 2,362 to 2,365
An hour culling and processing images from Ipswich in Capture One Pro, then exporting to Lightroom Classic in line with my workflow.
Two hours largely colour toning images from Ipswich and adding to social media, i.e., my Flickr site.
An hour learning how to add lines with a tapered end, including watching “How to taper lines in Photoshop“, with the goal of giving my prints a unique look, as below:
17 June 2019
Hours 2,360 to 2,361
Most of an hour creating and uploading images to my Instagram feed then updating this journal.
Second hour processing multiple exposures from last week.
16 June 2019
Hours 2,356 to 2,359
An hour early morning shooting in Ipswich both from our balcony and out on the street. The couple of images below are potentials for next season’s “From a different angle” set subject competition at the Stoke Poges Photographic Club.
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The dilapidated buildings at the other end of the quay:
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Three hours processing multiple exposure composite images from last week.
15 June 2019
Hour 2,355
An hour updating the “Review Spring 2019” post, plus a spot of night street shooting in Ipswich from out hotel balcony.
14 June 2019
Hours 2,352 to 2,354
An hour smartening up the dog looking around door image below and updating this journal.
Two hours working on images from Monday.
13 June 2019
Hours 2,346 to 2,351
Four hours processing the composites shot on Monday.
An hour watching Episode 4, series 4, Sky Arts, Master of Photography.
An hour shooting a black dog on a black background.
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12 June 2019
Hours 2,343 to 2,345
Three hours processing images shot at Paddington yesterday including the three variations of the same image below.
Adjustment to workflow of automatically loading files into layers from within Photoshop:
- File -> Scripts -> Load files into Stack
- Add open files
- >>> do processing <<<
- Save to the Output folder, where it will be auto imported into Lightroom.
11 June 2019
Hours 2,337 to 2,342
Hoping my camera will work today after the drenching it received yesterday.
An hour updating yesterday’s matrix of images in this journal below – requires a lot of concentration.
Three hours shooting at London Railway Stations:
- Paddington
- St Pancras
- Kings Cross
- Liverpool Street
- Victoria
Mainly components for multiple exposure composites.
Two hours processing images from today’s shoot.
[Two hours at the Stoke Poges Photography Club, but since this was the end of season social, it hardly counts as deliberate practice towards this project.
10 June 2019
Hours 2,334 to 2,336
Stumbled across the following article by 5 Ways To Tell If A Shot Will Make A Great Black and White“:
The best elements to look for when shooting or editing a shot for black and white?
- Good tonal contrast
- Primary colours especially those that contrast each other
- Strong directional light
- Textures
- Geometry
A terrible day to be doing this but, I was away last Monday, so this become the first of the month for 40 shots of the same field – which take two hours overall to produce the following (it is lashing with rain):
| 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 |
An hour updating the following image:
9 June 2019
Hours 2,330 to 2,333
An hour review work done in May, April and March, and adding images to the journal entry for those months.
An hour updating this journal and my Instagram feed with images shot and processed earlier this week.
An hour updating the following images, originally shot on the 26th May.
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I don’t think either image will win any prizes, but they’re better than before.
Half an hour planning shots for a potential ARPS submission of composite images of London Landmarks and another half reading the latest, signed-by-the-author, Tim Flach books I’ve been lean, “More than Human”.
8 June 2019
Hours 2,326 to 2,329
Two hours working on the “Review Spring 2010” post, mainly reviewing and commenting upon top image for that period.
Two hours watching David Wells’ “Tools of Travel Photography” top comments:
- Shadows are darkest when the photographer is pointing towards the light
- Reflections are best of a sunlit area from a dark area
- Use different camera angles
- Use a table-top tripod – not gorrilla-pod as legs bend when leant upon.
I was reminded of the 5 types of shot I now colour code in my workflow; and what Janey Devine defined, on the 24th March as the 3 keys to a successful series of documentary photographs – same applies to travel photography:
- Images that tell a story on their own
- Images with impact
- Variety (use of different lenses, etc.)
Top tips cheat sheet downloadable here.
See also Adam Marelli’s Elite List from 12 April.
7 June 2019
Hours 2,321 to 2,325
Woke up this morning excited with the idea of producing an A panel of multiple exposure images of London landmarks, and maybe railway stations, in the style I have been working in recently.
Very please with the images of yesterday; two hours tweaking these, mainly colour balance, and updating this journal.
Two hours watching the Eileen Rafferty YouTube for B&H: “Ritual + Curiosity; Keys to Creativity”
Ritual:
- Practice
- Going to work every day
- Learning the materials.
[This is very much in line with my strategy for tackling this 10,000 hour project.]
Curiosity:
- “Curiosity is the gap between what we know and what we want to know.”
George Loewinstein, “The Psychology of Curiosity: A Review and Reinterpretation“, 1994, Psychological Bulletin.
Stark warning: “Ritual without curiosity risks becoming too comfortable and mundane.” The mundane is excluded for what counts as deliberate practice.
An hour updating my Instagram account.
6 June 2019
Hours 2,317 to 2,320
An hour shooting potential composites on the South Bank, and planning the overall strategy for this project.
An hour watching YouTubes on the art business, and Pierre Lamberts “Street Photography Ideas” in which he suggests using a polarising filter to cut down the reflection on buildings.
Two hours processing the composites shot today and updating this journal.
5 June 2019
Hours 2,313 to 2,316
Two hours further tinkering with the images shot on Monday, including the image to the right.
An hour watching episode 2, Series 4 of the Sky Arts Master of Photography.
An hour updating my Instagram feed and this journal.
4 June 2019
Hours 2,307 to 2,312
[Started with the resolve to be more organised: fix a problem with my iPhone that has been bothering me ever since I bought it 5-6 years ago: calendar claimed the year was 2557 – this it turns out is due to the fact that the phone was set to use the Buddhist rather than Gregorian calendar!]
Three hours spend editing the Straight + Ventosa style composites from Camden Market, Liverpool Street Station yesterday.
One hour watching assorted YouTube on Ventosa style composite photography – most people seem to be blending by eye using Normal blend mode. My approach is more scientific.
Two hours at the Stoke Poges Photographic Club – PDI Open Finals. No entries personally.
3 June 2019
Hours 2,300 to 2,306
An hour updating this journal and working on the “Spring 2019” post.
Four hours Street Photography, London: Camden, Brick Lane, Covent Garden. Very productive in terms of the images ultimately created.
An hour loading into Capture One Pro the 170 exposure shot earlier in the day, and culling to 12 image of which 7 were combinations of multiple exposures.
One hour out of the two spent at the Amersham Photographic Society AGM where the top images of the season were reviewed + time spent with Yin Wong discussing street photography.
Note to self: get more organised – spend an hour per day doing organisation, e.g., planning entries to FIAP salons, getting kit fixed calendars syncronised, etc.
2 June 2019
Hour 2,299
An hour creating a time lapse, using Lightroom Classic, from the images taken for W.G. Carter.
1 June 2019
Hours 2,296 to 2,298
An hour early morning updating this journal, including all the new month admin; then updating yesterday’s “Composition – Thoughts at 2,000 Hours” post.
An hour selecting my current all time top 20 for both the 2,500 hour review and the informal CPAGB day held by Amersham later this month.
An hour watching episode 1, season 4 of Sky Arts’ Master of Photography. What worked well:
- detail shots
- simple concepts – no distractions
- obvious associations.
(May 2019)