This journal records my actual 10,000 hours deliberate practice mastering fine art photography – this page the bit done during June 2025
Hours 9,830 to 9,918
30th June 2025
Hours 9,914 to 9,918
(2h) finishing and publishing the “Jenny Saville: The Anatomy of Painting” review post, including the Flickr album and links everywhere
(2h) YouTube:
- Art Explained Simply and Quickly: “How to Read Abstract Art (Even If You Think Your Kid Could Paint It)” – I was thinking of compiling an elevator pitch along the lines of: if you look at a picture, any picture you should ask yourself 3 questions:
- What is it of?
- What’s it about?
- How does it make me feel?
Abstract art misses the first 1 of these maybe even 2, but not the 3rd and that’s where the art is.
- Gagosian: “John Currin, Jenny Saville, Dana Schutz, and Cecilia Alemani on Willem de Kooning“, discussion of his 2025 “Endless Painting” Exhibition in New York
- Arti-Facts: “Wassily Kandinsky“
(½h) updating this journal, mainly notes from yesterday’s CPAGB advice day in Amersham
(½h) updating:
- Chameleon Catching Worm, above
- Bateleur Eagle, right
29th June 2025
Hours 9,912 to 9,913
(1h) “Jenny Saville: The Anatomy of Painting” review post
(1h) Amersham Photographic Society reviewing images for a potential CPAGB submission. Comments from Steve Smith as follows:
- Bateleur Eagle – recrop so that it’s higher in the frame
- Silver and Gold Blavatnik Staircase – no, too complicated
- Dead Vlei Dunescape – no, too risky
- Chameleon Catching Worm – yes, but extend to right and desaturate/ tone down the yellow distraction in background
- Half a Red Headed Woman – maybe
- Industrial Human Condition – possible
- The Lovers – probably OK
- Surrealist Dinner – Yes
- 3 Strong Women – Possible
- Magritte, Hat, Pipe, Flower and Cloud – Yes
- Hoodie Descending a Staircase – Yes
28th June 2025
Hours 9,910 to 9,911
(1h) working on the “Jenny Saville: The Anatomy of Painting” review post including the controvercy surrounding Stare. The watching the Art Gallery Explorer YouTube “Is Jenny Saville’s Exhibition at the NPG ‘London’s Show of the Summer?“
(1h) Art Gallery Explorer YouTube about the “Siena: The Rise of Painting” at the National Gallery about the 4 major pre-renaissance painters
- Pietro & Ambrogio Lorenzetti
- Duccio
- Simone Martini
27th June 2025
Hours 9,907 to 9,909
(2h) editing and processing images for and then including in the “Jenny Saville: The Anatomy of Painting” review post particularly identifying the key works to concentrate on:
- Pietà l
- Propped, 1992
- Stare, 2005
- The Mothers, 2011
- Rosetta II, 2006
Left 2005, Rosetta Study
(1h) Amersham Photographic Society reviewing images for a potential CPAGB submission. Comments from Steve Smith, below:
26th June 2025
Hours 9,904 to 9,906
(½h) revising this journal
(1h) at the National Portrait Gallery, mainly at the “Jenny Saville: The Anatomy of Painting” exhibition
(½h) starting a post about this exhibition
(1h) producing JPegs for printing for the CPAGB advisory day in Amersham on Sunday
- debugging my A4 Print for Mount Photoshop action
- creating a revised version of “Half a Red Headed Woman”, below
Changes:
- removing the grey shadow on her hand by using a Selective Colour adjustment layer
- generally lightening the whole image
25th June 2025
Hours 9,901 to 9,903
(1h) creating “Looking over Sofa”, above from last week’s studio day
(1h) at the Amersham Coffee club discussing:
- Mark Seymour’s Mono Street scenes from his recent trip to Instanbul
- Sarah Lipman’s, images of Tokyo which she has manipulated by writing some code to simulate drip paintings
- a couple of my images from last week, including
- “Half a Red Headed Woman” which was generally applauded
- “Looking over Sofa”, above, where a tighter crop was suggested and losing the feet
“Looking over Sofa II” revision including suggestions made at coffee and a change in global toning
(1h) creating the revised version of the above image, and the one to the left:
“Red Head Black Dress and White Curtain”
Shows off a nice back lighting on her hair giving her separation from the background
24th June 2025
Hours 9,898 to 9,900
(2h) processing images from lasted week’s Studio day including “Half a Red Headed Woman”, right, which is essentially a recrop of the image processed yesterday
Also discovered that the Capture One Iris Enhancement style brush works a treat as do those for dodging and burning
(1h) identifying images for consideration at the pre-CPAGB assessment day this coming Sunday
23th June 2025
Hours 9,905 to 9,907
(2h) editing and processing some of the images shot during the Studio day last week, including “Girl with Red Hair”, left
(1h) compiling content for a revised top-10s page
22nd June 2025
Hours 9,902 to 9,904
(1h) writing up the 3 Venetian Renaissance painters encountered recently:
- Giovanni Bellini
- Giorgione
- Titian
Their creation of the High Renaissance which emphasised colour over line (colorito vs disegno) to create a more sensuous picture, rather than merely depicting figures that were to be literally interpreted. The Florentine Renaissance artists (Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, & Raphael) had already developed three-dimensionality of painting with linear and atmospheric perspective and the subtleties of chiaroscuro (light/dark blending rather than sharp lines) and sfumato (blending of hues) to add a psychological element into the picture as well as humanising subjects to depict emotion and physicality
(1h) at the Andy Warhol “Portrait of America” exhibition at the MK Gallery in Milton Keynes
Self-Portrait in Fright Wig, right
(1h) working with ChatGPT to create a new About Me page based on what it knows about me from the questions it has asked and reading this site
21st June 2025
Hours 9,889 to 9,891
(2h) researching the Venetian Renaissance artists, Giorgione (1477-1510) and Titian (1488-1576) following their reference in Jenny Saville’s “Mirror” charcoal discovered during the Sotheby’s tour on Wednesday. Including the Peter Beal YouTube “Venetian Painting“
(1h) editing and processing images from the Studio day on Thursday, particularly those of the model posing on a white box
20th June 2025
Hours 9,884 to 9,888
(2h) editing and processing images from the last couple of days including creating the “Grenfell Requiem Tate Britain”, left, which was a 3-shot vertical panorama which the software converted into this strange shape
(1h) updating this journal mainly with images shot at Sotheby’s and the Tate Britain
(2h) editing and processing some of the over 500 images shot at the Studio Day yesterday. Many “keepers”, so difficult to create a short list
19th June 2025
Hours 9,878 to 9,883
(5½h) shooting at a Studio Day with Panikos Hajistilly, studio above initially set up for 3-point lighting with a standing model. The keylight is the 4×6 foot softbox to the left which wraps the model in soft light, whilst the two gridded backlights create depth and make the hair look great
(½h) one-on-one with Panikos learning his retouching techniques which are done mainly in Photoshop:
- much use of the AI Remove tool for getting rid of stray hairs, skin blemishes, etc.
- some skin smoothing – but retain the original close to any edges so that the smoothing is not noticeable
- reshaping using the Forward Warp brush in the Liquify filter:
- lower shoulders
- thin arms and/ or legs
- remove any unsightly bulges
18th June 2025
Hours 9,872 to 9,877
(1h) working on the “10,000 Hours Completed” post
(2½h) private tour of Sotheby’s Auction House with discussions of the pieces by Camilla and George from the curation team
The first lot discussed was Tamara de Lempicka’s, 1927, “La Belle Rafaëla”, above, which is a seminal work by a woman artist, where the classic reclining nude, subjected to the female gaze of the artist is afforded an addition level of sensuality (yours for an estimated GB£6-9m)
Jenny Saville is already one of my favourite artists (see, “Revised Top 10 Painters“), this visit has consolidated her position is this list. Her take on the reclining nude below, 2012, “Mirror” with multiple self-portraits with very clear references to classic nudes including:
- Manet’s Olympia
- Titian’s Venus of Urbino
- Giorgione’s Sleeping Venus
- Picasso’s Reclining Nude with a Crown of Flowers
(In my opinion outstanding value at £800,000 to £1,200,000)
(1h) at Tate Britain
Just loads of stuff including, right, a collaboration between Richard Hamilton and Marcel Duchamp whereby Hamilton created this replica of The Large Glass (“The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even”) which Duchamp in 1965, signed a declaration that it was an exact replica
(½h) shooting at Sotheby’s and the Tate
(1h) editing and processing the day’s images
17th June 2025
Hours 9,870 to 9,871
(1h) starting a “10,000 Hours Completed” post and creating the outline structure
In doing research for the above I discovered Dan McLaughlin who at the age of 30 decided to give up his day job (ironically as a commercial photographer) and apply the 10,000 hour rule to mastering golf. Unfortunately his venture failed due to physical problems that limited his ability to play
(½h) shooting the inside of my study for a version of “The Lovers’ First Attempt” with the door closed and material from which to create addition versions that show the next room through it
(½h) creating “The Lovers’ First Attempt with the Door Closed”
16th June 2025
Hour 9,869
(1h) creating a draft version of an image where the shadow of the kissing, shrouded couple leads from one room to the next, or in this case to an idillic blue sky: “The Lovers’ First Attempt”
Lots of Magritte symbolism
15th June 2025
Hours 9,867 to 9,868
(1h) review work including:
- finishing and publishing the “Spring 2025” post
- updating this journal including all the links to the above post
- starting a “Summer 2025” post to ensure that I capture detail of the new artists I encounter, most particularly Rodney Smith
(1h) further editing, processing and distribution of yesterday’s fete images
14th June 2025
Hours 9,865 to 9,866
(1h) shooting at the Stoke Poges Annual Fete.
Harley & Harley, right; dog too small in the frame and would have like to see more of the bike. Shot with a telephoto lens, which had the advantage of isolating the subject, but lacks intimacy
(1h) editing and processing images from the fete
13th June 2025
Hours 9,863 to 9,864
(2h) working on the “Spring 2025” post reviewing the monthly pages and making corrections as I find errors (of which there seem to be plenty)
12th June 2025
Hours 9,861 to 9,862
(1h) selecting images for and creating the Flickr album for the “Spring 2025” post
(1h) starting to include these images in the post
11th June 2025
Hours 9,858 to 9,860
(½h) shooting a coffee cup for a Son of Caffeine image for the Amersham Coffee Group
(½h) processing and constructing the image
(1h) at the Amersham Coffee club including discussion of:
- Rodney Smith (1947–2016), a photographer also doing Magritte type work
- my Botswana bird project, which needs to be a series of 5 images
- The Damian Hurst Gallery in London and current Andy Warhol exhibition in Milton Keynes
(1h) researching the work of Rodney Smith which seem close to mine although his was shot on film without manipulation
(1h) starting the season review post “Spring 2025“
10th June 2025
Hours 9,855 to 9,857
(½h) shooting a skull for inclusion in a reinterpretation of Magritte’s “The Ignorant Fairy”
(1h) experimenting with this image, including:
- experimenting with candles that emit darkness
- reusing the components from the Memories of Nefertiti image, with the bust of Nefertiti replaced by Amanda from last year’s Chiltern Open Air Museum
- replacing her teeth with those from the skull
Not all experiments work out immediately!
(½h) updating this journal
(1h) writing a new “About Me” section of the website with the help of ChatGPT
9th June 2025
Hours 9,852 to 9,854
(1h) creating a new version of the Separated Clouds image below when it occurred to me that:
- I had created a layer that represented the difference (subtraction) of the gradient blue layer from the original image
- Adding this layer back to gradient layer merely reproduces the original image including all the original unevenesses
- The blending gradient, right, minimises the sight variation in the sky colour
The clouds look smaller as the edges get minimised. Overall, not massively successful and I’m not sure where I would use this. The main evenness in sky was achieved in the original image by applying an HSB adjustment layer with a right/ left gradient mask and adjusting until the values in the top right and left corners were the same
(2h) trying to create a version of Magritte’s 1950 “The Ignorant Fairy” using a model wearing a strapless top, shot at the Chiltern Open Air Museum last August
This is considered Magritte’s statement against religious painting. The candle emits darkness, which is an interesting concept and a challenge to replicate photographically
Currently in a private collection
8th June 2025
Hour 9,851
(½h) preparing prints for Wednesday’s coffee meeting
(½h) updating Instagram and this journal
7th June 2025
Hours 9,849 to 9,850
(1h) creating a new project of flocks of bird against a blurred background
(1h) creating a new Magritte inspired profile picture, right, for WhatsApp, etc.
6th June 2025
Hours 9,847 to 9,848
(2h) experimenting with separating clouds from their background. Perfect Clouds, above, photographed in Botswana, Separated Clouds below where the actual sky has been replaced by a photoshop gradient. The advantage of the version at the bottom is its absolute consistency from left to right and smooth transition from top to bottom – the difference is subtle, I’ll agree
5th June 2025
Hours 9,843 to 9,846
(1½h) finishing a first draft of the Botswana book
(½h) YouTube:
- Inspiraggio: “Edward Hopper: The Man Who Mastered Solitude“
- CAI: “How To Find Your Place in the Art World & Why It Changes Everything“
(2h) finishing and ordering the book
4th June 2025
Hours 9,841 to 9,842
(1h) working on the book – placing images
(1h) at the Amersham Coffee Club, mainly reviewing images by Jeremy Schrire and Mark Seymour
3rd June 2025
Hours 9,837 to 9,840
(2h) creating a book of our Botswana Photos – largely editing and some processing of the images
(2h) Stoke Poges Photographic Club – Open Print Finals
Minor Success Note:
- Winning the Print of the Year in the Advanced Open category
2nd June 2025
Hours 9,835 to 9,836
(1h) writing the LRPS section of the SPPC “Zero to FRPS in 10,000 Hours” talk
(½h) updating this journal
(½h) importing Cloud images from the Botswana trip to use in future Magritte composites
1st June 2025
Hours 9,830 to 9,834
(1h) writing the Distinctions Other than RPS section of the SPPC “Zero to FRPS in 10,000 Hours” talk
(1h) updating this journal, including all the new month admin
(1½h) shooting at the Chiltern Open Air Museum – Napoleonic Reenactment
(1½h) editing and processing the images shot today, including those above and below
(May 2025)
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