Contemporaneous notes for March 2020 as part of my ten thousand hours fine art photography apprenticeship deliberate practice.
Hours 3,379 to 3,494
31th March 2020
Hours 3,491 to 3,494
An hour trying to shoot an indoor portrait of pet dog, Harley, using natural light. Little success, previous versions using flash far more successful. An hour processing these images.
Two hours creating entries for the GOFAP salon in Italy.
30th March 2020
Hours 3,485 to 3,490
An hour re-editing my Man and Dog Kynance Cove, Cornwall England images from a couple of years ago.
Two hours preparing the 24 images for the Varna salon in Bulgaria which requires PDI images at 3840 x 2160 to be viewed on a 4k monitor (surely will become more common).
Half an hour preparing images for next week’s “Into the Woods and Open” competition at the Stoke Poges Photography Club.
Half an hour updating this journal.
An hour watching courses from Karl Taylor Education. I was due to be attending a Workshop with Tim Flack this week; cancelled due to the Coronavirus outbreak, and KTE very kindly gave all potential attendees a year’s free access to their on-line content.
An hour watching YouTubes.
29th March 2020
Hours 3,481 to 3,484
Two hours preparing 20 images for the NARYN salon.
An hour talking by Sykpe with my friend and photographic mentor Yin Wong ARPS EFIAP/P from the Amersham Photographic Society.
An hour watching YouTubes from Nigel Danson and Sean Tucker, including Nigel’s “7 Steps that had the biggest effect on my photography“:
- Planning – every shoot before you go:
- Research the location
- Maps
- Light – use the app TPE-3D which shows how the light falls on terrain at different times of day; also Google Maps Pro
- Reduced the amount of kit used – try taking only one lens
- Shoot in different directions – including directly into the light
- Go out whatever the weather
- Try new things – foreground, ICM, multiple-exposures, …
- Take time, arrive at a destination well before you intend to start shooting
- Editing: add your style, your artistic interpretation of what you saw.
28th March 2020
Hours 3,477 to 3,480
Four hours entering FIAP salons including preparing images for two print salons which required writing new photoshop action to produce jpegs that were:
- appropriately sized for A4 prints
- landscape, square or portrait
- 1cm white boarder round the print
- had a customisable stroke colour outside the image.
27th March 2020
Hours 3,472 to 3,476
An hour and a half watching the recording of Martin Pattern judging the 3 countries competition where Stoke Poges Photography Club competes against, and usually gets thrashed by, clubs from South Africa and Australia.
Two hours processing and submitting images for the Sant Just Dervern Salon.
Another hour submitting images to the Indonesian Circuit.
Half an hour updating this journal.
26th March 2020
Hours 3,465 to 3,471
Seven hours finding, editing and processing 20 new images for a FIAP submission to the Cheltenham Salon.
25th March 2020
Hours 3,458 to 3,464
Spent seven hours preparing images for three FIAP salons (2 were circuits, so 10 salons in total.
New favourite image.
24th March 2020
Hours 3,454 to 3,457
Four hours submitting entries to two FIAP Salons. This time included editing a couple of images, in one case using luminosity masking, and writing some Photoshop actions to format the images.
Lots more time spent completing my master spreadsheet – time that doesn’t count.
23rd March 2020
Hour 3,453
Lots of tedious time, that doesn’t count, finishing and filling in the new FIAP Salon Record spreadsheet.
An hour preparing an entry for the Goa Salon, lots of new images from South America to try out.
22nd March 2020
Hour 3,452
An hour working on images for the Patagonian Landscapes book.
Many hours revising the spreadsheet which records my submissions to FIAP salons. This is a big job but I feel confident that I have created a good solution that:
- holds all required information
- has no repetition of data
- automatically cross-references between pictures and salons to provide total acceptances etc.
Implemented in just 3 sheets:
- List of Pictures with all details
- List of Salons Entered with all details
- Journal of entries and scores, acceptances, awards obtained
21th March 2020
Hours 3,447 to 3,451
Four hour working on and publishing the “Shooting Royalty” post.
An hour watching two YouTubes by Thomas Heaton:
- “6 Easy Ways to Transfer your Photos in Photoshop”
- Add depth and mystery by blending an image to which a negative dehaze filter has been applied with he sharp original
- Simple version of the Orthon Technique: blend original with a copy layer which has been both brightened and had a Gaussian blur applied, opacity 10-15%
- Use the Lumenzia luminosity masking panel for dodging and burning
- Use Lumenzia for selectively adding colour
- Add a “wash” which simulates lens flare and can make an image look softer and more natural. Use a gradient layer, set to radial, with an appropriate colour, usually yellow/ orange,; blend mode Screen
- Remove distractions using the healing brush.
- “What Pro Photographers Don’t Tell You” – analysis of why some landscape photographs just don’t work:
- The difference between “negative space” and “empty space”; the former adds drama and emphasis, whereas the latter suggest that something is missing
- The importance of balance
- Need for a subject, something for the eye to rest on or a reason for the image.
20th March 2020
Hours 3,444 to 3,446
An hour and a half watching YouTubes:
- Nigel Danson: “Using the Lightroom Radial Filter“
- CaptureOne: “Tethered Product Photography with Zach Sutton“.
An hour drafting a post “Shooting Royalty” based on my experience shooting Princess Alexandra during her presentation of the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service to the Stoke Poges, Wexham and Fulmer Horticultural Society.
Half an hour updating this journal.
19th March 2020
Hours 3,441 to 3,443
Two and a half hours finishing and publishing the “Shooting Gauchos” post,
Half an hour watching the Nigel Danson YouTube: “Simple Foreground Tips“:
- Wind angle lens pointed downwards
- Find the right hight, often eye-height to higher to maximise the amount of foreground
- Repeating patterns
- Leading lines.
18th March 2020
Hours 3,436 to 3,440
Five hours working on and finally publishing the “Winter 2019-20” post.
17th March 2020
Hours 3,431 to 3,435
Two hours selecting images for and drafting the “Winter 2019-2020” post.
About an hour spent retoning the righthand side of the the following image which I still believe has some potential despite having been slammed in competition on the 17th February. Trying to create better balance – still needs more work.
Two hours practicing using shooting in a studio style using multiple lights, background, etc. Preparation for a planned shoot of my goddaughter’s exotics later in the week.
Depth of focus merely the width of toy’s left eye.
16th March 2020
Hours 3,429 to 3,430
Half an hour updating this page.
Half an hour watching the Sean Tucker YouTube about Maarten Rots the abstract photographer.
An hour preparing images for the Cafe Africa meeting on Wednesday.
15th March 2020
Hours 3,426 to. 3,428
Three hour processing images and adding the Jamaican Riverscapes Filickr album and adding the family images to Facebook (which is more appropriate).
14th March 2020
Hour 3,425
Mainly travelling but an hour updating the Family Holiday Flickr album associated with this page.
13th March 2020
Hours 3,423 to 3,424
Half an hour shooting at daybreak followed by an hour and a half processing those, and previous, images.
12th March 2020
Hours 3,418 to 3,422
An hour shooting at dawn.
Two hours processing the above photos.
An hour shooting at a party this afternoon.
Half an hour processing those images followed by half an hour updating this journal.
11th March 2020
Hours 3,413 to 3,417
An hour and a half shooting at dawn; an hour processing those images and half an hour updating this journal.
An hour watching and taking notes on Zack Arias’ YouTube: “5 Reasons why you aren’t winning competitions“:
- Photo entered into the wrong category
- Images that you, or your clients, like may not satisfy a judge
- You’re following trends – looking at what did well in previous years, style of composition, post-processing, etc. – doing this means you are always behind the curve and this year’s judges may not be the same as last year’s
- You are shooting specifically for contests you are going to be less impressive than if you shoot for yourself (reason basically the same as for point 3 above)
- Your emotional connection with the image is not coming through to the viewer
& Nigel Danson “Q&A: Ask Nigel IV“:
- How do you find your style? – Look at the work of photographers you admire and try to adapt and adopt their style; do directly copy but use the bits you like
- Hardest lesson? – Why you go out shooting you’re not always going to get a great shot; 8-12 great shots per year is a good crop
- Favourite location? – the place you know best; in Nigel’s case the Lake District where he grew up.
Half an hour shooting sunsets followed by another half hour processing those images.
10th March 2020
Hours 3,411 to 3,412
An hour shooting at the shore at dawn followed by another hour processing those images.
9th March 2020
Hours 3,409 to 3,410
An hour processing images from yesterday’s dinner.
Half an hour working on the river landscapes shot earlier yesterday.
Half an hour shooting first thing in the morning and at dusk.
8th March 2020
Hours 3,405 to 3,408
An hour shooting Jacquie and Nick’s Sunrise River Cruise as part of their 10th wedding anniversary.
Two hours processing the above images and posting on social media.
An hour shooting images before and at the Anniversary dinner using the same flash technique used for the QAVS presentation by Princess Alexandra on the 20th February. Need to work out how to use the flash’s focus-assist function as acquiring focus was proving difficult as the evening wore on.
7th March 2020
Hours 3,403 to 3,404
Half an hour updating this journal.
Half an hour drafting the shooting Gauchos post.
Half an hour attempting to shoot Pelicans fishing.
Half an hour processing those images and further updating this journal.
6th March 2020
Hours 3,401 to 3,402
A few minutes finding landscape compositions in Gray’s field and shooting with my iPhone – the only camera a had with me to capture the mist and great early morning light. The rest of a half hour, updating this journal and starting to draft a post on “Shooting Gauchos”.
An hour and a half watching the film: “Finding Vivian Maier” about the enigmatic and reclusive American photographer from the mid twentieth century. The documentary suggests that she had relatively little influence from and was completely unknown to other photographers of the time yet having shot hundreds of thousands of exposures, independently developed a style that shared much in common with the more well known photographers of the era.
She also left hundreds if not thousands rolls of exposed yet undeveloped negatives. In Sarah Lipman’s talk to the Amersham Photographic Society earlier the week she suggested that
5th March 2020
Hours 3,396 to 3,400
Two hours at the “Picasso and Paper” exhibition at the Royal Academy
Half an hour at the Huxley-Parlour gallery: exhibitions by Bruce Davidson “A United Kingdom” and Pieter Hugo “La Cucaracha”.
Half an hour updating this journal.
Two hours at the Amersham Beyond Group – next challenge (coincidentally) is “Paper”.
4th March 2020
Hours 3,390 to 3,395
Two hours at Cafe Africa in Amersham where the following images of mine were discussed:
| Image | —– | Comments |
 | Still the favourite image. General consensus was that this uncrossed version is better than where I have cut the clouds out as it continues the theme of threes. Giclee printed lustre paper also preferred. | |
 | This was well liked, including the square formal. Perhaps make the road more prominent. | |
 | Liked. Big improvement over the images shown on the 19th February, | |
 | Better than the colour version that go slapped at in the competition on 17th February. Right hand side needs to be toned down to balance with the left. Suggested that I lose the figure as this makes the images look “stilted”. Perhaps experiment with reintroduction of a hint of colour. | |
 | Considered the least interesting of the images presented. Not clear whether it is a river or the sea in the foreground. |
An hour inputting the above notes.
Another hour working on the following revision to the “Watching the Moai” image discussed this morning.
Two hours at the Member’s Development Evening of the Amersham Photographic Society: Talk by Sarah Lipman on the psychological basis of photography and image making.
3rd March 2020
Hours 3,387 to 3,389
Two hours working on the family book to South America.
Half an hour editing and preparing images for the forthcoming PDI competition on the set subject of “From a Different Angle”.
Half an hour at the Stoke Poges Photographic Club – Workshop on “Perspective”, the idea behind this workshop is that it might help generate some ideas for the competition mentioned above.
2nd March 2020
Hours 3,385 to 3,386
Two hours working on the Family Book of the recent trip to South America, including updating a number of images.
1st March 2020
Hours 3,379 to 3,384
An hour updating this journal including all the new month admin.
Two hour learning and practicing text on paths (including watching the excellent PIXimperfect: “Master the Pen Tool in 30 minutes“) to create the following for my brother and sister-in-law’s 10 wedding anniversary album.
Three hours creating a first draft of the Family book from our recent trip to South America.