May 2023

This journal records the actual time spent mastering art photography through ten thousand hours of deliberate practice.

Hours 7,611 to 7,687

(June 2023)

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31^st May

Hours 7,685 to 7,687

(3h) transferring Michelle & Stuart’s wedding photos from the laptop to main computer, then from Capture One to Lightroom, updating several images in photoshop, and finally publishing a Flickr album and creating medium resolution images for printing.

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30^th May

Hours 7,682 to 7,684

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29^th May

Hour 7,681

(½h) editing and processing images from the last few days

(½h) updating this journal

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28^th May

Hour 7,680

(½h) shooting astro shots of the Milky Way at 3am in the morning, after the moon had gone down. Then a few minutes of tree photography which yielded some quite interesting images including the following from Mesa Verde National Park (shot on my iPhone):

(½h) editing and processing the images shot during the day

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27^th May

Hour 7,679

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26^th May

Hours 7,676 to 7,678

(½h) reviewing, editing and updating images from the last few days

(2h) shooting in:

• Goblin Valley State Park
• Dead Horse Point State Park
• Arches National Park for sunset although didn’t make it all the way round to view delicate arch due to a fear of heights

(½h) editing and processing the day’s images. [Very late and early start tomorrow.]

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25^th May

Hours 7,672 to 7,675

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24^th May

Hours 7,670 to 7,671

The above image was shot during a few minutes landscape photography after a failed attempt to get to Kodachrome by sunrise. “Capturing the Karma”, below, was an opportunistic shot whilst at rest stop on the highway.

(½h) updating this journal

(½h) landscape shooting in various locations throughout the day

(1h) editing and processing the day’s images.

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23^rd May

Hours 7,664 to 7,669

(½h) editing and processing wedding photos

(2h) landscape photography in Kodachrome Basin and Bryce Canyon

(1½h) editing and processing images from the day, and half an hour wedding images

(a few minutes only) shooting Bryce Canyon just after sunset

(2h) processing both the day’s images and wedding photos.

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22^nd May

Hours 7,660 to 7,663

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21^th May

Hours 7,657 to 7,659

(2h) Editing and processing Michelle & Stuart’s Wedding Images

(1h) Visiting Art Galleries and discussing the works with their respective managers.

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20^th May

Hours 7,655 to 7,656

(2h) Shooting Michelle & Stuart’s Wedding

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19^th May

Hour 7,654

(½h) YouTube from my new favourite blogger, Amor Sciendi: “The Expressive Theory of Art” where he discusses the importance of emotional communication in art. Conclusion is that art is used for many purposes including religious communication, communication of how an artist feels about a subject, but also in the case of contemporary art a concept that might or might not involve emotion, e.g., Andy Warhol’s Brillo Boxes.

(½h) processing the images shot of Michelle today.

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18^th May

Hour 7,653

(½h) Updating this journal with more of the notes from yesterday’s coffee meeting.

(½h) working on my “Revised Thoughts on Art” post to include Arthur Danto’s theory of art discovered a few days ago, and how he pronounced the death of art on seeing Andy Warhol’s Brillo Pad Boxes.

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17^th May

Hours 7,651 to 7,652

(½h) Updating this journal

(1h) Amersham Coffee group – showed my images, those that attracted most comment below:

Image	…..	Comment
		“Merging Histories” This divided opinion. At first everybody thinks the head and legs are part of the same body. Then one realises that the head is from the poster behind and the man’d head is barely visible. Half thought this was a good thing; half thought it was absolutely a bad thing! I think it grabs your attention and then keeps you interested, which must be a good thing.
		“Wet Trafalgar Square” The reflection might be quite interesting on its own. Patches of blue and white in the middle of the image are distracting.
		“The Sublime” Perhaps crop half the space from the left of the image so that the man is absolutely on the edge. This makes it absolutely obvious that he’s on the edge of the image looking out, counter to the received wisdom of photographic composition. However, at the moment he still has a little bit of space to look into. I will try it

(½h) Updating this journal with the comments above.

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16^th May

Hours 7,648 to 7,650

(½h) Updating this journal

(½h) Important YouTube by Amor Sciendi which has an interesting bearing on the nature of art: “The End of Art: Arthur Danto’s Influential Art Theory“

“Art ended in the 1960’s when Danto saw Andy Warhol’s Brillo Boxes. He approaches the theory of art through classical philosophy and uses frameworks established by Plato and Hegel, among others, to build a story of art that results in a conclusion, and thus an ending.”

Amor Sciendi

I need to watch the above again and to include it and it’s conclusions in my “Revised Thoughts on Art” post.

(2h) Stoke Poges Photographic Club – Set Subject Print Finals

Image	…..	Comment
		“Burford Peril” Set Subject: Still Life 20 – 2nd place (very nearly 1st) Dramatic.
		“El Mercat – Andorra” Set Subject: Night 17 Atmospheric and reminiscent of Hopper’s Nighthawks.
		“No Diving” Set Subject: Water 16 Clearly a grab shot – background fully in focus and therefore distracting

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15^th May

Hours 7,646 to 7,647

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14^th May

Hours 7,641 to 7,645

(1h) selecting, preparing and ordering prints for this week’s Amersham Coffee meeting + 1 fine art Giclee print of My A panel for comparison + the SimLab paper sample to perhaps select alternatives.

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13^th May

Hours 7,639 to 7,640

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12^th May

Hours 7,637 to 7,638

(1h) updating the mono images critiqued by the Amersham group Yesterday.

Image	…..	Comment
		Lighting softened and I prefer the square format. Bigger problem, however, is the the fact that Darwin is not in focus!
		Square format – better, I think. Lottie’s hand darkened slightly to make it less dominant.
		There were no extra pixels for a looser crop on Lottie’s side. So the crop is the crop. Paul’s collar toned down slightly as is Penny’s arm in the background.

(1h) YouTube:

• Sotheby’s: “Great Collectors: The (Art) World According to Hubert Neumann“
• Perspective: “Caspar Friedrich: The Master Of Romantic Landscape Paintings“

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11^th May

Hours 7,635 to 7,636

(1h) updating this journal

(1h) Amersham Mono Group

Image	…..	Comment
		Very harsh light is not flattering for her skin texture. More usual for the man to be in the higher, more dominant position. Might have been better to find a bit of shade to shoot them in.
		Possibly crop to above the sleeve as the hand in pocket is distracting. Bride’s hand too dominant
		Try a slightly looser crop showing more of the bride. Arm of woman behind going into man’s mouth somewhat strange. Tone down his collar. This will be good in a series but judged by a different standard this evening.

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10^th May

Hours 7,632 to 7,634

(1h) creating the following composite from yesterday’s flower shot. Please with the result which used some fairly advanced blend-if and other blending technology (in Photoshop).

Original	…..	With Texture

(1h) changing the settings on my a1 for memory 2 (Action):

• default focus area zone, to allow the camera to do eye detection in that area
• removing some of the options for focus area so that I only move between zone, large area and extended spot, always looking at tracking
• changing the tracking sensitivity to locked-on which means the camera tries its hardest to keep with the original point of focus as this moves even if it is temporarily obscured.

(1h) selecting, updating (improving/ working on) and preparing images for tomorrow’s Amersham Mono Group meeting where I intend to ask the group for help and advice in processing these images.

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9^th May

Hours 7,629 to 7,631

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8^th May

Hour 7,628

(½h) updating this journal

(½h) working on the “Setting up the Sony a1” post

A few minutes spent shooting Michelle & Stuart with Michelle’s 50th Birthday Cake, presented by Stuart.

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7^th May

Hour 7,627

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6^th May

Hours 7,624 to 7,626

(½h) updating this journal

(1½h) loading the Sony Imaging Edge software and creating the 200mp image of the dried flowers from the 16 raw exposures shot a few days ago.

(1h) watching the third and final part of “Becoming Frida Kahlo” which includes

• her solo show in New York, which Diego Riviara supports but knows it is important that she does it alone
• meeting Leon Trotski and her affair with him
• travelling to Paris in 1939, invited by André Breton who she subsequently decides she does not like, but has an affair with his wife, Jacqueline Lamba
• disappointment that exhibition in Paris was not a solo show and instead included all sorts of Mexican trivia
• dislike of the surrealists who she thought gossiped in cafes whilst the world around them was collapsing. She never considered herself a surrealist, stating that they painted dreams, she painted her reality.

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5^th May

Hours 7,621 to 7,623

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4^th May

Hours 7,619 to 7,620

(2h) YouTube:

• All things Art: “Piet Mondrian – From figurative to Abstract“
• BBC Episode 1: “Becoming Frieda Kahlo”

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3^rd May

Hours 7,617 to 7,618

(½h) updating this journal including the remainder of the new month admin

(½h) reviewing my surrealism presentation

(1h) YouTube:

• Art History School: “The Life and Legacy of Frida Kahlo: A Tribute to the Mexican Artist“
• Art History School: “The Visionary Genius Hilma af Klint: Explore the Spiritual World of the very first Abstract Artist“

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2^nd May

Hours 7,613 to 7,616

(2½h) working on Mono versions of the portraits from Lottie and Darwin’s wedding for the “Director’s cut”

(½h) updating this journal including further new month admin

(1h) Stoke Poges Photographic Club [this took 2 hours but was only worth 1 hour of aesthetic input which was mainly my disagreeing with the judge on almost everything he said.]

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1^st May

Hours 7,611 to 7,612

(1½h) shooting in Thetford Forest.

(½h) updating this journal including some of the new month admin

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(April 2023)