This journal records my actual 10,000 hours of deliberate practice mastering the art of photography. This page shows those recorded in May 2024
Hours 8,664 to 8,757
31st May 2024
Hours 8,753 to 8,757
(2h) finishing and sending a first draft of yesterday’s images to WorkAid
(1h) writing up this journal
(2h) processing Deadvlei images from Namibia, including “Deadvlei” above and “Tree and Dune in Shadow” below
30th May 2024
Hours 8,748 to 8,752
(1h) shooting Eric Knowles recording a Radio 4 sponsorship request for WorkAid at the BBC – great fun just being inside the BBC – 3 minutes recording took nearly 3 hours. “Eric at the Mic” above
(1h) at the Tate Modern
Expressionists exhibition was the main reason for visiting:
- Story of the Blue Rider Group
- Influence of Johann Wolfgang van Goethe’s Theory of Colour (1910) relating colours to mood and emotion
- Some interesting abstract and semi-abstract work by Wassily Kandinsky including the 1912 “Lady in Moscow” (photographed by me, right) where the contrast between the two abstract splotches is usually interpreted as signifying the conflict between good and evil thought forms
New Surrealist room in the public “In the Studio” on the 2nd Floor
- Freud proposed that the unconscious mind held ideas and emotions that the conscious mind refuses to acknowledge
- Includes the 1941 Birth work by Jackson Pollock who apparently embraced the surrealist idea of painting by unconscious impulses
(3h) editing and processing the WorkAid images
29th May 2024
Hours 8,745 to 8,747
(1h) importing my iPhone photos from Namibia into Lightroom and selecting images to be used in the book of the holiday
(½h) updating this journal and Flickr site mainly regarding yesterday’s competition at the Stoke Poges Photographic Club
(1h) researching contemporary surrealists, particularly Inka Essenhigh and Julie Curtiss as suggested by ChatGPT 4o – but not really convinced by any of these. Mark Ryden perhaps slightly less pop-arty. The British artist Daniel Loveday is quite interesting
(½h) preparing for tomorrow’s shoot for WorkAid at the BBC
28th May 2024
Hours 8,741 to 8,744
(½h) drafting a statement of intent for a potential F panel on the dunes of Sossusvlei
(1½h) editing and processing Namibia images
(2h) Stoke Poges Photographic Club – Open Print Finals
27th May 2024
Hours 8,736 to 8,740
(2h) transferring the Namibian images from my laptop to main computer – collecting a set of 10 animal photos and sending for printing for discussion on Wednesday with the Amersham Coffee group. I particularly like the “Arty Leopard” image above which was essentially captured in camera
(2h) updating this journal and creating a Flickr album for the images
(1h) collating 53 dune images for a potential panel
26th May 2024
Hours 8,734 to 8,735
Long journey back from Namibia
(2h) editing yesterday’s images and processing some from earlier in the trip
25th May 2024
Hours 8,731 to 8,733
(½h) shooting, including a troop of baboons, just seen my the roadside
(1h) editing:
- Yellow – Dunes
- Green – Landscape
- Blue – Birds
- Red – Animals
- Purple – People
- Pink – Astro
(1½h) shooting 200 exposures at the Africat sanctuary including seeing 3 leopards
“Black Back Jackal”
“Leopard Face On”
24th May 2024
Hours 8,725 to 8,730
(1½h) editing images shot yesterday
(½h) shooting on a private cultural tour organised by the lodge, “Namibian Woman Making Porridge”, right
(1h) editing yesterday’s and today’s images
(2h) shooting at the Private Waterhole, within Etosha, of the King Nehale Lodge. Lots of animals, but the bird photos particularly the flying vultures came out best
(1h) editing images from the above shoot
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| “Black-Billed Roller” | “Lappet-Faced Vulture” |
23rd May 2024
Hours 8,720 to 8,724
(½h) shooting first thing in the morning, “Moon Down at Etosha National Park”, above, is somewhat of a missed opportunity. This was a grab-shot with my 70-200×2 set at 400mm, 400 ISO and hand held at 1/10 Second – remarkable that it is even as good as it is. By the time I had found something to lean on, the moon had completely disappeared 🙁
(3h) shooting 573 images as we drove through the park en route to King Nehale Lodge – every small detour was rewarded:
- “Nervous Springbok”, above
- “Ostrich Head and Shoulders”, right
- “Wildebeest Stampeed”, below
- “Ostrich Crossing the Road”, bottom which has King Nehale Gate in the background
(1½h) first stab at editing the day’s images (462 images deleted)
22nd May 2024
Hours 8,715 to 8,719
(3h) shooting first thing in the morning, as we travelled to Etosha National Park and in the evening by the water hole that our hotel was passed around. Images from top to bottom:
- “Elephant and Rhino at Watering Hole”
- “Trio of Elephants”
- “White Rhino at Night”
(2h) editing
21th May 2024
Hours 8,712 to 8,714
(1h) shooting, including “Early Morning Namibia”, left. I particularly like the layers in this image
(2h) editing and processing images from the last couple of days
20th May 2024
Hours 8,710 to 8,711
(½h) astro-photographic shooting “Milky Way over Damaraland”, above
(½h) shooting small animals including, “Scorpion”, left
(1h) editing and processing images from the last couple of days
19th May 2024
Hours 8,708 to 8,709
(½h) shooting sunrise landscapes, “Damaraland Landscape”, above
(½h) further editing and processing yesterday’s images including the mono landscape below
(1h) shooting a desert elephant availing itself of a drink from the lawn sprinkler system, “Desert Elephant at Palmwag Lodge”
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| “Black Fronted Bulbul by Light” | “Cape Glossy Starling at Palmwag Lodge” |
18th May 2024
Hour 8,707
(½h) shooting a mixture of wildlife and sunset landscapes at Camp Kipwe, Damaraland including “Grasses of Damaraland”, above (note: a more creative version was created on 2nd June)
(½h) editing and processing the day’s images
17th May 2024
Hours 8,705 to 8,706
(1h) editing and processing the wide angle images from Dead Vlei that were shot on the 14th on my a99ii, including: “Dead Vlei Dunescape” above and “Simple Dunescape” below
(1h) youtube:
- Aurelio Salvador: “Yves Tanguy“
- Lighting Mentor:
- “Power In The Grays” – a desaturated colour appears, psychologically, take on the hue of its complementary colour, e.g., a desaturated green looks as though it has a more magenta hue
- “Warm Light = Cool Shadows? Or Is It A Myth?” – shadows are black, they have a colour only as a result of a secondary light source, e.g., outside the key light source maybe the sun and the secondary light source is the blue sky
16th May 2024
Hours 8,701 to 8,704
(1½h) shooting 432 landscape and wildlife images whilst on a “Living Desert” tour of the sand dunes beside Walvis Bay including:
- “Mist at Dawn – Walvis Bay”, above
- “Chameleon Catching Worm”, right
- “Sandstorm in the Namib Desert”, below
(2½h) editing and processing images from the last couple of days
15th May 2024
Hours 8,698 to 8,700
(½h) shooting animals as we see them driving from Sossusvlei to Swakopmund including the “Trio of Roadside Ostriches”, above and “Pair of Pink Flamingoes” (shot in the somewhat unexpectedly industrial port of Walvis Bay), right
(2½h) editing and processing images from the last couple of days
14th May 2024
Hours 8,693 to 8,697
(2h) shooting (603 images on my a1 and several more on the 99ii) including the following that passed the first level editing
- 128 dunescapes, including “Sussosvlei Landscape I” above and “Dune Abstract I” below
- Dead Vlei landscapes, including “Dead Vlei Tree”, right
(3h) editing and processing the day’s photos
13th May 2024
Hour 8,692
Mainly driving from Windhok to Desert Hills Glamping Camp in Sossusvlei
(½h) shooting African Landscapes – some featuring animals like “Brace of Sossusvlei Onyx” above, “Sossusvlei Sunset” right, and “Sossusvlei Landscape at Sunset” below
(½h) editing and processing the day’s images
12th May 2024
Hour 8,691
Day spent travelling to Namibia
(1h) YouTubes on Yves Tanguy and Kay Sage:
- Eronious Monk: “The BEST Surrealists~Kay Sage“
- ArtsWestchester: “The Surreal Worlds of Kay Sage and Yves Tanguy” – Double Solitaire describes their independent pursuit of their individual, yet similar art
11th May 2024
Hours 8,689 to 8,690
(2h) updating the notes for my Surrealism presentation
10th May 2024
Hours 8,686 to 8,688
(2h) adding Surrealist photographers and more key artists to my Surrealism presentation
(½h) creating the, above, mono version of “After the Rain”. I feel that this has a good sense of depth to the image and captures the freshness of the light. However, the colour original benefits from magentas contrasting with the greens which adds interest
(½h) updating this journal
9th May 2024
Hours 8,683 to 8,685
(2h) adding new sections to my Surrealism presentation:
- Sub-genres and Key Artists
- Influence on Contemporary Culture
(1h) Amersham Mono Group by Zoom
8th May 2024
Hours 8,681 to 8,682
(2h) reviewing, restructuring and rewriting my Surrealism presentation
7th May 2024
Hours 8,675 to 8,680
(1h) creating “Petrichor”, right, an abstract capturing the smell of the forest after the rain – progressively more abstract than the images produced over the last couple of days – although the colours in this are good, I prefer the “After the Rain” of yesterday
(2½h) writing and publishing a “Tate Modern Review: Yoko Ono” post
(½h) updating this journal
(2h) Stoke Poges Photographic Club – Set Subject Print final, my entries below
6th May 2024
Hour 8,674
(½h) reading about Joan Miro in the Desmond Morris book “The Lives of the Surrealists”
- born of the 20th April – we share the same birthday
- divided his later years between Paris and Palma in Majorca
- would have been at pains to emphasise his identity as an individual artist rather than as part of (even leader of) a group
(½h) updating this journal
5th May 2024
Hour 8,673
(1h) creating the “After the Rain” picture above (actually a detail of “Chalfonts Bluebell ICM”, yesterday’s entry; “petrichor” is the word used to describe the pleasant fresh smell after rain on dry ground), and “Woodland Dining Table” and “Woodland Chef” images below from images shot yesterday
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4th May 2024
Hours 8,671 to 8,672
(½h) practicing shooting landscapes with my A99II during a bluebell and foraging walk near the Chalfonts
(1h) editing and processing the day’s images including the combined straight and ICM image, right, “Chalfonts Bluebell ICM”
(½h) updating this journal
3rd May 2024
Hours 8,669 to 8,670
(1h) visiting the Workaid site in Chesham in preparation for the shoot with the BBC on the 30th of this month
(1h) creating Photoshop Actions for my large (c. A3) potential F Panel prints
2nd May 2024
Hours 8,666 to 8,668
(1h) calculating images and mount sizes for a potential F Panel using large prints of nearly A3 size
(2h) Amersham Beyond group meeting – Next Challenge #46 Natural Abstract Art
1st May 2024
Hours 8,664 to 8,665
(1h) Amersham Coffee Club where Sarah pointed out that the hands and face in my “Son of Man in Drizzle” were overly pink and looked as though they had a magenta colour cast
(1h) updating this journal including notes from yesterday’s SPCC PDI finals and all the new month admin