This journal records my actual 10,000 hours deliberate practice mastering art photography
Hours : 9,721 to 9,829
31st May 2025
Hour 9,839
(1h) working on the first half of the SPPC “Zero to FRPS in 10,000 Hours” talk
30th May 2025
Hours 9,827 to 9,828
(1h) working on the Structure and first half of the “Zero to FRPS in 10,000 Hours” talk for the SPPC
(1h) updating the “Gold and Silver Blavatnik Staircase” reconstructed image , below
29th May 2025
Hours 9,824 to 9,826
(½h) updating this journal and associated Flickr site which required creating a new Album for the Tate Modern
(2½h) creating the reconstructed image, “Gold and Silver Blavatnik Staircase” above
28th May 2025
Hours 9,822 to 9,823
(1h) updating the image revised yesterday; 3px 50% grey stroke around each of the elements and cleaning up the individual elements to make them fully distinct
(1h) Amersham coffee club discussing recent image, in particular the international street photography of Jeremy Schrire
27th May 2025
Hours 9,820 to 9,821
(1h) reprocessing the following image shot at the Blavatnik Building of the Tate Modern nearly 7 years ago – I think this is a significant improvement over the original
(1h) started writing a talk “Zero to FRPS in 10,000 Hours” for the Stoke Poges Photographic Club
26th May 2025
Hours 9,818 to 9,819
(1h) updating this journal and some minor changes to the “Fellowship of the Royal Photographic Society” post
(½h) selecting images for this year’s Amersham Exhibition
TM Davy speaking on the Talk Art podcast: How to look at abstract art:
- Find an interesting area
- A colour, shape or contrast that you love
- Gradually explore more of the picture
(½h) creating Piano images for Instagram (first post in a while)
25th May 2025
Hours 9,814 to 9,817
(1h) researching my favourite photographers by reading through some of my favourite books:
- National Geographic: Simply Beautiful Photographs – Annie Griffiths
- The Power of Photography – Peter Fetterman
- Fragile Beauty – Elton John & David Furnish
(1h) Russell Tovey and Robert Diament are amongst the authors of the Fragile Beauty book where their biographies mention that they are the presenters of the Talk Art podcast that I hadn’t at that time encountered. It just happens that the latest interview is with Juergen Teller, who was not at that time on my top 10 photographers list but certainly should be
Image above: Juergen Teller, 2007, Victoria Beckham, Legs, Bag and Shoes, Marc Jacobs Campaign 2007
Top fact: Juergen Teller’s camera of choice is an iPhone, albeit shooting in RAW so that he can manage the image himself afterwards – even when photographing the pope
(1h) shooting at the 90th Anniversary of the Stoke Poges Memorial Gardens
(1h) processing the day’s images
24th May 2025
Hours 9,810 to 9,813
(1h) updating the front page of this website to show my current portfolio [the 10,000 hours part of this was selecting the images that make up the portfolio]
Wassily Kandinsky, 1923, Composition VIII, his first fully abstract painting
(1h) YouTube about the Guggenheims:
- “The Scandalous Life of Peggy Guggenheim. The Queen of Bohemian Art“
- Guggenheim Museum: “Collecting Abstraction: The Multiple Narratives of Modernism” where the above picture is featured, and must make my top 10
(2h) Writing and publishing “2025: Top 10 Painters” prompted by the above
23rd May 2025
Hours 9,808 to 9,809
(1h) watching and writing up the Karl Taylor YouTube “Advanced Product Photography Lighting!” lipstick product shot:
- gradient lighting around the barrel of the lipstick using a scrim
- global lighting tinted blue to look like natural light
- separate shot to get hard shadows
(1h) rebuilding the galleries section of this website using the NextGen plugin
[This last activity took many hours, but only about one that is concentrating on the photographic content]
22nd May 2025
Hours 9,801 to 9,807
(½h) updating this journal and associated Flickr site
(½h) woke up thinking about metering modes and the need to add these to my “Setting Up the Sony a1 – Safari Update” post and to adjusting the settings on the camera accordingly
(6h) finishing and publishing the “Fellowship of the Royal Photographic Society” post
21st May 2025
Hours 9,796 to 9,800
(1h) inserting references to other posts and updating the text in my “Fellowship of the Royal Photographic Society” post
(½h) updating this journal
(1½h ) Tate Modern
- delighted to see that Rothko’s Seagram Mural, left, have been reinstalled into the dedicated room they were promised
- also Dorothea Tanning’s “Eine Klein Nachtmusik”, below, hangs in the International Surrealist room and at about 18″ by 12″ it’s a lot smaller than I remember it/ or imagined it to be
- Leigh Bowery exhibition – shot and created my triptych, bottom, which aims to show the audience reaction
(½h) shooting street images in the Tate
(1½h) editing and processing the day’s images including the “Leigh Bowery Triptych”, above, and “Leaving the Teleporter”, below, from the Electric Dreams exhibition
20th May 2025
Hours 9,794 to 9,795
(2h) writing descriptions of the first 10 images in my “Fellowship of the Royal Photographic Society” post
19th May 2025
Hours 9,789 to 9,793
(½h) editing and processing some of yesterday’s images
(2h) creating a Flickr Album for my Fellowship images, including a pretty version of my Statement of Intent which might otherwise have looked a bit dry
(½h) updating this journal
(2h) Amersham Photographic Society – Print Finals my entry below
| Image | ….. | Comment |
 | “The Lovers” The judge didn’t understand this image and declared no knowledge of Magritte as a surrealist painter He was also confused by what he saw as a contradiction between the title and the fact that the man is wearing a wedding ring and the woman an eternity ring |
Judge Panikos Hajistilly made the following interesting points (about other people’s images):
- when photographing birds the minimum shutter speed should be 1/4,000 second
- when photographing dogs, with a black background, position the key light slightly behind the subject so that they are partially back lit
18th May 2025
Hours 9,785 to 9,788
(1h) creating the overview image for my “Fellowship of the Royal Photographic Society” post
(½h) street photography in London with my friend and mentor, Yin Wong. As Yin would have suggested, I asked the pianist’s girlfriend if I may take a picture, and when she agreed, asked her to clear all their baggage out of the way and to move out of shot herself. Rather amusingly, everybody else that was watching also respected this request
(2h) Photo London including the discovery of Sandro Miller’s 2014 project “Malkovich, Malkovich, Malkovich: Homage to Photographic Masters” in which she recreates famous photographs with John Malkovich as the model. Young men, old men, women and children
(½h) editing and processing some of the day’s images
17th May 2025
Hours 9,783 to 9,784
(2h) YouTube:
- Hauser & Wirth “William Kentridge responds to Philip Guston’s 1969 work, ‘The Studio.’” a double self portrait; symbolism from contemporary culture
- “Gerhard Richter in the studio” – influenced in this early years by seeing the Edward
Steichen exhibition: Family of Man – which showed him the power of photography – at art school is was the only person who started at 8 in the morning - “Josef Albers: The Magic of Color“
- Simon d’Entremont: “The truth about shooting at ISO 100 that the Pros know” – auto ISO is your friend & don’t worry TOO much about higher ISO rating as this in an of itself is not the source of noise
- Sotheby’s “Four Decades of the Abstract Impressionist Joan Mitchell“
- “Patricia Albers on Joan Mitchell | New York Studio School”
- major influence: Willem de Kooning
- has synesthesia and so associates colours with sounds, emotions, etc and vice versa
- other artists with synesthesia include: Wassily Kandinsky and David Hockney (and in other arts: Pharrell Williams, Billy Joel and Vladimir Nabokov)
The article suggests that it occurs in about 5% of the population
16th May 2025
Hours 9,779 to 9,782
(2h) testing all the settings on my Sony 1a for compliance with the “Setting Up the Sony a1 – Safari Update” post and then publishing this post
(½h) preparing the PDI of my “The Lovers” image for the Amersham Print final on Monday
(1½h) starting a “Fellowship of the Royal Photographic Society” post
15th May 2025
Hours 9,776 to 9,778
(1h) finalising the specification of camera settings on the “Setting Up the Sony a1 – Safari Update” post
(2h) Amersham PiC Group meeting presenting yesterday’s successful Fellowship panel – display left
14th May 2025
Hours 9,771 to 9,775
(4½h) at the Royal Photographic Society in Bristol watching the Contemporary Associate and Fellowship assessments, including my own
Minor Success Note:
- Fellowship of the Royal Photographic Society achieved at hour 9,773
More than “minor”: in my “5,000 Hours – Half Way” review post I described the achievement of an FRPS as “an undisputed acknowledgement of Mastery”
(½h) updating this journal
13th May 2025
Hours 9,767 to 9,770
(1h) updating this journal mainly with the dates and associated photos from the trip to Botswana
(1h) reworking the “A Dung Beatle’s Toil” image, left and preparing the print for tonight competition
(2h) Stoke Poges Photographic Club – Set Subject Print final, my entry below
| Image | ….. | Comment |
 | “Three Generations of Strong Women” Set subject: Mono or Contra Jour First place: Set Subject Print of the Year |
12th May 2025
Hours 9,762 to 9,766
(1h) updating this journal and researching André Kertész
(2h) reconfiguring the Sony a1 for Wildlife photography – Menu 3 in the “Setting Up the Sony a1 – Safari Update” post
- Steve Perry YouTube: “The Ultimate Sony a1 AF Setup Guide (For Wildlife Photography)“, which I don’t completely agree with as he is a back-button focuser and I agree with ??? that there are better options
- I suggest AF/MF – Priority Set in AF-S (and AF-C which the camera is actually set to) = AF, so that it will only take a picture if it identifies something in focus (Steve suggests Release which is the exact opposite and will take a picture whatever, so that you always get a shot even if it’s a tad blurry (hmmm…) and the maximum frame rate only works in Release mode, so this is perhaps the option for Action – Menu 2)
- Mark Galer: “Sony Alpha 1 / A1 Camera Settings for Shooting Action and Birds in Flight”
- shoot Aperture priority with Minimum shutter speed set initially to 1/1,000 and ISO limited to 52,000
- Assign Minimum shutter speed to a button
(2h) Amersham Photographic Society – lecture Justin Minns FRPS ‘Interesting Stuff’ Suffolk based landscape photographer
11th May 2025
Hours 9,760 to 9,761
(1h) YouTube:
- Developing Tank: “Andre Kertesz – The Founder of Street, Abstract & Surrealist Photography“
- Blue Map Essays: “A Piazza in the Sun: The Paintings of Giorgio de Chirico”
- de Chirico was influenced by Friedrich Nietzsche
- Italian piazzas empty in the heat of the late afternoon leaving a proto-surrealist landscape
- Contemporary Art Issue: “Why Successful Artists Start Painting Larger (Hint: It’s Not What You Think)” – for the market: domestic buyers need smaller images; institutional, larger
- Pete Bristo: “Fine Art Processing” – Seascapes
- remove all clutter
- remove the horizon and blend sea and sky
- increase contrast but desaturate the sea and sky, making it more moody
(1h) creating “A Dung Beatles Toil”, left,
and producing and ordering a set of prints for showing at Amersham and a new “Three Generations of Strong Women” print for Tuesday’s set-subject Print Final at the Stoke Poges Photographic Club
10th May 2025
Hours 9,758 to 6,759
(2h) updating this journal with the first of the photos from Botswana and Zimbabwe, and finishing off the new month admin and the Flickr Album
9th May 2025
Hour 9,757 – Return from Botswana/ Zimbabwe
(1h) effectively finishing the “Setting Up the Sony a1 – Safari Update” post – just need to implement on the camera (and as far as possible on the A7c before publishing
8th May 2025
Hours 9,755 to 9,756 – Victoria Falls
(½h) shooting at Victoria Falls on my iPhone (heeding dire warning of the spray drowning all camera equipment), “First Glimpse of Victoria Falls” above
(1½h) starting a post called: “Setting Up the Sony a1 – Safari Update” to update the post published on the 12th August 2023 with yesterday’s thought on potential improvements
7th May 2025
Hours 9,752 to 9,754 – Victoria Falls
(1h) editing and processing recent images
(2h) updating this journal including:
- most of the new month admin
- creating the new banner above
- the post safari – camera set-up thoughts below
Limitations with my current set-up for the Sony A1 when used on safari with the big 400mm lens:
- was often pressing the button for “My Menu” by accident, it was just where my thumb moved to when trying to control the big lens
- need a constant display of Eye AF setting, i.e. Human/ Animal/ Bird as often had this wrong
- need a better button for toggling between Eye AF setting, either a button reachable by the right thumb or, better still, the function ring on the lens
- ideally the Eye AF setting should be limited to Animal/ Bird (photos of people on the trip were generally taken on my iPhone)
- auto ISO has a tendency to keep the speed unduly fast and therefore increase the ISO too much. Given that when the light was low I tended to use a monopod and with all the image stabilisation in both lens and camera body – I need to explore options
- I also found the function button on the lens, that I had programmed to shoot in medium burst speed, somewhat inconsistent – I need to practice using this
It might make sense to incorporate the above in a wildlife memory setting on the camera, maybe setting 3 which is currently set to landscape/ creative which can more easily be done in manual. The above might be worth writing up as a blog post
6th May 2025
Hours 9,748 to 9,751 – long transfer to Kasane
(2h) shooting mainly on a very productive 3 hour river cruise on the Chobe River where it was possible to get much closer to the birds
- Pied Kingfisher, left
- African Darter, below
(2h) editing and processing the day’s images
5th May 2025
Hours 9,744 to 9,747 – Savuti National Park
(1h) shooting morning drive
(2h) editing and processing
(1h) evening drive
- Blacksmith Lapwing, right
- Kori Bustard, below
4th May 2025
Hours 9,738 to 9,743 – Savuti National Park
(2h) shooting morning drive
(3h) editing the morning’s images
(1h) shooting evening drive
- Red-Billed Hornbill, right
- High-key mono Lion Portrait, below
The lion was part of the famous Marsh Pride. One of two big prides in Savuti at this time, the other being the Northern Pride
3rd May 2025
Hours 9,735 to 9,737 – Morning game drive in Mababe then transfer to Savuti
(2h) shooting on Morning Drive, very lucky to see the African Wild Dog, above, dining on part of a recent kill – African wild dogs are officially endangered with fewer than 7,000 across the entire continent
(1h) editing the day’s images
2nd May 2025
Hours 9,728 to 9,734 – Mababe National Park
(2h) shooting – 3h morning drive
(3h) editing – including identifying the potential for a flock birds series
(2h) shooting evening/ night drive
- Hyena Backward Glance, above
- Vervet Monkey, right
- Red-Billed Hornbill, below
1st May 2025
Hours 9,721 to 9,727 – Mababe National Park
(2h) shooting – 3h morning drive:
- “Hyena Backward Glance”, above
- “Loane Waterbuck”, right
(3h) editing and processing
(2h) shooting evening and night drive, including the Hippopotamus left which is illuminated by the guide’s night light
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