October 2018 – Contribution to my 10,000 Hours Photography
Purpose of Journal
This page is part of the actual record of my 10,000 Hours Deliberate Practice Learning Fine Art Photography.
October: hours 1,275 to 1,411
31 October 2018
Hours: 1,406 to 1,411
Two hours updating this journal following all the activity from the last days/ weeks.
An hour watching the Ted Forbes YouTube introducing “Photo Assignment #15: Shooting Holga Style“. The Holga is a very cheap, primitive film camera which does absolutely nothing automatically. So the rules of shooting Holga style are:
- No auto-focus, have to estimate distances using the zone system
- Don’t use the viewfinder, hold camera at chest height and aim as best you can, including estimating the field of view
- F/8 – only
- ISO 100 or 400
- Shutter speed 1/30 or 1/60 sec.
Result on Twitter #PhotoAssignments
Three hours processing images from yesterday’s Burnham Beeches workshop with Paul Mitchell.
30 October 2018
Hours 1,396 to 1,405
Seven hours on Paul Mitchell‘s Woodland Photography workshop in Burnham Beeches (already a regular haunt of mine). Paul has been one of my major influences since starting this project (one day course on post-processing at the RPS DIG group Wokingham 12 Nov 2017); he is a key player within the RPS and sits on the Fine Art distinction panels for ARPS and FRPS. My objective on the course was learning about composition in woodland photography, key tips as follows:
- Use the “Mitchell Viewer”, a plastic rectangle with a 3×4 aperture, given to us at the start of the course, to help see potential compositions before lifting the camera. This enables many options to be quickly assessed
- Look for contrasting shapes, colours or textures
- Exclude the sky as much as possible
- Avoid heavy objects, such as tree trunks dominating an image and preventing the eye from moving on.
Technically:
- Shoot everything manually including focus – use the enlarge option in the viewfinder for increased accuracy (this was a revelation)
- Use my 135mm f/1.8 perfect length plus the option for super narrow depth of focus
- Change the white balance to cloudy – really warms the image in-camera
- Use a polarising filter to reduce reflections and again warm the colours overall.
Also on the course was Robert Friel, a cool guy why recently gained his ARPS with a panel of 8 inch square prints shot on an iPhone 5 from the train during his daily commute into London. The panel of 15 semi-abstract landscapes were presented flush mounted with no border, in a single row, where they looked line train windows. The RPS have retained this panel as an example of exceptional work.
One hour review of the course and completing this journal.
Two hours at the Stoke Poges Photographic Club – Print competition: “Dereliction/Dilapidation” and Open.
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….. | Really not appreciated by the judge who felt the two halves were distracting and he would have preferred an image of the “beautiful pier” in its entirety. |
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The first version of this image has criticised during my failed LRPS submission. Using this competition to gain feedback on a revised version. Held Back and 19 No negative comments although the judge couldn’t work out why he was holding his hood (to pull the eye holes down so that he could see me). |
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Again using this competition to try out this image as a potential replacement for my LRPS panel. 19 The judge was a fashion photographer, so should know about portraiture. He likes the framing, the lighting, and the sparkle in the eyes, which he deduced had been helped a little in post-processing. May tone down the “eye sparkle” but otherwise this give me confidence that it’s a good replacement portrait for my LRPS re-submission. |
29 October 2018
Hours 1,387 to 1,395
An hour transferring files from my laptop to desktop computer and updating this journal.
An hour booking onto the Paul Mitchell – Woodland photography course in Burnham Beeches for tomorrow and completing the pre-course work and reading his blog. What I know of Paul’s work, source of the strength of his compositions, before I start the course:
- Usually completely blocks out the sky
- Restricted colour palette of complementary colours
- Strong contrast and saturation
Two hours processing images from the Tate Liverpool and the Anthony Gormley – Another Place installation on Crosby beach, and from earlier in the week.
An hour producing images for uploading to this journal and social media.
One hour watching YouTubes including Sean Tucker’s
Two hours at the Amersham Photographic Society – Speaker: Andy Beel “Me and my Eyes”. Andy creates mono prints and is an unashamed heavy Photoshop post-processor. Top tips:
- Lighten the areas where you want the eye to go, darken the edges to keep the eye in the frame
- Keep the tonal range between 4 and 96% as this is all most paper/ ink combinations can manage.
An hour preparing for tomorrow’s photography course including practising with my new polarising filter.
28 October 2018
Hours 1,385 to 1,386
An hour in the Tate Liverpool, including shooting some of the windows.
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An hour on Crosby Beach shooting Anthony Gormley’s “Another Place” installation.
27 October 2018
Hour 1,384
Mainly a travel day – hour spent processing images on the ferry.
26 October 2018
Hour 1,383
An hour shooting around the Landmark Trust property and then from walking the walls of Londonderry, including over the top of what was previously known as SilverStreet.
Anthony Gormley sculpture near the Foyle Millennium Theatre. This is apparently one of three that are/ were positioned around the walls, although we only found this one.
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Then the beach with its dramatic seascape like the image below.
25 October 2018
Hours 1,381 to 1,382
Half an hour shooting, mainly waves against rocky cliffs, at Dunseverick Castle – both I and camera got completely drenched.
An hour and a half processing the above images
24 October 2018
Hours 1,377 to 1,380
An hour pre-dawn shooting at Giant’s Causeway; some different angles including from on top of the causeway itself.
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Both the images above benefit from colour toning through shadows-midtones-highlights.
An hour processing images from this morning and writing this journal.
An hour total shooting at:
- The rope bridge
- Waterfall
- MAC – Belfast
- Storemont
An hour processing the above images.
23 October 2018
Hours 1,372 to 1,376
An hour shooting Giant’s Causeway before dawn with 16-35mm
An hour processing images.
Half an hour at dark hedges
Two and a half hours processing images.
22 October 2018
Hours 1,369 to 1,371
An hour early shooting at Giant’s Causeway with 26-70mm
Return to Giant’s Causeway for another hour walk further with 70-300mm
An hour at sunset shooting the peace bridge with 16-35mm
An hour processing the above images.
21 October 2018
Hour 1,368
An hour shooting on the seafront at Stranraer at daybreak.
20 October 2018
Hour 1,367
Half an hour shooting by the canal in Dudley then another half updating this journal.
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19 October 2018
Hours 1,364 to 1,366
An hour processing the following HDR of the old Brighton Pier. Colour toning makes it pop.
Two hours producing my entries for next week’s SPPC “Dereliction and Dilapidation” print competition. Quite pleased with by Brighton Pier Diptych, less sure of Time Stood Still; two open entries are the Penitents and Enigmatic Author are being tested for as LRPS replacements.
18 October 2018
Hours 1,358 to 1,363
Two hours processing images from yesterday’s trip to Brighton.
An hour at the Photographers’ Gallery and planning a schedule of activity for next year to lead to PAGB distinctions via entry into the Salons and circuits of the international FIAP.
Another hour processing the Brighton images.
Two hours at the APS PIC Group – absolutely tremendous session with panels presented including:
- pastel landscapes from an FRPS who usually works on architectural projects
- a contemporary panel with potential for ARPS
- books of shoot photographs (field sports)
- a Hong Kong street photography ARPS panel
- a potential architectural FRPS panel.
17 October 2018
Hours 1,353 to 1,357
An hour planning trip to Brighton Photo Biennial later for today, and updating this journal.
Three hours at the biennial or shooting street images in between exhibits.
An hour doing the first cull of the 213 images made today.
16 October 2018
Hours 1,348 to 1,352
An hour shooting at Langley Park, plus a further three hours processing those images and updating this journal.
Two hours processing the images from the weekend before last in Bournemouth. Including the following Triptych which I think is quite cool.
Two hours at the Stoke Poges Photographic Club – workshop/ talk Scott Barrett of Gerrards Cross Camera Club on Lightroom. Top tips as follows:
- In-built face recognition software will add metadata fields that can then be searched on
- User preset for exporting to certain size, e.g., as used in the journal.
15 October 2018
Hours 1,343 to 1,347
An hour processing the images from Scotland and updating this journal accordingly. Potentially interesting Triptych of golf flags blowing in the early morning wind.
An hour updating my Instagram feed with the key Failed LRPS images. [Took a long time to work through the technicalities of doing this now that a direct link from Lightroom is no longer supported – this is not time that counts as deliberate practice.]
An hour watching YouTubes:
- Nigel Danson: “7 tips for planning the perfect photography trip”
- Use a local guide or go on a local photography tour early in the trip
- Use google maps + the photographers’ ephemeris (or equivalent)
- Plan to visit fewer locations and to stay there longer
- FStoppers: “Critique of three Photographers’ Printed Books”
- buy a book with lay flat pages
- max one image per page.
Two hours at the Amersham Photographic Society – PDI competition.
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This is a corrected version of the image that was considered sub-standard by the RPS during the LRPS assessment. 19 and Commended. [Happy that this can replace the original in the resubmission.] |
14 October 2018
Hours 1,335 to 1,342
An hour and a half culling and initially processing images from last weekend’s morning shoot in Bournemouth.
Half an hour updating this journal.
An hour finishing and publishing the “First Commercial Assignment – Learning Architectural Photography” post, and updating the appropriate social media sites, i.e., twitter and facebook.
Four hours straight writing and publishing the “Failed LRPS Assessment” post.
An hour updating the Flickr images associated with this post.
13 October 2018
Hours 1,331 to 1,334
An hour processing images from last weekend and the highly productive shoot from the Tate the week before.
Two hours at a “train the trainer” session on Macro Photography with the committee of the Stoke Poges Photographic Club.
An hour creating and ordering prints for:
- Personal display of family portraits
- Family groups for gifts
- Reworked versions of the failed LRPS prints;
and updating this journal.
12 October 2018
Hours 1,328 to 1,330
Half an hour updating this journal.
An hour and a half working on the “Learning Architectural Photography” post.
An hour watching YouTube “10 Year Photo Essay by John Free” about a project photographing railway tramps.
11 October 2018
Hours 1,324 to 1,327
An hour working on the “Learning Architectural Photography” post.
Two and a half hours watching YouTubes:
- Nigel Danson: “7 Ideas to Instantly improve your Autumn Photography”
- longer lens, to pick out more interesting details + a polarising filter to increase colour contrasts
- shoot contre jour for back lighting
- water, swirls and eddies at the side of the water look great in long exposures 5-15 seconds
- shoot through things, e.g., trees and branches to frame the image
- think about colour contrast, e.g., yellow vs grey or blue
- get close in with a macro lens, e.g., drops of water on leaves
- intentional camera movement, ICM, 1/5 to 1/30
- B&H: “Ethics and Etiquette for Photographers and Assistants” – in short, don’t be a dick
- B&H: “Lighting Basics made Easy”
- Slingle light to produce “loop lighting” (shadow close to the nostril) in both Broad vs Short lighting modes
- “Butterfly lighting” creates shadows under both nostrils by using a softbox above and 45 degrees in front of the model and a reflector to fill in the shadows
- Avoid straight on “Mug shots” always have subjects with their shoulders at 45 degrees or women can be looking over their shoulder.
Half an hour updating this journal.
10 October 2018
Hours 1,321 to 1,323
Two hours catching up on this journal and associated social media sites.
One hour finishing the “Review of Summer” post.
9 October 2018
Hours 1,316 to 1,320
An hour working on the “Review of Summer” post.
[Time spent sporting out problems with Lightroom Classic CC: missing Publish Services panel, resolved by resetting Preferences; restarting Lightroom with <shift><alt> depressed.]
Two hours working on new versions of the failed images from my rejected LRPS submission. This included replacing the image of Chloe with that of Nick Mills, author and my brother-in-law, shot on the balcony of his house in Canada, overlooking the Cascade mountains. Originally produced as a bio-picture for his book; he is trying to look enigmatic whilst Fran, my wife, is laughing and complaining about having to hold a roll of wrapping paper as a reflector sitting on the railings.
Two hours at the SPPC – Competition “Made from Wood”.
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Set-Subject: “Made from Wood” Title: “Three Pre-cut Planks” Held back – 19 Did unexpectedly well given that it was just three planks of wood shot at the Tate, but could have been anywhere. |
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Competition: Open Title: “Pedestrian Tunnel – Kings Cross” 18 Praised for the reflections, interesting groups of people, good separation. But an image the judge had seen hundreds of times before. |
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Competition: Open Title: “Ascending Staircase Blavatnik Building Tate Modern London” 18 Praised for good angles and shapes. Didn’t like the rail touching the edge of the frame. Judge had taken this shot himself along with having seen other versions in competition several times before. |
8 October 2018
Hours 1,311 to 1,315
One hour shooting on Bournemouth seafront at sunrise, 7-8am.
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One (of two) hours watching YouTubes including:
- Sean Tucker: “Why Mastering Photography (or anything) Takes Time” – motivational analysis of the challenge of improvement. Starts with the quote: “Compare yourself to who you were yesterday, not to who somebody else is today” – Jordan Peterson
- Capture One Pro: “Sessions and Catalogues – What to Choose” [I have decided that this hour doesn’t count towards my 10,000 hours of deliberate practice]
- “Interview with @SixStreetUnder 180328“
An hour finishing the “First Commercial Assignment – Learning Architecture Photography” post, and updating this journal.
Two hours at the Amersham Photographic Society: Members Evening: Roger Wotton & Gill Morgan.
7 October 2018
Hours 1,308 to 1,310
Shooting on Bournemouth seafront at dawn for one hour including a few images from the Bournemouth Half Marathon.
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| Contrasting images from the Bournemouth Half Marathon | ||
Two hour processing the above images.
6 October 2018
Hours 1,305 to 1,307
An hour tweaking the window photo from Worcester College, then updating this journal.
<<Place holder for Worcester College image awaiting approval from Oxford University>>
An hour processing images from Scotland and updating the September journal.
Two hours working on the “Review of Summer” post.
5 October 2018
Hours 1,300 to 1,304
Three hours processing yesterday’s images.
Two hours working on some Worcester College images for WG Carter.
4 October 2018
Hours 1,296 to 1,299
Half an hour updating this journal – including rearrangement of pages that is necessary at the start of a new month.
Two hours at the Tate Modern half looking at the updated exhibitions, including the Shape of Light, and half doing street photography.
An hour at the Saatchi Museum including shooting in some of the galleries.
Half an hour at the National Portrait Gallery including the Courtauld Impressionists exhibition.
3 October 2018
Hour 1,289 to 1,295
6 hours analysing the faults with the rejected images from the LRPS assessment.
1 hour correcting errors in the WG Carter Corporate Group shots – mainly tidying up where compositions have happened and darkening the red lights on the vans which, otherwise, are a distraction flash of red in the image.
2 October 2018
Hours 1,283 to 1,288
3 hours at the LRPS Assessment day: Re-submission on the basis that although they liked the overall panel, they had problems with the following 3 images.
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….. | Halo around the main subject – also an overall magenta colour cast. |
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Halo around the buildings indicating crude post-processing. | |
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Lack of depth of focus across the face. If you’re only including one portrait, then the whole face has to be in focus. |
2 hours putting together competition entries for next week’s “Made from Wood”.
1 hour at the Stoke Poges Photographic Club
1 October 2018
Hours 1,275 to 1,282
Two hours prep for tomorrow’s LRPS Assessment
Fours hours processing the Worcester College images for WG Carter so that the college bursar can use them as the “After” photos in a presentation they are doing.
Two hours processing images for the forthcoming “Made from Wood” competition at the Stoke Poges Photographic Club.