This journal records the detail of how I became a master of art photography following 10,000 hours of deliberate practice
Hours 10,154 to 10,246
31st October 2025
Hours 10,245 to 10,246
(2h) studying the newly discovered North American artists:
- Andrew Wyeth (USA)
- David Alfaro Siqueiros (Mexico) – “The March of Humanity” the world’s largest mural
30th October 2025
Hours 10,241 to 10,244
(2h) preparing prints for forthcoming competitions – some new mount styles that I am hopeful will do well
(2h) YouTubes in preparation for my visit to the New York museums next week:
- “Top 10 Masterpieces at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City | A Deep Dive”
- Andrew Wyeth – Christina’s World
- David Alfaro Siqueiros – Collective Suicide, below, which, although largely an abstract is about the Mexican national preference to die rather than live as slaves under the Spanish
- “Willem De Kooning, “Endless Painting” Gagosian Gallery in NY 2025“
- “The Rise and Fall of America’s Second Richest Family: Guggenheim Brothers“
29th October 2025
Hours 10,238 to 10,240
(1h) updating this journal
(1h) Amersham Coffee club
(1h) updating the Village Calendar
28th October 2025
Hours 10,235 to 10,237
(1h) producing a draft multipage-pdf of the Village Calendar
(2h) at the first round of the CACC Rosebowl – very high quality images, Stoke Poges came fourth out of four
27th October 2025
Hours 10,233 to 10,234
(2h) selecting images and grappling with PDF templates for next year’s Stoke Poges Village Calendar in conjunction with the Memorial Gardens
26th October 2025
Hours 10,230 to 10,232
(1h) processing prints for the forthcoming competitions at both the Amersham Photographic Society and Stoke Poges Photographic club and the Statement of intent for my talk to the SPPC on 11th November
(1h) creating a new version of “The Eyes Have It”, right
(1h) updating this journal
25th October 2025
Hour 10,229
(½h) shooting on a fungi walk and the duo playing at the dinner afterwards (above & below)
(½h) editing and processing the day’s images
24th October 2025
Hour 10,228
(1h) correcting some minor problems and refining the details of “Magritte’s Threshold of Liberty”, right
23rd October 2025
Hours 10,225 to 10,227
(½h) shooting “End of Summer”, above
(2h) finishing the “Magritte’s Threshold of Liberty” below, and creating the version of “The Eyes Have It”, right
(½h) updating this journal
22th October 2025
Hours 10,222 to 10,224
(1h) at the Amersham Coffee club:
- Much discussion of my “Magritte’s Threshold of Liberty”
- My “Slough Demolition” series were generally applauded
- changes to “Tombin Gorge Abstract” were considered an improvement
- my “Double Abstract” image from the 13th was politely acknowledged
- Jeremy Schrire’s fabulous mono portrait of the woman who serves the coffee at the cafe we were in. This was shot yesterday in a 10 minute break during a quiet period in the cafe
“too timid” in my lighting changes
image still looks flat, rather than being a room holding the pictures
the cannon “looks awkward”, perspective doesn’t match the room, and it’s positioning is different to that of the Magritte original
the divisions between the images are two dimensional; Magritte creates a definite 3-D feel to these panel edges
the ceiling would benefit from some coving to look like a room’s ceiling, just as Magritte’s does
(1h) updating this journal
(1h) making some of the changes to “Magritte’s Threshold of Liberty”
21nd October 2025
Hours 10,219 to 10,221
(1½h) selecting images for the final 2 rounds of the North West Federation competition
(1½h) Stoke Poges Photographic Club – in large part presenting the results from yesterday – a small club like SPPC commanding a tie with Watford (frequently the top club in the CACC) is a big deal. Then a discussion about using on-camera flash; remarkably 3 other people in the club had the Godox V1 flash, like mine (or newer models)
20th October 2025
Hours 10,214 to 10,218
(2h) completing the CPAGB, LRPS and ARPS sections of my presentation for the Stoke Poges Photographic Club due on 11th November
(1½h) adding sections to the “100 Years of Surrealism, 10,000 hours of Photography and an F Panel” presentation for the Amersham Photographic Society on 30th March 2026, including:
- adding post-Freudian psychoanalysts, Carl Jung and Jacques Lacan, who were both more contemporary with the Surrealists and socially politically aligned
(1½h) North West Federation Competition at Hemel Hempstead where Hemel, Stoke Poges and Watford all scored equal points
19th October 2025
Hours 10,212 to 10,213
(1h) organising and organising prints for this Wednesday’s Coffee meeting and Colour meeting; some reprocessing
(1h) updating this journal
18th October 2025
Hours 10,210 to 10,211
(2h) YouTubes about Art Museums in New York City:
- Great Museums: “In Our Time: The Museum of Modern Art“
- “Six famous paintings to see at MoMA”
- Vincent van Gogh, 1889, “The Starry Night”
- Salvador Dali, 1931, “The Persistence of Memory”
- Andy Warhol, 1962, Campbells’s Soup Cans”
- Pablo Picasso, 1907, Les Demoiselles d’Avignon”
- Jackson Pollock, 1950, “One: Number 31”
- Roy Lichtenstein, 1963, “Drowning Girl”
- “MoMA or The Met – which is a better museum?“
17th October 2025
Hour 10,209
(1h) selecting images for Stoke Poges Photographic Club’s entry to the Rosebowl; and images for the 2026 Village Calendar
16th October 2025
Hours 10,206 to 10,208
(1h) updating this journal
(2h) at the PiC Group meeting. Presentations by:
- Tim Hodges
- David Pearson
- Steve Hunter
15th October 2025
Hours 10,204 to 10,205
(1h) creating the above monochrome version of the St Pancras Fractured Image, which I think has some merit as a semi-abstract giving the impression of speed and activity
(½h) attending Manuel Matthieu’s “Bury Your Masters” exhibition at the Pilar Corrias Gallery in Savile Row
(½h) updating this journal
14th October 2025
Hours 10,200 to 10,203
(1h) processing the Slough Destruction Images, such as that above, including using the new Capture One facility “Match Style” to achieve consistency between images. This is quite an important new feature. See YouTube
(1h) updating this journal and associated Flickr site
(2h) Stoke Poges Photographic Club – Set Subject “Patterns in Nature”
13th October 2025
Hours 10,197 to 10,199
(½h) creating the double abstract above, which I feel has a greater sense of being a portal than it’s predecessor, created on the 8th
(½h) updating this journal
(2h) Amersham Photographic Club – lecture by former member, Paul Mitchell “Fear of Flying”. Paul is also winner of the Landscape Photographer of the year, chairman of the RPS’s Landscape group and chairman of the panel that awarded my Associateship in Landscape photography
12th October 2025
Hours 10,195 to 10,196
(1h) editing and processing yesterday’s images and preparing prints for Wednesday’s Coffee meeting
(1h) at the Cheltenham Literature Festival, including attending a talk by Kate Bryan and David Shrigley discussing their new book “How to Art: Bringing a fancy subject down to earth so that we can all enjoy it”
Astonishingly, one of the point for discussion was can a pile of rubble on a demolition site be art? (It was like they had been following be around). The conclusion was that it is, if it is deemed to be so by an artist, such as David Shrigley
In my case, the photograph of the rubble is art, rather than the rubble per se. David said that it is impossible to define art without contradicting yourself by the second or third sentence
11th October 2025
Hours 10,191 to 10,194
(1½h) shooting at the Zombie Walk in London – approximately 500 exposures. Lots of time spent posing the participants
My friend and mentor, Yin Wong, had sent me a press pass. Which actually I didn’t need, but the details of the route and implied authority did help
It was great fun
(½h) shooting the rubble remains of buildings that have been pulled down on the Bath Road in Slough
(2h) editing and processing the day’s images
10th October 2025
Hours 10,188 to 10,190
(1h) creating the revised version of Magritte’s “On the Threshold of Liberty” painting, incorporation the suggestions made by Sarah Lipman at the Coffee Club on Wednesday, including applying a consistent colour grading to the pictures on the walls to create cohesion
Also lighting of the pictures on the walls to enhance the sense of being in the room
(1h) creating “Abstract IV”, right
(1h) updating this journal
9th October 2025
Hours 10,183 to 10,187
(1h) updating this journal
(½h) further revising the “Tomlin Gorge Composite” shown below
(1½h) shooting images for next weeks “Patterns in Nature” set-subject competition at the Stoke Poges Photographic Club
(½h) processing the above images
“Fountain Grass Seed Head”, left
(1½h) Amersham Mono Group where my “Church on an Island Bled” was considered “exquisite”
8th October 2025
Hours 10,179 to 10,182
(2h) creating abstract images from Lake Bled, partially inspired by the Amersham Beyond group and the next challenge #54 “Picture in Picture”
(1h) Amersham Coffee club discussing my images below
(1h) experimenting with variations of the “Tomlin Gorge Composite”, settling on the image below:
7th October 2025
Hours 10,175 to 10,178
(1h) updating this journal, mainly with notes from yesterday’s competition
(1h) attempting to shoot a tomato, completely backlit from a snooted flash (Godox V1(S)
(2h) at the Stoke Poges Photographic Club
6th October 2025
Hours 10,170 to 10,175
(1h) creating the “Portoroz Morning Triptych”, left. The processing and ordering prints for Wednesday’s Coffee meeting, and a series of B&W landscapes of the key buildings around Lake Bled in Slovenia for Thursday’s Mono Group meeting
(1h) working on the “Zero to FRPS in 10,000 hours post”
(1h) shooting macro images of a back-it tomato for next week’s SPPC “Patterns in Nature” set subject PDI competition
(2h) at the Amersham Photographic Society, first PDI competition of the season. My images below:
| Image | ….. | Comment |
 | “Deconstructed Model” 17 Very creative and expertly executed, but not convinced that the 4 separate images work | |
 | “The Empty Mask” Held back – 19 – Commended Very clever |
5th October 2025
Hours 10,168 to 10,169
(1h) further selection and processing images for the NWFed competition at the end of the month
(1h) creating the “Tomlin Gorge” composite above
4th October 2025
Hour 10,167
(1h) selecting images for Stoke Poges’ entries to the North West Fed competition between camera clubs in the NW of London 15 prints and 15 PDIs
3rd October 2025
Hours 10,165 to 10,166
(½h) updating this journal
(½h) processing images for next Monday’s PDI competition at Amersham
(1h) adding reflections and finishing off the shadows on “The Empty Mask” above
2nd October 2025
Hours 10,159 to 10,164
(2h) creating the “Man and Woman” collage, left, for #53 Print Works Challenge this evening’s Amersham Beyond meeting
(1h) updating this journal
(1h) YouTube from Art History School:
- “Willem de Kooning: The Chaotic Genius of Modern American Art“
- “The Rise and Tragedy of Jean-Michel Basquiat: Art’s Rebel King“
(2h) Amersham Beyond Group. Martin Warner’s entry to challenge #53, below, involved a printed photograph of the road outside his home, which he had driven his car over (to provide texture), and the glued in place the items of debris he found there
“A trucker’s equivalent to Tracy Emin’s Bed”
1th October 2025
Hours 10,154 to 10,158
(1h) Amersham Coffee meeting
(1h) updating this journal including all the new month admin
(3h) creating reflections for the “On the Threshold of Liberty” image, right
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