Ten Thousand Hours Photography

10,000 Hours Deliberate Practice Learning the Art of Photography

September 2026

Mastering art photography after ten thousand hours of deliberate practice

This journal records the daily detail of mastering art photography after ten thousand hours of deliberate practice

Hours 11,028 to 11,109

(October 2026)

30th September 2026

Hours 11,105 to 11,109

(1h) rewatching and making notes on yesterday’s Creative Deep Dents YouTubes

(1h) Amersham Coffee Club

(1h) preparing PDIs for next weeks competition at the Amersham Photographic Society

29th September 2026

Hours 11,100 to 11,104

(½h) updating this journal

(½h) prep for this evening’s presentations

(1h) practicing the photoshop techniques for this evening’s demonstration

(1h) YouTubes from Creative Deep Dents:

  • “Same flowing shapes. Different creative methods and goals. Jean Arp vs Alexander Calder”
    • both completely reject realism and playfully use soft shapes
    • Arp discovers shapes – Calder designs them
    • Arp, as a Dadaist, used chance, not a the finished artwork but as a way of escaping his own habits and preferences
    • Calder, with an engineering background, is more concerned about relationships and balance, in both his paintings and mobiles
    • similar output, produced from very different motivations
  • “Why do some paintings grab us instantly..while others reveal themselves slowly?”
    • concept of “Easter Eggs” in paintings, details the artist has left for the viewer to find. therefore prolonging interest
    • time is another dimension in art that great artists use to control how their work reveals itself to the viewer
    • one of the secrets of great art is that in addition to making us look, it gives us a reason to return

(2h) Stoke Poges Photographic Club – Charles Harding Trophy – 5 minutes presentations of 12 images

28th September 2026

Hours 11,097 to 11,099

(1h) revising the zebra’s shadows and reflections on the pepper pot on “Magritte’s Lost Zebra III”, below; and creating “Magritte’s Lost Namibia”, left

(2h) creating presentations for the Stoke Poges Photographic Club’s Charles Harding competition tomorrow (12 images in 5 minutes):

  • “The Apatani Tribe, Ziro Valley, India”, a quick summary of my trip with Mark Seymore in March this year
  • “Shooting at the Flower Show”, some of the images captured at this year’s flower show on the 25th July

27th September 2026

Hours 11,095 to 11,096

(1h) creating “Magritte’s Lost Zebra III” which has the colour of the zebra’s shadow more consistent with that of the pepper grinder. A small change that was particularly tricky to achieve; ultimately requiring a Solid Color adjustment layer with the colour picked up from the grinder’s shadow; blend mode: Color and masked to just the zebra shadow (for some reason applying this adjustment as a clipping layer didn’t work)

(1h) drafting presentations for this week’s Charles Harding competition at the Stoke Poges Photographic Club

  • A Photo Trip to the Apatani Tribe in the Ziro Valley, India
  • Shooting People at the Horticultural Show

26th September 2026

Hour 11,094

(1h) YouTube HENITalks: “Lee Miller – Witness to the Holocaust – Part 2“

25th September 2026

Hours 11,092 to 11,093

(½h) shooting a backlit pepper grinder with shadow

(1h) editing and processing today’s pepper grinder and yesterday’s moon and satellite dish images, and creating the revised version of “Magritte’s Lost Zebra II”, above which uses the new grinder image

(½h) updating this journal

24th September 2026

Hours 11,090 to 11,091

(½h) updating this journal particularly with thoughts about the relationship between art and language, and it’s potential implications for AI

(1h) YouTube: “Husserl, Heidegger & Existentialism – Hubert Dreyfus & Bryan Magee (1987)“

(½h) shooting the moon though our satellite dish, right

“Moon and Satellite Dish”

A very quiet image; the timeless sight of the moon adjacent to the contemporary and ubiquitous domestic satellite dish

23rd September 2026

Hours 11,087 to 11,089

(½h) updating this journal

(1h) Amersham Coffee Club, discussion of soft determinism as the mid-point between Freudian lack of control of one’s own thoughts and existentialist determinism

(½h) YouTube: Contemporary Art Issue “Why Great Artists Still Choose Abstraction (And What It Means Today)“. Actually watched yesterday, discussed at coffee, and rewatched this afternoon:

Abstraction starts where language ends”

perhaps a key human differentiator from AI’s large language models; a limitation of the Lacanian view of intelligence as language

(1h) PIXimperfect YouTube: “How to Blend Images and Create a Composite in Photoshop“, useful tips:

  • make selections from the source image using the Pen tool – BUT be slightly inside the edge, so that when you blur the selection, there is no halo
  • save and name the path, create a selection and then mask
  • move the whole masked image to the target document
  • copy the layer, name it “shadow” and place it underneath the image layer
  • brush some white onto the shadow’s mask to reveal the shadow that was previously there – get slightly more than you need
  • use the Blend-If layer style on the shadow to only reveal on the darker sections of This Layer
  • blur any texture in the shadow, e.g., 1.8px gausian blur
  • group composite image and shadow
  • create a curves adjustment play clipped to the above group
  • tip to help get tonality (brightness) correct, create a solid white layer at the top of the layer stack and change the blend mode to colour. That will effectively turn the image monochrome and make it easier to see when the composited image matches the background – (then remove or disable it – obviously)
  • add another curves layer within the group and adjust the individual RGB colours, so that they match the background
  • if it becomes too saturated add a Hue/ Saturation layer within the croup to control this
  • add another curves to adjust contrast if necessary
  • convert the composite object to a smart object then apply
    • field blur
    • add noise to make it match the background
  • convert the shadow to a smart object, copy and paste the adjustments from the image layer
  • maybe blur the mask on the composite image
  • apply a collective effect to the whole image

22nd September 2026

Hours 11,082 to 11,086

(½h) updating this journal and associated Flickr site

(2h) finishing and publishing the “Summer 2026” post

(½h) YouTube: The Active Mind “Existentialism: Where To Start” book recomendations:

It also occurred to me that the positive existentialist view that one must take responsibility for one’s actions, and that you are effectively the sum of the decisions, is in stark contradiction to Freud contention that “you are not in control of your thoughts.”

Watching Michael Apted’s “7 Up” series where a group of 20 7 year olds are followed every 7 years throughout their lives. Now in its 10th and probably final series it is drawing to a natural conclusion following the death of the original director and a number of the cast. I watched episode 2 this evening. Whilst the series was intended to explore the issue of class in English society, it provides a practical insight into man’s scope for self determination

(1h) a first draft of “Magritte’s Lost Zebra”

Lots of work still to do on this image

I like the way, as in Magritte’s Le Jockey Purdue, the branch of the tree extends forward past the curtains into the space occupied by the viewer

(2h) Stoke Poges Photographic Club; Edwina Cup challenge, interesting contrast between the two assessors:

  • Chris, a lighting engineer in TV/ film, spoke only about in-camera adjustments and changes that might have been possible at the taking stage
  • Ken, a former professional event photographer, discussed post processing options.

21st September 2026

Hours 11,078 to 11,081

(1h) buying and then starting to listen to the “Existentialism: A Very Short Introduction” audiobook by Thomas Flynn. I am very taken by his 5 themes of existentialism:

  1. Existence precedes essence – you are what you make yourself rather than what you are destined to be
  2. Time is of the essence – rather than treating time as an abstract measurable quantity, lived time is a matter of the “already happened”, “not yet”, and “now”
  3. Humanism – pursuit of individuality against the superficiality and conformity of mass society
  4. Freedom/ responsibility – we are “condemned to be free” and every choice carries moral weight
  5. Ethical considerations are paramount – the onus is on the individual to live an authentic life

As with the themes of surrealism, its advocates adopted the above to varying degrees

The primary exponents of existentialism were Jean-Paul Sartre and his partner the prominent feminist philosopher Simone de Beauvoir, as they only people who called themselves existentialists; major proponents in the visual arts include Picasso, a close friend of Sartre’s, and Alberto Giacometti

Friedrich Nietzsche, Albert Camus and Soren Kierkengaard were major precursors to existentialism

(½h) preparing and ordering prints for this week’s meetings

(½h) updating this journal

(1h) reprocessing the Seville Alcazar Day and Night image, above, and starting on the images from Brownsea Island at the weekend

(1h) Amersham Photographic Society

20th September 2026

Hour 11,077

(1h) adding images to the “Summer 2026” post

19th September 2026

Hour 11,076

(½h) assorted shooting on Brownsea Island, Dorset

  • Landscapes/ Seascapes
  • Elements for compositions or textures
  • ICM

(½h) updating the “Summer 2026” post with revised commentary about Matt from Creative Deep Dents in the Philosopher’s section

18th September 2026

Hours 11,074 to 11,075

(1h) selecting images for the Stoke Poges Edwina Chown cup

(1h) updating this journal

17th September 2026

Hours 11,070 to 11,073

(1h) Creative Deep Dents YouTube: “This ‘Mess’ Made Joan Mitchell Famous“

  • she was an athlete and competitive figure skater in her youth and this energy is expressed in her paintings
  • she paints abstract landscapes that have the rhythm and metrical schemes of poetic stanzas – very start/stop
  • effectively painting the mood of the poem

(½h) shooting some old fruit. Slow exposure, so using the Sony Imaging Edge software to control the camera from my iPhone

(½h) processing the fruit images

(2h) at the Amersham Colour group

16th September 2026

Hours 11,068 to 11,069

(1h) Amersham Coffee Club – discussion including the use of Photoshop Actions/ Presets for noise reduction in high ISO images

(1h) HENI Talks YouTube: “Stories of Art: Lee Miller – The Supermodel Surrealist – Part 1” including discussion of:

  • Born Elizabeth Miller in Ploughkeepsie, New York
  • After introduction to photography by her father, sometimes as his nude model, studied lighting etc., in Paris at the age of 18. then back in NY City ages 19 she “nearly stepped in front of a car” and was rescued by Conde Nast, the publisher of Vogue for whom she created the idea of the “modern girl” look
  • “A Portrait of Space”, agree that this is her most important picture; a frame within frame, metaphor for photography itself, autobiographical, transcendence beyond the current existence. “Enigmatic doorways”
  • “Untitled (severed breast from radical surgery in a place setting)” – out-shocking the surrealists
  • paintings by Picasso of Lee Miller after their meeting at “the holiday of the surrealists in 1937” (not considered by the presenters as the greatest)

15th September 2026

Hours 11,066 to 11,067

(2h) finalising and delivering images from last Friday’s party

14th September 2026

Hours 11,061 to 11,065

(½h) finishing off “A Duet of Space”, below

(½h) updating this journal

(1h) identifying the best images for the coming season’s SPPC externals

(2h) editing and processing (for consistency) the short list of images from the party on Friday

(1h) Amersham Photographic Society – lecture by Ann Healey Photography bug photography in Costa Rica

13th September 2026

Hours 11,057 to 11,060

(3h) editing and processing Friday’s images including categorising as follows:

  • Green – Posed Group Shots
  • Yellow – Speeches
  • Blue – Staff
  • Purple – Food, table settings, hotel, etc.
  • Pink – Candid, small groups
  • Orange – Candid, wide shots

(1h) creating “A Duet of Space”, left, as a vague homage to Magritte’s “The Voice of Space”

12th September 2026

Hours 11,053 to 11,056

(4h) editing and some processing of the images shot yesterday, including the creation of a group photo with required the merging of a couple of original images due to people having their eyes closed, etc.

11th September 2026

Hours 11,046 to 11,052

(1h) updating this journal including Flickr site

(½h) prep for this afternoon’s shoot

(4½h) shooting a friend of a friend’s 70th birthday celebration at a posh hotel, and taking the opportunity to create a handful images that might be useful in surrealist compositions, including the clock which might find it’s way into a “Time Transfixed” picture

(1h) initial editing of the day’s images

10th September 2026

Hours 11,044 to 11,045

(1h) Tate Britain including the Whistler exhibition,

  • “Considering Whistler’s Mother” above,
  • “Nocturn: Blue and Silver – Chelsea”, left

(1h) updating this journal

9th September 2026

Hours 11,042 to 11,043

(1h) Amersham Coffee Club

(1h) selecting images for Stoke Poges’ external competitions

8th September 2026

Hours 11,040 to 11,041

(1h) implementing some of the changes in the new photoshop including:

  • Save Dialogue File Formats – to remove the unused formats
  • Dynamic Fit – text on paths or within shapes auto sized

(1h) Stoke Poges Photographic Club [2 hours, but partly social]

7th September 2026

Hours 11,038 to 11,039

(½h) updating this journal

(½h) PiXimperfect “Top 20 New Features in 20 Mins: Photoshop & Camera Raw (September 2026 Update)”

(1h) Amersham Photographic Society [2 hours, but partly social]

6th September 2026

Hour 11,037

(1h) researching the impact of Nietzsche’s “The Birth of Tragedy” on art including the Weltgeist YouTube “How Art Can Save You | Nietzsche’s The Birth of Tragedy”

  • Magritte is one of the most Apollonian of the Surrealist
  • Joan Miro, one of the most Dionysian

5th September 2026

Hour 11,036

(1h) Creative Deep Dents YouTube: “The secrets hidden in Gustav Klimt’s art“

  • Klimt was obsessed with the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche, in particular this 1872 book The Birth of Tragedy which suggests that all art emerges from the tension between two opposing but interdependent drives, named after the Greek gods Apollo and Dionysus; order and hedonic free expression

4th September 2026

Hours 11,034 to 11,035

(2h) writing a presentation on behalf of the Colour Group for the APS welcome evening on Monday

3rd September 2026

Hours 11,031 to 11,033

(1h) selection of Summer 2026’s top 10 images

(1h) HENI Talks YouTube: “Vincent van Gogh – Endgame in Auvers“

  • Alistair and James consider his 1890 “Tree Roots”, above, his last and probably painted on the day of his death, to be his best
  • Unlike many artists who died young, as they were getting past their peak, Van Gogh was really hitting his stride when he took his own life
  • Tree Roots is at the sweet spot in art of being both accessible and pushing the boundaries, in this case presaging abstraction and abstract expressionism

(1h) writing up the above in this journal

2nd September 2026

Hour 11,030

(1h) Amersham Coffee Club

1st September 2026

Hours 11,028 to 11,029

(1h) updating this journal including all the new month admin

(1h) Stoke Poges Photographic Club – mainly discussing use of flash outside and for event photography

(August 2026)

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