Ten Thousand Hours Photography

10,000 Hours Deliberate Practice Learning the Art of Photography

Winter 2020/ 21

Photography Apprenticeship Winter 2021
Click above to go to Flickr Album for the season

Lockdown winter: mainly shooting Stoke Common for a potential ARPS panel. Some Studio work.

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Background

The Coronavirus travel ban is still in place, so photo opportunities are limited to the immediately locality.

Frosty Tree Diptych Photography Apprenticeship Winter 2021
Stoke Common – Frosty Diptych

The above did well in competition at the Stoke Poges Photographic Club on 2nd February – “Would look good on a wall somewhere” – praise indeed.

…..
Also entered into a competition at SPPC, this time the “Three of a Kind” where this one lost to my “Bleak Common” Triptych to the right

Woodland Photography

Some of my recent images from Stoke Common have fared quite well in competition. So, buoyed by this, I set about planning an RPS Associate panel, based on the recent deforestation of the common.

Deforestation Photography Apprenticeship Winter 2021
Central image – central to the “Edge of Deforestation” theme.
The rhythm of the trees at the edge of the woodland with the auburn tree and diagonal trunk creating interest by breaking the pattern. Reminds my somewhat of a Jackson Pollock painting.
“Beyond Silver Birch” or “Ghost of Stoke Common”.

Key learning points:

  • Amersham PIC group – 17th December 2020 Chris Palmer shows how it is possible to shoot the images for an ARPS panel in 2½ hours
  • Top tips on optimally planning and running a project from ex-RAF pilot, Paul Colley FRPS – 5th January
  • Encouragement to write about a photographic project from both Paul, above, and Benedict Brain in his lecture on 21st January. Be creative and add meaning.

Studio Work

Thames Valley Heartbeat – charity

To promote the sale of the glass Easter Wreaths

Brief:

  • a completely white background
  • wreath at least partially backlit to show off the glass to best advantage
  • eggs for context and sense of scale.

Lots of other Easter product shot for the charity, including knitted Easter bunnies, chocolate bunnies, wooden chicks holding cream eggs, and some glass valentine hearts.

Karl Taylor Education – Challenge #4 – Apple Earphones

“Has the Apple Desirability Feel”

Detailed commercial standard brief:

  • Art Director sketch provided
  • Rim-lighting to create sense of desirability
  • Mix of hard and soft lighting; hard to show the glossy nature of the product and soft to engender a sense of quality
  • Completely black background
  • Shot from an angle to achieve a “hero perspective” looking up at the buds. (I didn’t manage this).

I used an off-camera ring flash. Karl used a couple of studio flashes pointing up to an acrylic surface on which the earphones were laid on top of a small piece of black card that provided an immediate background yet allowed light to the edges of the product. Whilst still quite fiddly, Karl’s approach was less so than mine, due to my issue with the ring flash having to be attached to the hotshoe by a springy coil lead, causing the whole structure to collapse periodically.

Flagging to prevent lens flare, and focus stacking to generate the required depth of focus were the other key issues addressed. Then quite a lot of cleaning up in photoshop was inevitable.

Lots of notes in the journal.

Key learning points:

  • Stoke Poges Photographic Club – Lecture from Polina Plotnikova “Starting with a Blank Canvas” – 15th December 2020 – she explains the basics of building a still-life composition
  • Karl Taylor – Live workshop shooting the Apple Earphones or any other small product that requires dramatic backlighting – 25th February.

Key influences:

  • Cy Twombly – associates poetry and mythology with his art, and creates a temporal context. All still quite inaccessible.
  • Benedict Brain – 6 hour workshop on the 21st January – The art of seeing: “finding beauty in the banal”
  • The New Topographics – photography movement focusing on man’s impact on the landscape
  • Chris Friel – abstract and landscapes – influence for Benedict Brain and Tony Worobiec.

Notes: