First 500 Hours of Deliberate Practice Learning the Art of Photography
Its April 2018 and I’ve now put in 500 hours of deliberate practice learning the art of photography, and am consequently five percent of my way through my 10,000 hour project.
The highlight of the last few months has been meeting David Hurn for a private viewing of his “Swaps” at the Photography Show on the 18 Match 2018. The small group that huddled round him hanging off his every, softly spoken, word in an otherwise noisy environment must have resembled a rugby scrum.
- “A competent photographer is easily identified by the intensity of their focus on the task of image making.” (He was identified as such when he was in Trafalgar square taking pictures of the pigeons!)
- “Do your homework” you can gain access to people if you demonstrate a knowledge and interest in them or their work, “be up and working by 5:30am and still at it at 10 in the evening.”
- “Watch a scene with a knowledge of the geometry that makes a strong image, and wait for the elements to get into place.”
Top locations shot include:
- Andalusia Spain (Seville, Cordoba, Granada)
- Semana Santa (Spanish Holy Week at the above locations)
- Christmas in British Columbia, Canada (Vancouver, Chilliwack).
My key (completed) posts were:
- Initial Thoughts on Dog Photography
- Winter Photography 2017/18 – where we were lucky enough to enjoy some snowy days.
[Other blogs started but not yet completed include: “El Nino Graffiti in Granada Andalusia Spain“, “My Introduction to Capture One Pro Sony 11” and “First Attempt at Macro Photography.“]
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From 250 to 500 Hours
Whilst this post is a review of the first 500 hours of qualifying activity, the first 250 hours of activity has already been covered in my earlier post: “The First 250 Hours – Review at 2.5%”. So for most of this post I will be concentrating on activities achieved in the last 250 hours, with earlier activities shown in italics.
Overview of Photography Activity
The biggest event over the last 250 hours has been the 10 days spent in Andalusia, Spain (Seville, Cordoba, Granada). I had time to get up early and shoot some street scenes before joining the rest of our party for breakfast.
Still shooting most days in the area around Stoke Poges, and ideally one day a week in London.
Colour themes automated as Lightroom CC Clasic preset.
Tethered shooting finally achieved using Capture One Pro 11 (Sony), but not yet used in anger. Similarly with Macro and off-camera flash use.
Noteworthy Images
See the Gallery
Events Attended
Several meetings of the Stoke Poges Photographic Club.
The Photography Show at the NEC Birminham on 18 March 2018, several good talks and the gallery tour by David Hurn. The tip for attending this event is to book attendance and the talks well in advance. We spent the whole day there, leaving home at 9am, returning at 7pm, but only clocked up 3 hours that count (albeit very valuable ones) due to a lack of access to some of the main events.
Exhibitions:
- Picasso 1932 – Tate Modern
- Andreas Gursky – Hayward Gallery, Southbank Centre.
Books Read
“Picasso: A Biography” by Patrick O’Brian
“Spectrum” by John Pawson, a collection of minimalist images, by the renown architect (and photographer), arranged in colour order which emphasises their abstract quality.
New Influences
Photography:
- Ted Forbes – YouTube “The Art of Photography” – agnostic fan of both Adobe & Capture One.
- Capture One Pro –
- Serge Ramelli – Mentioned in my 250 hours review but still “Inspirational” although does most of his editing in Lightroom Classic CC
Artists:
Picasso dominated my thought over the last 250 hours with both his big 1931 exhibition at the Tate Modern and my reading of his biography by Patrick O’Brian.
Techniques Changed
The big change is use of Capture One Pro 11 rather than Lightroom Classic CC for initial RAW processing. Capture One Pro is a grown-up tool primarily aimed at professionals shooting in the studio with medium format cameras. However, it does have a number advantages, including:
- It doesn’t crash on my laptop with anything like the same frequency as Lightroom Classic CC
- I can shoot tethered using my Sony (Lightroom only supports Canon & Nikon)
- In fact Capture One and Sony seem quite close.
More relaxed about using high ISO values and treating the graininess of the resulting image as a feature rather than a problem.
Still using colour themes from my “Colour Theory – First Learnings” post. I have these implemented as presets in Lightroom and intend to do the same in Capture One Pro. However, now trying to be more subtle as the following image was criticised (amongst other things) for the people in the background looking unnatural.
Thoughts on Art
My quest continues, to produce uncluttered images that show the subject in the simplest and most elegant form. As the French philosopher said:
“Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.”
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry,
1900-1944
I interpret this to mean:
- Simple scenes – simple aesthetic layout
- No clutter
- Reduced colour palette.
Progress on Target Styles
Genres of interest (decreasing priority):
- Landscape Photography – Still the majority of time spent here; best shots are probably those taken at Langley Park
- Travel Photography – Lots of good images from the trip to Spain for Semana Santa
- Portrait Photography – little work so far
- Abstract Photography – some progess making landscapes more abstract including those shot at Stoke Park Club
- Still Life Photography and Macro – Started, including a first foray into focus stacking
- Black and White Photography – Not much other than as a technique to blot out some garish colours that would otherwise have
- Street Photography – some work done in Cordoba and in London
- Experimental Photography – none
- HDR Photography – none
Aspirations for Next 500 Hours
“Shooting on purpose” was an aspiration for the last 250, which was not really achieved, other than that I realise its importance and will redouble my efforts. Specific tasks as follows:
- Spend an hour planning tomorrow’s activity today
- Look at images produced by other people on the same subject
- Check weather, if appropriate
- Produce a list of shots I’m aiming to achieve
- Logistics including where to park and what equipment to take.
Areas where I need to gain some experience:
- Convert my colour themes into presets for Capture One Pro
- Learn to shoot tethered – I know how to do this with Capture One Pro – just need to practice and
- Macro – set up a rig, maybe buy a macro lens
- Practice and write a post on Abstract photography
- Learn to use an off-camera flash properly.
Key event is the RPS Advisory Day for my L panel in June.
Key Posts
Posts:
Then from the first 250 hours:
- Review of Spring 2018
- Composition – Early Thoughts
- Competition Strategy
- Returning from Holiday – Merge Lightroom Catelogs
- What is Art? “Emotional Communication” my Flawed Definition
- Shooting Fireworks an Alternative Approach
- Photography for Parkrun: Black Park
- Post-Processing Workflow
- Colour Theory – First Learnings
Related Posts:
- At Zero Hours
- After 100 Hours
- After 250 Hours
- After 1,000 Hours
- After 2,000 Hours
- After 3,000 Hours
- After 4,000 Hours
- Half Way – After 5,000 Hours
- After 6,000 Hours
- After 7,000 Hours
- After 8,000 Hours
- After 9,000 Hours
- Goal Achieved – Final Review
Social Media Rankings:
- Facebook: 5 page likes
- Instagram: 10 Followers
- Twitter: One follower (thank you Michael Turner), 8 likes
- Flickr: 2 Followers
- 3 Comments on the site page (including one from me).
Absolutely no promotion during this period, or indeed ever.