Ten Thousand Hours Photography

10,000 Hours Deliberate Practice Learning the Art of Photography

April 2022

Ten thousand hours deliberately and purposefully studying the art of photography

This journal records my actual ten thousand hours deliberately and purposefully studying the art of photography.

Hours 6,337 to 6,427

(May 2022)

30th April

Hours 6,426 to 6,427

(2h) creating the following images:

Surrealist Man on Kefalonia SeafrontSelf Portrait in Clouds
“Man on Kefalonia Seafront” & “Man in Clouds”

29th April

Hours 6,424 to 6,425

(1h) Drafting a “Surrealist Photography” Post.

(1h) researching the above post.

28th April

Hours 6,421 to 6,423

(½h) Shooting more dog action shots using the 3rd, erratic motion, image stabilisation mode setting on my new 70-200mm lens.

Ten thousand hours deliberately and purposefully studying the art of photography
“Harley and Ball – Dutch Tilt”

(½h) processing the above images.

(2h) Ask Amersham Group meeting on Infrared photography – experimented shooting am infrared portrait which creates an otherworldly smooth image.

27th April

Hours 6,417 to 6,420

(½h) further updating the Kissing Like Magritte image and sending to Laurie Turner for this evening’s Amersham Colour Group meeting.

(1h) YouTube:

  • The Photographic Eye:

(½h) updating this journal

Surreal ten thousand hours deliberately and purposefully studying the art of photography

(2h) Amersham Colour Group – some of my Magritte images were presented with the following comments:

  • The window frame around the kissing image above should probably be lighter to be more believable ( I had previously darkened it
  • The line on the memorial wall in the headless man images is perhaps a distraction
  • In the headless man images one hand looks bigger than the other.

26th April

Hours 6,412 to 6,416

(½h) updating the Kissing Like Magritte image to make the back wall look a bit more believable:

  • shrinking in a tad, so that it looks further away
  • gradient shadow to darken the lower part of the wall behind the subjects.

(½h) updating this journal.

Surrealist Photography

(½h) half an hour practicing with my new lens, Sony 70-200, f/2.8 GM II.

Harley Catching a Ball – 12 frames a second, f2.8, 1/400 Sec, ISO 100

(½h) researching the image stabilisation modes for the new lens:

  1. General – for steady scenes
  2. Horizontal panning
  3. Unpredictable sports photography. (This is the mode I should have used when shooting Harley above).

(1h) processing the images above.

(2h) Stoke Poges Photographic Club – Lecture by Micki Ashton “All Bar One – Part II” photos from her visit to every state in the USA apart from Hawaii.

25th April

Hours 6,409 to 6,411

(½h) updating this journal.

(1h) creating the following version of the Milky Way Eye – more haunting.

(1h) creating the “Kissing Like Magritte II” image right.

(½h) preparing images for this Wednesday’s Amersham Colour group meeting.

“Milky Way Eye II”

24th April

Hours 6,405 to 6,408

(1h) processing the Bluebell images, shot to the iPhone using the Spectre App, in Lightroom and the occasional spot of Photoshop.

(2h) YouTube:

(1h) creating the experimental image below:

“Milky Way Eye”

Trying to use stars instead of clouds. Needs a better starting image of the eye with less dominant reflections. Maybe, less space around the eye, i.e., a closer crop.

23rd April

Hours 6,402 to 6,404

Surrealism and ten thousand hours deliberately and purposefully studying the art of photography

(1h) creating the revised “Feet and Clouds II” image, right.

This has a lighter base and stronger ground shadow around the feet so that they are grounded, rather than floating above the floor, as they tended to look in previous versions of this image.

(½h) shooting the hole in a neighbour’s wall where a car had crashed into it. The intention is to use this in future composites.

(½h) updating this journal.

(½h) shooting some more eyes.

(½h) shooting some impressionistic bluebells using the Spectre iPhone App.

“Bluebells 2022”

22nd April

Hours 6,400 to 6,401

(1h) creating the revised version of the “Clouds in his Eye” image below.

Magritte’s Eye II

(1h) watching YouTube and learning about Photoshop History Snapshots and the History brush. Not sure this is worth me spending any more time one.

21st April

Hours 6,397 to 6,399

(1h) processing the Kissing Like Magritte image below.

(2h) Amersham PIC Group meeting.

20th April

Hours 6,396

(1h) shooting the image to the right: “Kissing like Magritte”.

[OMG – I’m sixty]

19th April

Hours 6,394 to 6,395

(1h) processing images of great nephews from the weekend.

(½h) creating a new version of the “Clouds in their Eye” image with a manually focus-stacked eye image.

(½h) YouTube:

18th April

Hour 6,393

(1h) experimented using Zerene Stacker, with multiple image, to overcome the problem of the blurred eyelashes in the image below. This really did not work.

  • I need a better depth of focus, using at least f/16
  • shoot on a monopod
  • ideally a subject with blue eyes!

17th April

Hours 6,383 to 6,392

(1h) culling and processing the images of the great nephews shot yesterday.

(1h) updating this journal.

(2h) creating the following:

“Eye of the Surrealist”

16th April

Hours 6,386 to 6,388

(2h) creating the following versions of my Magritte’s Feet image, and sending to Laurie Turner for comment.

Laurie’s favourite was the Feet and Clouds image, top left.

(1h) shooting, mainly just the eyes, of my great nephews. This was a lot more difficult than I expected.

15th April

Hours 6,384 to 6,385

(2h) updating my mono Magritte images in the light of yesterday evening’s comments.

Revised Image…..Original

14th April

Hours 6,381 to 6,383

(1h) updating this journal.

(2h) Amersham Mono Group – my entries below, all reinterpretations of Magritte’s paintings:

Image…..Comments
Make it more like the Magritte original. Put the pebble-dashing, darkened, as the floor and replace the wall with a wooden panel.

Toes whiter and back of boots blacker.
Good portrait but need to bring the face out even more. Eyes brighter.

Darken shirt collar which is currently the brightest part of the image.
Needs more tonal range, i.e., whites whiter and blacks blacker.

Loose the black boarders at the sides and probably the telephone cable.

13th April

Hours 6,377 to 6,380

(½h) updating this journal and associated Flickr site.

(½h) processing the memorial image, left, shot on the

(½h) Tate Modern – “Surrealism Beyond Borders” exhibition.

Marcel Jean’s ‘Armoire surréaliste (Surrealist Wardrobe)’ (1941)

Image above taken as a potential for reinterpretation photographically.

(1h) RPS Documentary Photographer of the Year – private tour for the Amersham Photographic Society by Mark ? who is both the head of the RPS Documentary section and a member of the APS.

“All in a Day’s Work”
– 10 images from the winning panel from the RPS’s Documentary Photographer of the Year –
shows real people working in the NHS during the Coronavirus pandemic.

(1h) YouTube:

(½h) processing images for tomorrow’s meeting of the Amersham Mono group.

12th April

Hours 6,372 to 6,376

(½h) shooting a wide-angle close up of an apple so that it looks big.

(1h) reviewing images with Kevin McNally for potential inclusion in LRPS or ARPS panels.

(1½h) creating the image right.

(2h) at the Stoke Poges Photographic Club – print competition – no skin in the game.

11th April

Hours 6,365 to 6,371

(2h) creating the image right, which is an interpretation of a Rene Magritte painting.

(1h) shooting an apple for inclusion in this project.

(2h) further processing of the image right, including the use of Photoshop neural filters to balance the lighting between the self portrait shot in my kitchen and the memorial wall at the National Memorial Arboretum.

Also removing the halo and rough cut-out around the image by reselecting the subject applying c. 20 pixels of smoothing to the selection, then cloning in either side of the line. Makes the image much crisper.

(2h) Amersham Photographic Society – print competition – no skin in the game.

“Distant Apple”

10th April

Hours 6,364

(½h) tidying up my Lightroom catalogue

(½h) updating this journal.

9th April

Hours 6,361 to 6,363

(1h) collating the images of Leicestershire into Lightroom and Flickr folders.

(1h) YouTube:

  • The Photographic Eye: “Is Mark Seliger’s Simple Truth – Learn From It” – essentially be interested in your subject.
    • Think about what attracts you to portrait photography and make sure this comes through in the photographs you take
    • For me:
      • I want to make people look their best
      • Bring out the character that they and other people identify them with
      • Perhaps a candid shot that shows them thinking.
  • The Photographic Eye: “If You Want to Take Great Photos”
    • Think first about what it is that attracts you to photography, and make sure you’re doing it
    • For me :
      • It’s all about creating art – something that is worthwhile

(1h) working on the “Piano” image which involved the selection of a lot of complex curves using the pen tool in Photoshop; very much a practice session using this technique.

8th April

Hours 6,359 to 6,360

(½h) shooting in Leicestershire.

(½h) updating this journal.

(1h) processing images from Leicestershire, including transferring to desktop computer.

7th April

Hour 6,358

(½h) shooting in Leicestershire.

(½h) processing those images.

6th April

Hours 6,354 to 6,357

(½h) shooting in Leicestershire.

(½h) processing those images.

(½h) YouTube:

(1h) shooting at the National Arboretum

(½h) processing the above images

(1h) experimenting with the creation of a Photoshop brush using Harley’s paw print.

5th April

Hours 6,352 to 6,353

(½h) updating this journal.

(½h) changing the shadow and toning on “Self Portrait VI” to the right.

  • shadow going to the left is more consistent with a light generally coming from the right
  • shadows on clothing and hat emphasised by some slight dodging and burning
  • clothes generally tidied up.

The shirt is much better in this image.

(1h) more of Hilary’s “Brushes” tutorial:

  • After making a new brush, export it to a backup location
  • The RPS is a good resource for bite-sized tutorials on subjects such as the Wacom tablet.

4th April

Hours 6,345 to 6,351

(½h) updating this journal and associated Flickr site.

(2h) shooting hat and shirt for my Magritte images.

(2h) creating the image to the left of the headless man: “Self Portrait V” and “Self Portrait VI” above which has some improvements regarding the shirt and shadow.

(½h) watching the first part of Hilary Bailey’s presentation to the Amersham Photographic Society on “Photoshop Brushes”. Steps to make a custom brush:

  1. start with an image less than 3,000 pixels in all dimensions
  2. covert to B&W
  3. convert to hard b&W using Edit – Threshold
  4. rectangular marquee tool to select desired area
  5. Edit – Define New Brush
  6. name brush something sensible

Brush is now both selected and in the library.

[Above updated on 18th February 2023].

(2h) Amersham Photographic Society, Member’s Evening with presentations from:

  • Steve Hunter – his FRPS panel
  • Roger Wotton – his FRPS panel
  • Chris ? – his successful entry to the Royal Academy’s Summer Exhibition last year
  • Hilary Bailey – her successful entries to the Masters of Print competition.

3rd April

Hours 6,341 to 6,344

(3h) processing the Magritte images from yesterday.

…..
Me as MagritteMagritte on the book cover
…..
Me in my versionMagritte original

(½h) updating this journal.

(½h) processing the images shot in London yesterday evening.

Canada Water at night

2nd April

Hours 6,338 to 6,340

(2½h) shooting some more Homage to Rene Magritte images.

(½h) shooting at the during and after the Titanic Exhibition in London, including the image to the right of some friends on the way back to the tube station.

1st April

Hour 6,337

(1h) updating this journal, including the normal new month admin.

(March 2022)