This journal records my actual 10,000 hours photography; ten thousand hours of deliberate practice mastering the art of photography. In particular, these journal pages contain references to:
- images as they are made
- references to source materials
- thoughts that might, or might not, later form part of a full post
(Hours at start of month: 9,596)
23rd April 2025
Hours 9,693
(½h) Sean Tucker YouTube: “Is your Photography any Good?” – judge your own work by the following 3 words:
| Intention: do you set out with purpose | “All great acts are rule by intention. What you mean is what you get” Brenna Yovanoff | |
| “Intentionality fuels the master’s journey. Every master is a master of vision.” George Leonard | ||
| Consistency: have you developed a distinct and recognisable “look” that you can repeat at will | “Consistency is the heartbeat of mastery. It transforms fleeting sparks into enduring flames.” Farshad Asi | |
| “There is nothing worse than a sharp image of a fuzzy concept.” Ansel Adams | ||
| Originality: is your look identifiably yours | “A poor original is better than a good imitation” Ella Wheeler Wilcox |
Very pertinent to where I am in this project
(½h) writing up the above video and this journal
[six hours that don’t count driving to Hatfield, Bristol and back, collecting the final mounted prints and delivering my F panel submission to the Royal Photographic Society]
22nd April 2025
Hour 9,692
(1h) selecting and processing PDIs for the Stoke Poges finals
[Lots of time driving around collecting prints, collating and doing on-line admin for my potential RPS Fellowship submission]
21st April 2025
Hour 9,691
(1h) reviewing and fixing errors in the “Surrealism 100 Years on” post and updating this journal with all the links to it
20th April 2025
Hours 9,689 to 9,690
(2h) working on the “Surrealism 100 Years On” post
19th April 2025
Hours 9,687 to 9,688
(3h) working on the “Surrealism 100 Years On” post
18th April 2025
Hours 9,685 to 9,686
(½h) shooting the Stoke Poges Easter service by the flagpole and procession
(1h) editing and processing the above
(½h) creating thumbnails to populate the Presentation Layout for my prospective Fellowship panel
17th April 2025
Hours 9,679 to 9,684
(2½h) implementing the edits to my F panel suggested by Chris Palmer yesterday, including completely recreating the Magritte poster image, left
(1h) ordering mounted prints
(½h) updating this journal
(2h) Amersham PiC Group
16th April 2025
Hours 9,674 to 9,678
(½h) updating this journal, mainly with comments from yesterday evening’s competition at SPPC
(1½h) Amersham Coffee and Lunch clubs including discussion of Sarah Lipman’s recently exhibited print and another submitted to the Taylor Wessing portrait prize, and Monday’s presentation by Linda Bembridge
(1½h) looking at options for reorganising my potential F-Panel with Chris Palmer, including replacing “The Conversation” which he considered to be weak with “Man and Woman”, right
(1½h) implementing the changes suggested by Chris
15th April 2025
Hours 9,667 to 9,673
(2h) finishing re-editing my F panel images to address the issues identified by Mark Warner
(½h) creating 2 new versions of my Statement of Intent
(1h) creating photoshop actions to produce JPegs for printing 16×20 with at least a 1 inch white boarder, stroke and nice drop shadow
(½h) creating and checking the JPegs for printing, and ordering “trial” prints on Hahnemuhle Photorag paper
(½h) updating this journal
(½h) finishing and publishing the “Winter 2024/25” post
(2h) Stoke Poges Photographic Club – print competition, set subject: “Book Titles”
14th April 2025
Hours 9,659 to 9,666
(½h) updating this journal and Flickr site with the images created over the last couple of days
(2h) adding to the “Winter 2024/25” post:
- top 10 images
- technical skills
- new artists & philosophers
(3h) re-editing F panel images
(½h) creating 2 new versions of my Statement of Intent; one developing the “Becoming Magritte” theme, and the other very much shorter – sending to Laurie Turner for comment
(2h) Amersham Photographic Society – presentation by Linda Bembridge FRPS, ‘Abstract a Little Landscape’ – fabulous abstracts, often hand-finished with gold paint
13th April 2025
Hours 9,651 to 9,658
(2h) reshooting the self portraits, with head displaced, right, or replaced with mobile phone, image 7
(4h) recreating the the above pictures, managing the shadows is the hard part
(1h) editing other images to address issues identified by Mark Warner
(1h) preparing and ordering an example mounted print
12th April 2025
Hours 9,647 to 9,650
(½h) updating this journal
(1½h) reshooting the “Into the Blue” image with greater ambient light, left
(2h) processing this image
11th April 2025
Hours 9,641 to 9,646
(6h) working on my potential F Panel including:
- editing and processing the “Into the Blue” image, above, shot yesterday
- editing and reshaping the “” image, right, particularly focusing on the feet and ground shadow
- editing and reshaping a number of other images to correct photoshop errors identified by Martin Warner
- creating a photoshop action to automatically smooth a jagged line; useful on masks where a selection has left a stepped diagonal. Works by:
- bluring a selection
- expanding the selection a tad
- resharpening using the levels tool
- working out the sizing of images if flush mounted on 40×50 boards
10th April 2025
Hours 9,636 to 9,640
(1h) finishing off the processing done yesterday for my F panel
(1h) updating this journal
(1½h) shooting an “Into the Blue” image, right; version with curtains doesn’t panel as well as the version without above
(½h) preparing prints for next week’s “Book Titles” competition at the Stoke Poges Photographic Club
(1h) Amersham Mono Group
9th April 2025
Hours 9,630 to 9,635
(1h) finishing the recreation of the “Sunny Eye” image based on the eye image shot yesterday
(1h) at the Amersham coffee club, mainly looking at Jeremy Schrire’s excellent street photography of India, New York and London
(½h) shooting a new background for my “Industrial Human Condition” image
(3½h) recreating:
- “The Industrial Human Condition”, above
- “Magritte’s Mirror Image”, right, where the image in the mirror is an exact copy on the man outside (just slightly smaller and less contrasty)
8th April 2025
Hours 9,625 to 9,629
(1h) updating this journal, mainly notes from yesterday
(½h) deciding upon and preparing 8 images for my gallery entry on the Amersham Photographic Society’s website
(½h) updating “The Human Condition”, left, with suggestions made my Martin Warner yesterday
(½h) shooting eye photos of my nephews for an alternative “False Mirror” image
(1½h) editing and processing the above images and starting a reconstruction of the image
(1h) Stoke Poges Photographic Club where Chris Lloyd and I were judging the fun team competition
7th April 2025
Hours 9,620 to 9,624
(1½h) cutting and preparing print mounts for this evening’s competition at Amersham Photographic Society
(1½h) with Laurie Turner revising the panel for my prospective Fellowship panel:
- “Magritte’s mirror image” needs the 2 subjects to be exactly the same and no maroon frame, as this makes it less obviously a mirror
- Eye – needs reshooting
- Statement of Intent should perhaps be more personal
- Perhaps change title to “Becoming Magritte – 100 Years On”
(2h) Amersham Photographic Club – Print competition, by entries below:
6th April 2025
Hours 9,619
(1h) processing the Stoke Poges Singers image, below
5th April 2025
Hours 9,614 to 9,618
(1h) shooting at the Stoke Poges Artisan Market
(2h) editing and processing images from the market
(1h) preping and shooting the Stoke Poges Singers in St Giles Church
4th April 2025
Hours 9,613
(1h) preparing PDI’s for the Print Competition at Amersham on Monday
3rd April 2025
Hours 9,607 to 9,612
(1h) updating this journal, organising the Whipsnade photos and Flickr Album
(1½h) shooting “Magritte’s Maroon Mirror Image”, right
(1½h) reprocessing the image, right
(2h) at the Amersham Beyond Group
2nd April 2025
Hours 9,603 to 9,606
(1h) updating this journal, including the new month admin
(½h) reprocessing Barb’s favourite black dog on black background image; denoising, despotting and desaturating the background, and outputting to a higher resolution JPeg
(1½h) great discussions with Laurie Turner, Jeremy Schrire and Mark Seymour
(1h) editing and processing yesterday’s images from Whipsnade
1st April 2025
Hours 9,596 to 9,602
(4h) at Whipsnade Zoo, with my friend and mentor, Yin Wong, practicing using my new 400mm lens and shooting 616 exposures
(1½h) editing the day’s images down to 81 (long list, determined in length by the lack of time to trim further)
(1½h) Stoke Poges Photographic Club – zoom lecture by Molly Hollman: “Creative Flower Photography”
- follow your photographic heros, even if you never post yourself
- Instagram is a great source of daily inspiration
