Ten Thousand Hours Photography

10,000 Hours Deliberate Practice Learning the Art of Photography

August 2023

Mastering fine art photography through 10,000 hours deliberate practice

This journal records the details of my time spent mastering fine art photography through 10,000 hours deliberate practice

Hours 7,855 to 7,955

(September 2023)

31st August

Hour 7,956

(½h) reviewing the latest prints for my prospective A panel – slightly worried that there may be a few areas of blocky black remaining. Reviewed this in Lightroom with the Clipping alert enabled: many images had highlight alerts but very few had black warnings. Hmmm….

(½h) updating the “Summer 2023” post: adding a few links that were missed and better wording here and there

30th August

Hours 7,951 to 7,955

(2h) finishing and publishing the “Summer 2023” post

(2h) working on the shadows of the “Movement in the Turbine Hall” image, right. Spot the difference from yesterday’s image – those changes were difficult to make!

Mastering creative fine art photography through 10,000 hours deliberate practice

(1h) researching abstract and surreal photographers:

29th August

Hours 7,945 to 7,950

(1h) creating a new version of “Movement in the Turbine Hall”, left – still needs some work on the shadows which either look a bit blocky or are absent

(½h) processing yesterday’s snail picture

(1h) updating this journal and Flickr site – adding images for the last few days

(1h) collating images for the Flickr album “Summer 2023” below – rather defeatistly assuming that I will not produce any top-10 images in the next 2 days!

Mastering fine art photography through 10,000 hours deliberate practice

(2½h) drafting the “Summer 2023” post including spending the bulk of the time on the “New Artists” section of this post which concentrates on my growing interest in the neo-expressionists.

28th August

Hours 7,942 to 7,944

(½h) updating this journal

(1h) working on the “Movement in the Turbine Hall” image – removing one of the time layers which was just too close to one of the others, therefore limiting separation between the elements. However, removing this was not that straightforward.

(1h) creating the images right, “Vilnius Cathedral”, and below, “St. Ladislaus, Vilnius Park and Graffiti”

Mastering creative fine art photography through 10,000 hours deliberate practice

(½h) shooting (bit of time processing) the Snail image left

The snail is dull – however, there may be some redeeming qualities in

  • the composition
  • colour harmonies: shell and the garden background
  • texture: shell and painted beam.

Maybe, stretching a point or clutching at straws …

27th August

Hours 7,937 to 7,941

(4h) further reprocessing of images and balancing of my A Panel, creating an overview image, preparing a few images for print on Fine Art paper, sending to Paul Mitchell for comment.

(1h) YouTube:

26th August

Hours 7,933 to 7,936

(½h) updating this journal

(½h) reviewing my “Surrealism and its affect on my photography” talk.

(½h) rewriting the Statement of Intent

“Objective painting is not good painting unless it is good in the abstract sense”
Georgia O’Keeffe
“A hill or tree cannot make a good painting just because it is a hill or tree. It is lines and colors put together so that they may say something”		(1h) YouTube by John Seed: “Bay Area Figuration: A Hybrid Style” introduced me to a number of new (to me) painters, including the two other founders of the style beyond David Park:
– Elmer Bischoff
– Richard Diebenkorn

(1½h) rebalancing some of the images in my prospective A Panel

25th August

Hours 7,929 to 7,932

(1½h) organising and reprocessing a couple of the underlying images in my A Panel, specifically to address the accusations of over sharpening, over exposure and too much contrast.

(½h) creating the “Awkward Silence” image right

(2h) revising my “Surrealism and its affect on my photography” talk

24th August

Hours 7,927 to 7,928

(½h) updating this journal

(1h) discovering and researching David Park including watching the YouTube by John Seed: “From David Park to Disrupted Realism“

also watched: “Basquiat As I Knew Him” by John Seed

(½h) revising the “Afghan Woman” below which was thought by the coffee club to be: “worth investing a bit more time on”.

23th August

Hours 7,925 to 7,926

(1h) Amersham Coffee meeting where a number of my images were discussed the issue of colours being out of gamut as one moves from one colour space to another. In particular, creating JPEGS from a LAB space TIFF requires both a change of gamut and reduction from 16 to 8 bits, which may be the cause of the “blocky black” patches I’m seeing on some of my prints. Blocky black patches are particularly noticeable on the matt paper.

(1h) experimenting with fixing my blocky black problem above. However, the source of the issue seem to be totally crushed blacks in the original file.

22nd August

Hours 7,923 to 7,924

(½h) updating this journal, mainly with images and notes from yesterday

(1½h) updating image 8, and others, of my potential A Panel

21st August

Hours 7,918 to 7,922

(½h) creating the image left, extracted as a detail from a larger image, “Impressionism at the Tate” which is a visual note (see Sean Tucker’s definition on 16th). I will go back with a long lens and do this properly

(1h) preparing and ordering prints for Wednesday’s coffee morning. This is to include a experimental print of the central, image 8, below as a Giclee print on Hahnemühle Photorag fine art paper

(3½h) rebalancing my potential A panel and creating the layout below

I think image 8 is currently too blue and doesn’t match the rest of the panel.

20th August

Hours 7,916 to 7,917

(2h) further editing and processing yesterday’s Ragged Victorians images including moving a selected 34 images to Lightroom.

19th August

Hours 7,911 to 7,915

(½h) updating this journal

(½h) rebalancing my potential A Panel

(2h) shooting with my friend and mentor Yin Wong at the Chiltern Outdoor Museum/ Ragged Victorians.

(2h) editing the images fro 650 down to about 35

18th August

Hours 7,908 to 7,910

(3h) rebalancing my potential A Panel

17th August

Hours 7,904 to 7,907

(½h) updating this journal – mainly with the notes from Sean Tucker’s youtube, watched yesterday.

(3½h) reprocessing my potential A Panel images in line with the suggestions made by Paul Mitchell FRPS.

16th August

Hours 7,902 to 7,903

(½h) creating further Vilnius Post Soviet Realism images including that below (“Cathedral Square and River Neris”)

(1h) Amersham Coffee meeting

(½h) YouTube, Sean Tucker: “What makes a Great Street Photograph?” – Layers of Interest

Layers of success:

  • Aesthetics Layer
    • Creative Exposure
    • Light and Shadow
    • Interesting Composition
    • Good Colour Theory
  • Subject Layer
    • A person or object that is worth our attention – “would you nudge a friend to point them out?”
  • Moment Layer
    • Something happening – Henri Cartier-Bresson’s “decisive moment”
  • Alchemy Layer
    • Something special – magic or art.

Hit rate by number of layers per “keeper”:

  1. A “Visual Note” – good enough for social media or, in my case, this journal – aim for 3-5 per session
  2. Competition entry or personal collection – 20-40 per year
  3. Monograph – the best images worthy of a hardback book – ∿5 per year
  4. The Stuff of Legacy – a handful in a lifetime.

15th August

Hours 7,900 to 7,901

(1h) journal and distributing images from the weekend

(1h) drafting a “Most Influential Photographers and Other Artists” post

14th August

Hours 7,898 to 7,899

(½h) processing yesterday’s festival images (shot on iPhone)

(½h) updating this journal and my Instagram feed

(1h) processing and further editing the family portraits shot over the weekend

13th August

Hour 7,897

(1h) processing yesterday’s family portraits and preparing prints for this Wednesday’s coffee meeting in Amersham.

A few minutes shooting at the Heritage Live festival in Audley End. Mainly using the Spectre App on my iPhone to produce images such as that below.

12th August

Hours 7,895 to 7,896

(1h) finishing and publishing the “Setting up the A1” post

(½h) shooting family portraits in the garden – actively practicing using the focus zones

(½h) editing and processing the day’s portraits.

11th August

Hours 7,891 to 7,894

(1h) updating this journal

(1h) updating the “Setting up the A1” post with:

  • sensor cleaning (formatting and file/folder setting) on menu 2
  • aspect ratio move to custom button c4

(2h) creating a series of Vilnius Post Soviet Realism images including the first to the right

10th August

Hours 7,887 to 7,890

(1h) updating this journal, mainly with notes from yesterday’s YouTubes

(1h) “Setting up the A1” post:

  • recording memos button implemented
  • ratings function researched
  • sensor cleaner, apparently very good on this camera

(2h) Mono group – presentation of images to be exhibited at Amersham in September, by the authors, including me.

Though from the meeting: program a button on the a1 to change the aspect ratio so that I can quickly shoot square.

9th August

Hours 7,884 to 7,886

(½h) updating this journal

A few minutes shooting surrealist clouds on my iPhone, above and left

(1½h) Importing and processing the Vilnius images

(1h) YouTube:

8th August

Hours 7,881 to 7,883

(1h) preparing images to print for the Amersham Exhibition in September, including the slightly enhances “Magritte at Lambourne” image right

(2h) chairing the meeting to select images, with other members of the SPPC committee, for next years external competitions

7th August

Hours 7,878 to 7,880

(1h) shooting around Vilnius – the river, gardens, cathedral and city centre; trying to capture a sense of the early morning. “Tree Across the Neris, Vilnius”, above.

(1h) processing the morning’s images and writing up this journal.

(1h) YouTube:

6th August

Hours 7,873 to 7,877

(1½h) street photography first thing in the morning

(1½h) editing and processing the day’s photos

(1½h) at the MO Museum in Vilnius

(½h) updating this journal

5th August

Hours 7,870 to 7,872

(1h) street photography, first thing in the morning.

(2h) editing and processing of the morning’s images.

4th August

Hours 7,868 to 7,869

(½h) updating this journal

(1½h) editing and processing yesterday’s images including the “Shore Triptych”, right, of Luc Tuyman’s, 2014, “The Shore” exhibited at the Tate Modern’s “Capturing the Moment”.

3rd August

Hours 7,864 to 7,867

(1h) working on the “Setting up the A1” post

(2h) at London Art Exhibitions:

  • Royal Academy – Summer Exhibition
  • Tate Modern – Capturing the moment

(½h) street photography in the Tate

(½h) processing the day’s photos

2nd August

Hours 7,858 to 7,863

(½h) creating the “Surreal Square Candle”, left, and “Lens Flare”, below, images

(1h) at the Amersham Coffee club

(1h) editing and processing the images shot yesterday

(½h) updating this journal

(2h) creating images for, and inserting into, the “Setting up the A1” post

(1h) updating the Stoke Poges Photographic Club’s facebook page with the images I shot yesterday, and my Instagram feed. The latter being something I have not touched to a while and so needed to reference my “Managing Social Media” post to remind myself of the photoshop actions, etc. to do this.

1st August

Hours 7,855 to 7,857

(1h) updating this journal with all the new month admin, etc.

(1h) shooting images for the “Setting up the A1” post, using an iPhone

(1h) Shooting at the Stoke Poges Photographic Club’s outing to the Rebellion Brewery

(July 2023)