December 2018 – Contribution to my 10,000 Hours Photography
Purpose of Journal
This page is part of the journal recording my hour by hour activity learning photography through 10,000 hours deliberate practice.
Hours 1,553 to 1,642
31 December 2018
Hours 1,640 to 1,642
An hour finishing and publishing the “Seascape, Landscape and Urban Photography Northern Ireland” post. Then an hour loading to the Flickr site and updating the October Journal when the images were taken.
Two hours working on the “Second Review of Autumn” post including creating the following Diptych.
Shot in Northern Ireland on 23 October 2018.
30 December 2018
Hour 1,639
Working on the “Seascape, Landscape and Urban Photography Northern Ireland” post.
29 December 2018
Hours 1,637to 1,638
An hour reading Michael Freeman’s latest book “Fifty Paths to Creative Photography (The Photographer’s Eye)” which is the latest book in his series about photographic composition. I already have “The Photographer’s Eye” and “The Photographer’s Mind” which teach that creativity can be learnt rather than being merely the province of inherent genius. I certainly hope this is the case as it is the basis of my 10,000 hour project and at the outset of which I certainly had no creative ability (see: My Background Hour Zero. 50 paths goes beyond these by providing strategies to greater creativity.
An hour working on images from the ski demonstration and updating this journal.
28 December 2018
Hours 1,635 to 1,636
Two hours culling and editing images from the Ski show down to 32.
27 December 2018
Hours 1,633 to 1,634
An hour culling and processing images from yesterday’s ski shoot.
An hour watching the YouTube: “Behind the Artist: Van Gogh”
26 December 2018
Hours 1,629 to 1,632
An hours shooting and processing early morning Boxing Day images – cold clear morning in Alpbach, Austria. An hour processing images from the last few days and updating this journal, mainly adjusting colour balance to create a greater contrast and impact.
An hour YouTube “Behind the Artist: Rodin“, thoughts include:
- At one point Rodin employed about 60 staff who essentially did all of the sculptural and artistic work whilst he managed the brand.
An hour shooting a skiing display plus another doing an initial cull of images from the original 469 exposures.
25 December 2018
Hours 1,627 to 1,628
An hour shooting on Christmas morning and processing those images.
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Misty morning images shot in the style of Michael Kenna:
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Introduction to the artist Pierre Soulages through the YouTube “Behind the Artists: Soulages“, apparently France’s most famous living artist and inventor of Outrenoir; textured black paintings which is completely nonrepresentational.
24 December 2018
Hours 1,625 to 1,626
First hour spent shooting the images to the left, processing and creating a composite including the ICM woodland stream shot yesterday.
Second hour:
- Reviewing this year’s Landscape Photographer of the Year, Peter Rowbottom – new favourite photographer. Particularly keen on his London street photography.
- Updating this journal.
23 December 2018
Hours 1,623 to 1,624
Half an hour early morning mountain landscape photography followed by another half hour processing those images and updating this journal.
An hour watching the Youtube “How to Take a Long Exposure B&W Photo (Inc. Editing and Printing)” by Nigel Danson, and then practicing those techniques by creating the image to the right.
22 December 2018
Hour 1,622
Half an hour reading the Josef Albers “Interaction of Color”; half an hour updating this journal, particularly the shadow management worked on on the 20th below.
21 December 2018
Hours 1,620 to1,621
An hour updating the clouds images in this journal for 12th December and reorganising files in Lightroom.
An hour, of qualifying time, finishing the WG Carter Corporate Shoot composites with the new team members and writing an update email to the MD including a progress report for the time-lapse which as some issues regarding lens flare later in the day when the sun shines.
20 December 2018
Hours 1,616 to 1,619
Two hours working on the WG Carter corporate shoot composite images; challenge making the outdoor shadows look more realistic. Standard black shadows at low opacity don’t work as shadows on grass when there is high contract lighting, i.e., bright sunlight. Alternative:
using the curves tool to selectively lower the light and in particular bring down the highlights whilst maintaining more of the shadows and mid-tones – logically this should be the overall best approach
selecting a shadow colour to paint with rather than black. According to the YouTube I watched, some shadows are more blue in hue – almost certainly due to it being the inverse of a yellow light.
Two hours at the Amersham Photographic Society PIC Group – I won a print from Eddie Morton ARPS FDPS.
19 December 2018
Hours 1,614 to 1,615
Two hours working on the WG Carter corporate shoot composite images; challenge getting the colour tones of the inserted composites to match that of the rest of the image.
18 December 2018
Hours 1,609 to 1,613
Half an hour updating this journal, half an hour updating the Northern Ireland and Autumn review posts.
Two hours working on the WG Carter corporate shoot compositions.
Two hours at the Stoke Poges Photographic Club – Christmas social [one hour, perhaps of deliberate practice[.
17 December 2018
Hours 1,602 to 1,608
An hour working on the “Seascape, Landscape and Urban Photography Northern Ireland” post.
Interesting blog post from Jeff Cobb at Mission to Learn: “8 keys to Deliberate Practice – Mission to Learn” which pretty much aligns with my assessment of What Counts as deliberate practice. I love Jeff’s philosophy and have signed up to his blog. Top tip, originally from Franklin Covey: “Maintain a maximum of 3 wildly exciting goals at any one time.” [one hour]
An hour updating this journal including reviewing and restructuring past posts.
An hour producing a first draft of the “Second Review of Autumn” post.
Two hours of YouTube:
- Damien Hirst Relics Documentary
- Kirst Wark meets Damien Hurst and Jeff Koons
Damien Hurst is a major collector of Jeff Koons and the documentary is about the exhibition Hirst puts on in his studio of Koons’ work - Tracy Emin: What do Artists do All Day?
Emin spends a lots of time doing life drawing from memory using antique erotic cards for ideas on poses. She is a huge fan of Egon Schiele who was himself a protege of Gustav Klimt.
Two hours (one hour of what counts) at the Amersham Photographic Society – Christmas Social.
16 December 2018
Hours 1,599 to 1,601
Two hours watching YouTubes:
- George Condo Interview: “The way I Think”, new favourite artist, several insights:
- “Pace or tempo of an artwork is important. I work quickly, but some slow contemplative works are achieved quickly and conversely some dynamic works take months to complete.”
- Cubism is about showing different emotions as much as different physical characteristics. The works in the “Double Head” series contrast emotions with paired images of different abstraction.
- “Abstraction is of the mind, where a figurative is of the body.”
- Kant: “Beauty is that which pleases without interest.”
- “Color in context: Revisiting Albers” note written up in my review of “Intereaction of Colour” by Josef Albers.
An hour working on the WG Carter Corporate composite.
Thoughts on art, prompted by the Kant quote above: art is the quality of a work (e.g., painting, drawing, sculpture, architecture or photograph) which influences the viewer beyond its immediate logical representation or function.
Differentiation between the picturesque and the sublime.
15 December 2018
Hours 1,597 to 1,598
An hour watching the YouTube “S9 E1: That Far Corner – Frank Lloyd Wright in Los Angeles“.
An hour processing images from the last few days.
14 December 2018
Hours 1,595 to 1,596
An hour shooting on Camber Sands beach, Dungeness and further up the coast.
Half an hour talking with Clive Sawyer in his Just Ten gallery in High Street Rye. I particularly like his abstracts and images that are composed of a grid of 40 or more individual images, e.g., his “Fashionista” image which is a grid of images of fashion brands shot in London and laid out to look like a photographic contact sheet.
Half and hour updating this journal.
13 December 2018
Hour 1,594
Updating this journal.
12 December 2018
Hours 1,588 to 1,593
An hour and a quarter shooting the Cloud series below of Hastings Meadow.
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| 6am 16mm f/9 | 6am 16mm f/9 | 6am 16mm f/9 | 6am 16mm f/9 | |||
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| 6am 35mm f/9 | 6am 35mm f/9 | 6am 35mm f/9 | 6am 35mm f/9 | |||
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| 9am 16mm f/9 | 9am 16mm f/9 | 9am 16mm f/9 | 9am 16mm f/9 | |||
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| 9am 35mm f/9 | 9am 35mm f/9 | 9am 35mm f/9 | 9am 35mm f/9 | |||
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| 12noon 16mm f/9 | 12noon 16mm f/9 | 12noon 16mm f/9 | 12noon 16mm f/9 | |||
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| 12noon 35mm f/9 | 12noon 35mm f/9 | 12noon 35mm f/9 | 12noon 35mm f/9 | |||
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| 3pm 16mm f/9 | 3pm 16mm f/9 | 3pm 16mm f/9 | 3pm 16mm f/9 | |||
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| 3pm 35mm f/9 | 3pm 35mm f/9 | 3pm 35mm f/9 | 3pm 35mm f/9 | |||
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| 6pm 16mm f/9 | 6pm 16mm f/9 | 6pm 16mm f/9 | 6pm 16mm f/9 | |||
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| 6pm 35mm f/9 | 6pm 35mm f/9 | 6pm 35mm f/9 | 6pm 35mm f/9 |
Three quarters of an hour processing the above images.
An hour investigating photo exhibitions and updating this journal.
- British Photographic Exhibitions
- The International Federation of Photographic Art
- Photographers Alliance of Great Britain
Two hours watching the following art YouTube:
- Behind the Artist Series: Roy Lichtenstein
- BBC Documentary: Jeff Koons
- “Kim Jung Gi – How to become a Master“
11 December 2018
Hours 1,582 to 1,587
An hour updating the journal in the light of yesterday’s competition and reflecting on the
Two hours viewing art YouTubes
- BBC Documentary: “Robert Rauschenberg – Pop Art Pioneer”
Studied under Josef Albers at the Black Mountain University, New York (although they didn’t get along)
Had a long term love affair with Cy Twombly - “Edward Hopper and the Blank Canvas”
Thesis that Hopper was primarily interested in painting fields of light.
An hour shooting at Langley Park.
Two hours at the Stoke Poges Photographic Club – Workshop: “Photographing Insects” mainly concentrating on the use of focus-stacking software, e.g., Helicon (which only supports Canon and Nikon camera) – Arsenal (due to be released Feb 2019) will support Sony and specifically the a99ii.
10 December 2018
Hours 1,577 to 1,581
Two hours working on the “Seascape, Landscape and Urban Photography Northern Ireland” post.
Half an hour preparing prints for this evening’s competiton and half and hour updating this journal.
Two hours at the Amersham Photographic Society – Print Competition. Entries as follows:
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Third Place – 19 Applauded the bevel treatment around the individual images. “The author is clearly someone who has come to photography from the creative arts.” – Flattered but almost made me choke with laughter. |
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14 Image lacks purpose – doesn’t say anything. “Had the author made these wooden heads, it would have been an effective record shot!” |
Judge: Chris Forster who’s work I have just discovered and love.
9 December 2018
Hour 1,576
Reading Josef Albers: “Interaction of Colour”. Apparently the iPad ap is recommended as this allows one to try the experiments without the need for lots of coloured paper.
8 December 2018
Hours 1,574 to 1,575
An hour working on the London Street Photography images from Thursday and updating this journal.
An hour working on compositing images for the WG Carter corporate shoot, i.e., adding in one of the directors and a project manager who were both unavailable when the initial shoot took place.
7 December 2018
Hour 1,573
An hour processing yesterday’s images in Capture One Pro and updating this journal.
6 December 2018
Hours 1,569 to 1,572
An hour at The Photographers’ Gallery exhibitions:
- Roman Vishniac Rediscovered (Jewish exile to the USA in the 1930’s – Journalistic photography, portraiture and pioneer of micro-photography – professor of biology and art)
- All I know is What’s on the Internet (scary themes including the manipulation of social media through click farms).
Half an hour updating this journal for both today and yesterday.
An hour at the Haywood Gallery: “Shape Shifters” exhibition.
An hour walking along the South Bank and at the Tate Street Photography.
5 December 2018
Hours 1,565 to 1,568
Half an hour updating this journal following yesterday evening’s competition. I will have another go at the Clock on Bournemouth Pier images as I believe this has potential in the geometry and graininess of the sky caused by the super high ISO (102,000). Half an hour sending Mark the feedback on this images.
An hour reprocessing my Clock on Bournemouth Pier image as a monochrome – not convinced that its that much more successful.
Two hours compositing the new members of the WG Carter team, shot yesterday, into the corporate shot taken on the 14 September.
[Lots of time spent on technical and client management issues associated with the time lapse project. However this does not qualify as deliberate practice learning the art of photography.]
4 December 2018
Hours 1,560 to 1,564
Half and hour shooting Hastings Meadow and the Big Field at dawn; followed by half an hour culling and processing in Capture One Pro, before exporting to Lightroom.
An hour and a half shooting images of the missing people from the WG Carter corporate shoot, plus half an hour in Capture One Pro of initial review, processing and export to Lightroom.
Two hours at the Stoke Poges Photographic Club; Print Competition: “Close up and Macro” my entries in the Open section below:
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Clock on Bournemouth Pier. 14 ! Thought it might have worked better in monochrome where it would have a grainy look. “Colour noise in the sky just isn’t working.” |
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Half a Dozen Reflected Reeds 17 Liked the minimalism and graduated colour of the background is good. Reeds not quite sharp enough in some areas. |
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Minimal Art 20 Good negative space whilst still containing some detail which supports the main image; all lines leading to the main area. “Nothing to fault.” |
3 December 2018
Hours 1,555 to 1,559
2 hours on site installing a time lapse camera at a WG Carter site. Now up and running sending images to my FTP site.
An hour watching YouTubes including:
- Adrian Klein: “Abstract Nature Photography”
Talks through a number of abstract shots, why they work and why previous versions didn’t.
“In every Landscape should reside a jewels of abstract art waiting to be discovered.” Melissa Brown. - Mike Browne: “Photo Idea! Oil on Water”
Interesting DIY approach to taking effective oil on water abstracts.
Two hours at the Amersham Photographic Society – PDI competition. My two entries as below:
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16 “Perhaps might have been better had the woman been half a pace back so that she was separated from his arm.” |
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16 “Did not like the fact that the Error message was in front of the woman’s face in the graffito.” |
2 December 2018
Hour 1,554
Updating images from Northern Ireland and updating this journal.
1 December 2018
Hour 1553
Half an hour attempting to shoot Durdle Door – horrendous weather prevented any photography.
Half an hour updating this journal including all the new month adjustments, etc.