Ten Thousand Hours Photography

10,000 Hours Deliberate Practice Learning the Art of Photography

February 2022

Ten thousand hours studying the art of photography

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

Hours 6,145 to 6,253.

(March 2022)

28th February

Hours 6,249 to 6,253

(1h) updating this journal.

(1h) YouTube: “George Condo: The Way I Think | Louisiana Channel“, the updating my Artistic Timeline Spreadsheet. Condo is a combines the Action Painting of the Abstract Expressionists with Cartoon Drawing to create a style he calls “Artificial Realism”.

“Beauty is that which pleases without purpose”

Immanuel Kant (1724-1804)

(1h) Creating the following manipulated version of the image for the Stoke Poges Photographic Club’s competition tomorrow.

Ten thousand hours studying the art of photography
“Reflecting on the Pig and Fiddle”

(2h) Amersham Photographic Society – Members’ Evening:

  • Steve Brabner: “The Story Behind some Favourite Images” this should/ will become the basis of a talk he will take round to other camera clubs.

27th February

Hours 6,247 to 6,248

(1h) selecting images for:

  • this week’s Open competition at the Stoke Poges Photographic Club
  • the March Forum newsletter.

(1h) YouTube:

26th February

Hours 6,245 to 6,246

(1h) finalising the following surrealist photo

“Maison Lumières de René Magritte”

(1h) YouTube:

25th February

Hours 6,242 to 6,244

(½h) updating this journal.

(1½h) Created a version of Rene Magritte’s (1949) “L’empire des lumières” surrealist painting where a nighttime urban landscape is shown under a midday sky. For my version, above, I used a photo from my Garden last summer, one of my Hasting Meadow Skys images and the blending techniques I learnt creating the Honey Advert below.

(1h) YouTube:

  • Aurelio Salvador: “Dora Maar” – painting of Dora Maar which include a number of cubist painting of Picasso. These are more accessible that those painted of Maar by Picasso because we are familiar with what Picasso looks like through the abundance of photographs. The eyes in particular are distinctively Picasso.
  • Sotheby’s: “Surrealism: Reimagining Modernity” discussion, including the singer-songwriter Celeste, including a version of Magrette’s “L’empire des lumières” which immediately prompted me to try something similar using the cut-out and blending techniques I have been working with other the last few days.

24th February

Hours 6,238 to 6,241

(2½h) reprocessing the Honey Advert image for the Karl Taylor Education working to a brief challenge. Making the lavender look back lit was the biggest breakthrough. Photoshop steps to create a mask around the lavender so that the white background becomes transparent:

  • select the white area around the lavender using the Colour Range tool
  • contract the selection by 1 or 2 pixels
  • 2 pixel feather
  • create mask.

The above creates a little bit of white fringing, which in this case is desirable and matches the edges of the lavender against the board, i.e., the bit that has not been cut-out.

Third attempt

(1½h) YouTube:

23rd February

Hours 6,232 to 6,237

(½h) reviewing the 15th image in my potential A Panel before resending to the PIC Group.

(½h) reshooting the honey pot advert so that the shadows are more credible, i.e., less obtrusive fill-in lighting.

(2h) processing the above image

(1h) YouTube:

(2h) Amersham Colour group.

22nd February

Hours 6,227 to 6,231

(½h) updating this journal.

(½h) finding images for tomorrow’s colour group.

(1h) shooting another version of the honey advert.

(2h) processing the above images to produce the following:

Second Attempt – main problem is the shadows in the wrong direction – needs softer front lighting

(1h) out of 2 hours elapsed at the Stoke Poges Photographic Club – Three of a Kind Competition.

21st February

Hours 6,220 to 6,226

(1h) creating a new layout for the panel images created yesterday.

New Panel
Previous Panel

(2h) setting up and shooting the latest Karl Taylor Education challenge: mock advertising brief for an environmentally focussed honey manufacturer. So far this does not seem as difficult as some of the previous challenges. Used the Capture One overlay tool to project the art director’s sketch onto the live view when shooting tethered. Configuration as shown in the pictures below.

The view either side of the diffuser screen – shooting the honey challenge
Image shot vs Brief

(2h) post processing to create the following:

First Attempt

(2h) Amersham Photographic Society – Speaker: Amy Bateman – My life, Farming & Photography.

20th February

Hours 6,217 to 6,219

(½h) rewriting my A Panel’s Statement of Intent

“Trees of Stoke Common

by Andy Smith

Stoke Common is an 80 hectare site of special scientific interest in South Buckinghamshire.

Formerly mainly forest, recent land management removed the majority of trees from the centre of the site with the objective of returning the area to a state of natural heathland considered rare in the UK.  This left the trees around the perimeter of the site sharply delineated against the cleared area, and revealed a slice through the middle of a formerly dense and unmanaged woodland.

I visit the site frequently and, with fewer trees, I admire those that remain.”

(2½h) creating an alternative Woodland A Panel to suit the above statement. This involved finding 5 new images, recolouring many of the old ones, and mixing things up a bit on the layout.

19th February

Hours 6,214 to 6,216

(1½h) processing yesterday’s images.

Reflections at the Tate Modern

(1h) YouTube:

(½h) writing up this journal.

18th February

Hours 6,211 to 6,213

(½h) planning the day shooting in London – sever travel warning – non-essential travel discouraged.

(1h) shooting in London during Storm Eunice.

Farringdon Station during Storm Eunice

(½h) at the Tate Modern. In particular I spent time in the Gerhard Richter room, which I had previously considered to me the worst in the whole museum. For the first time, I was able to appreciate, perhaps just a little bit the value of the work.

(1h) culling and processing the day’s images in Capture One.

17th February

Hours 6,206 to 6,210

(2h) writing up this journal, in particular the notes from the Alfred Stieglitz” documentary.

(1h) sorting and processing images for a revised Woodland A Panel.

Desolate Snow Landscape – Potential new image

(2h) Amersham PIC Group meeting:

  • L Panel
  • A Panel – Travel: Palastine
  • Abstract polyptychs by Chris Palmer.

16th February

Hours 6,203 to 6,205

(2h) YouTube:

  • The Photographers Eye: “Photography Style Isn’t What You Think It Is“
    • “Looks are skin deep, but Style goes to the bone.”
  • Milan Mate: “Alfred Stieglitz” – long documentary on the man who first had photography accepted as an art (at least in the USA), first prompted European avant-garde art in the US (Cézanne, Picasso and Matisse), and then supported the new breed of American Modernists including:
    • Marsden Hartley
    • John Marin
    • Arthur Dove
    • Georgia O’Keeffe (who he married)
    • Paul Strand (photographer)
    • Gallery 291 was first establish to promote photography as fine art – showing Edward Steichen & Ansel Adams
    • comment: many people who we’d consider to be geniuses said they all had one thing in common: an ability to keep working on one thing long past the point most people would find it tedious, boring, or frustrating.

(1h) Preparing images for next week’s Three of a Kind competition at the Stoke Poges Photographic Club.

15th February

Hours 6,198 to 6,202

(1h) creating the following “Smoking Mountain Patagonia” from an old image that needed recropping and toning.

(2h) YouTube:

(2h) Stoke Poges Photographic Club – Print Competition: “Chrome” by images below:

Image…..Comments
“Rise and Shine”

15

Would have liked a deeper focus and less space between the taps so that the triangle with the overflow was more pronounced.
“Bright Future”

14

Needed to be more in focus so that the sharp lines of the modern tap are more pronounced
“Decline During Lockdown”

19

Needed to show a little more of the right side of the image which currently feels “cut off”.

14th February

Hours 6,195 to 6,197

(1h) updating this journal and associated social media.

(½h) updating my A Panel Statement of Intent

(½h) tidying my Lightroom catalogue and Flickr site

(1h) YouTube: “The Many Lives of William Klein (2012)“

13th February

Hours 6,193 to 6,194

(½h) creating the following from the Polina Plotnikova course.

(½h) updating this journal, mainly notes from yesterday’s YouTubes.

(1h) YouTube:

12th February

Hours 6,190 to 6,192

(2h) combining images from the flower photography course with Polina Plotnikova.

Bird of Paradise II

(1h) YouTube:

11th February

Hours 6,184 to 6,189

(5h) course at Amersham Studios – Intermediate Flower Photography with Polina Plotnikova.

Dancing Flowers – ICM

Flower photography version of the studio portraiture of Jake Wangner as discovered on YouTube two days ago.

(1h) processing a few of the day’s images.

10th February

Hours 6,180 to 6,183

(½h) updating this journal.

(1½h) working on the Oxfordshire Morris Men images including the following portraits.

(2h) Amersham Mono Group.

9th February

Hours 6,175 to 6,179

(½h) updating this journal.

(2h) processing some of the Oxfordshire Morris Men images.

(1½h) Karl Taylor Education – review of Milk Splash challenge.

Comments on my entry:

  • liquid looks like milk (good)
  • pour good, although would have been criticised for being too regular relative to the brief
  • lighting creates the required soft, morning feel, although should have been from the back
  • problem: splash is completely the wrong shape – which I knew.

Big tip: when shooting irregular organic object, the warp tool in Photoshop can be very effective is achieving the desired shape.

(1h) YouTube:

8th February

Hours 6,169 to 6,174

(½h) reviewing the winning images of the 2022 Sony World Photography Awards.

(½h) updating this journal.

(1h) further tweaking of the Stourbridge Stagger photos, then loading to Flickr.

(1h) shooting some “Crome” images for next week’s print competition at the Stoke Poges Photographic Club.

“Wake Up and Shine”

(1h) Stoke Poges Photographic Club – review of Light Painting images. Key takeaway for me was the possibility of creating soft yet targeted lighting on a subject by directing a narrow beam torch at the key area, but moving so that it is illuminated from many different angles.

(2h) processing images for next week’s competition including the following:

“Decline During Lockdown”

7th February

Hours 6,164 to 6,168

(2h) processing images from the Stourbridge Stagger. Including the following portrait of the club’s oldest member and the only club member who is allowed to run rather than marshal.

(1h) YouTube:

(2h) Amersham Photographic Club – Lecture by Colin Harrison who has collected the most formidable number of distinctions and awards including being the joint second person to achieve the EFIAP/ D3.

6th February

Hours 6,162 to 6,163

(1½h) shooting the “Stourbridge Stagger” for the Stourbridge running club.

(½h) Selecting 188 out of the 1,012 image shot to import onto my desktop computer. This was achieved purely by looking at the thumbnails in the import dialogue.

5th February

Hours 6,160 to 6,161

(1h) processing some of the Lincoln images including the following shot whilst visiting the Bomber Command memorial.

Bomber Command Memorial Trees

(1h) updating this journal and associated Flickr site.

4th February

Hours 6,156 to 6,159

(½h) updating this journal.

(2½h) Editing the Lincoln images including the “Bomber Command Memorial Spire” right, which I think has some merit from a graphical point of view. The framing is an artefact of the panoramic stitching in CaptureOne.

(1h) YouTube:

3rd February

Hours 6,151 to 6,155

(½h) updating this journal.

(1h) moving the Lincoln images to my main computer, adding the later additions and processing.

“Descending Steep Hill, Lincoln”

(1h) YouTube:

Updating my Artist Timeline spreadsheet.

(½h) monthly image for the Forum group.

St Paul’s Cathedral as viewed from the Millennium Bridge.  This, 7 image multiple exposure, contrasts the activity of London life with the timelessness of its historic architecture.

(2h) Amersham Beyond – challenge #29 “Book Cover”

2nd February

Hours 6,148 to 6,150

(1½h) Royal Academy exhibition: Francis Bacon Man and Beast

  • life long study of man’s most base/ basic desires
  • the glass frame represent the capture of a single idea
  • depiction of the “Furies” from Greek Tragedy
  • the triptychs show different angles and/ or different moment in time; they do not tell a story.

(½h) Dulwich Picture Gallery – Helen Frankenthaler

(1h) YouTube:

1st February

Hours 6,145 to 6,147

(1h) Journal update including all the new month’s admin.

(1h) CaptureOne Webinar: “Advanced Layers Tutorial“

  • brush <control><option> drag right-left (size), up-down (hardness)
  • use multiple clone or heal layers is you need different levels of opacity
  • even skin tone using the skin adjustment tool:
    • select skin area
    • make hue the same; 100%
    • make tone similar – up a bit so that it looks right.

(1h) YouTube in advance of tomorrow’s exhibitions:

(January 2022)