This journal records my ten thousand hours deliberate practice mastering the art of photography.
Hours 8,317 to 8,402
31st January 2024
Hour 8,402
(½h) evening street photography, including the image right which might be a potential for the SPPC’s “Tools of the Trade” PDI competition in a couple of months time
(½h) updating this journal
30th January 2024
Hours 8,400 to 8,401
(½h) street photography first thing in the morning
(½h) editing images from the past couple of days
(1h) working on a draft Statement of Intent for my Magritte Panel
29th January 2024
Hour 8,399
(½h) street photography and learning how to/ practicing moving images from my camera to iPhone
(½h) YouTube about René Magritte’s “The Voice of Space” painting:
- NL Cultural: “Voice Of Space By René Magritte at The Peggy Guggenheim Venice Museum“
- Behind the Masterpiece: “The Philosophy Behind Rene Magritte’s Art?” – Magritte was perhaps unique in his understanding of philosophy
28th January 2024
Hour 8,398
(½h) update journal
(½h) create new Capture One Session
27th January 2024
Hours 8,395 to 8,397
(2½h) creating the following version of René Magritte’s 1931 The Voice of Space painting
| Magritte’s Original | ….. | My Version |
 |  |
(½h) Updating this journal
26th January 2024
Hour 8,394
(½h) shooting the trustees of Thames Valley Heartbeat on the Windsor Bridge in Eton – great fun lots of kit in a very public place and liable to being moved on by security at any time
(½h) editing, processing and distributing images from the above shoot
25th January 2024
Hour 8,393
(½h) making the changes suggested yesterday to my recent Stoke Common semi-abstracts
(½h) shooting the bird feeder and a couple of leaves for use in a Magritte style composite
24th January 2024
Hours 8,388 to 8,392
(½h) preparing images for the Stoke Poges “Iconic Structures” PDI competition next week
(1h) Amersham Coffee meeting
(1½h) YouTube:
- Art History:
- “The Surreal World of Rene Magritte”
- “Georges Braque: How he became the Great Cubist Artist” – met Picasso just after the later painted Les Demoiselles d’Avignon
- The Canvas:
- “How Magritte Seduces Us” – The Son of Man and The Visible That is Hidden
- “How Masks Influenced James Ensor’s Art“
(2h) Amersham Colour Group comments on my images below:
23rd January 2024
Hours 8,385 to 8,387
(½h) updating this journal
(½h) preparing images for tomorrow’s Amersham Colour Group meeting and the Stoke Poges “Iconic Structures” PDI competition next week
(2h) Stoke Poges Photographic Club – Zoom Lecture by Roger Hance “UK Nature Photography – Tips and Tricks”
- build props that can be baited
- set-up and use a remote trigger
- always shoot from a low angle
- Puffins in Skomer Island off Wales
- Horsey in Norfolk for Seals
22nd January 2024
Hours 8,382 to 8,384
(1h) enjoying further processing of abstract tree images shot at Stoke Common
(2h) Amersham Photographic Society – Zoom lecture by Glenys Garnett ‘ Creative techniques’
- Black Mist Filter for shooting contra jour particularly street photography first thing in the morning
- ICM street photography to avoid the identification of individuals
- ICM Double Exposure or ICM + Straight image
- iPhone Slow Shutter App
- Double/ Triple exposures: zoom in or out slightly to create texture; maybe change white balance
- Experiment with different blend modes in architectural multiple exposures
Inspiration from: Ernst Hass and Saul Leiter as photographers; but even more from the Abstract Expressionist, Bauhaus & Cubist painters
21st January 2024
Hour 8,381
(1h) processing images from yesterday’s shoot at Dunsford Aerodrome’s “Learn to Drift Experience” and uploading to social media
20th January 2024
Hours 8,379 to 8,380
(1h) shooting a friend’s drifting experience at Dunsfold Aerodrome
(1h) editing the 350 images shot to 50 imported into Capture One, then to 30 exported to Lightroom and on to social media
19th January 2024
Hour 8,378
(1h) Processing images from Tuesday
images very much in the style of the “Golden Morning Light” right
Quite different to the melancholy images of my A Panel, shot i the same location at broadly the same time of year and time of day
18th January 2024
Hours 8,375 to 8,377
(½h) journal
(½h) Processing images from Tuesday
(2h) Amersham PiC Group
17th January 2024
Hour 8,374
(½h) Amersham Coffee Club
(½h) YouTube:
- CAI: “The #1 Reason Why Your Abstract Art Fails”
- it will fail if it looks cheap and mass produced
- use more expensive, home produced, or custom made mounts and materials
- BBC: “See what your brain does when you look at art” – sensors show brain activity that varies as you look at art
- BBC: “The Making of a Master – the story of Kieron Williamson” – the Mini Monet landscape painter; first exhibition at the age of 6, now 14 and worth over £2m
16th January 2024
Hours 8,369 to 8,373
(1½h) shooting at Stoke Common at sunrise very cold, -5.5°c
(1½h) editing and processing the morning’s images
(2h) representing Stoke Poges in the CACC Rosebowl competition
15th January 2024
Hours 8,364 to 8,368
(2h) Royal Academy Summer Exhibition entry
(1h) finishing the Frida Kahlo YouTube below
(2h) Amersham Photographic Club PDI competition, my entries below:
14th January 2024
Hours 8,363
(1h) Blind Dweller YouTube “To Feel The Pain of Frida Kahlo (Full Documentary)” new facts:
- Kahlo’s father was a famous and sought after photographer – mainly architectural
- major influence supporting her interest in art
- her last painting “Viva la Vida” is full of symbolism and encompasses her pain-filled life
13th January 2024
Hour 8,362
(1h) updating this journal; mainly links to and from the associated Flickr site
12th January 2024
Hours 8,359 to 8,361
(½h) finishing “Magritte & Nefertiti II” below
(1½h) Monet Immersive Experience in London which I was given as a Christmas present
(1h) creating the “Magritte Portfolio” Flickr album, right, which contains my top images and those likely to be included in any RPS F panel I may seek to produce. Although these is some way to go with this
11th January 2024
Hours 8,356 to 8,358
(½h) updating this journal
(1h) creating the “Nefertiti Crying” image, left, using the Advanced Layer Effect techniques of yesterday’s YouTube
(1h) Mono Group
(½h) preparing and submitting PDIs for next week’s competition at the Amersham Photographic society
New version of “Magritte & Nefertiti” above
10th January 2024
Hours 8,353 to 8,355
(½h) updating this journal, mainly with the results from yesterday evening’s “Fur and Feather” competition at the Stoke Poges Photographic Club
(1h) at the Amersham Coffee group
(½h) finishing the “Horror Effect – Adding Blood from the Eye in Photoshop” post right
(½h) actually doing the work on the Nefertiti image
(½h) learning about creating artificial tears in photoshop including watching the PSDesire YouTube: “Photoshop Tutorial : Fake Tear Drops Manipulation“
9th January 2024
Hours 8,346 to 8,352
(1h) creating a new version of the “Magritte and Nefertiti” image
(3h) creating a “Horror Effect – Adding Blood from the Eye in Photoshop” post
(1h) actually doing the steps described in the post
(2h) very good night at the SPPC Print Competition – Set Subject “Fur and Feather” & Open
8th January 2024
Hours 8,339 to 8,345
(1h) shooting a friend’s bust of Nefertiti to include in a Magritte-style “Memory” image
(½h) editing and processing the morning’s images in Capture One
(2½h) adding the blood to the image right; required a lot of unfamiliar preparatory work including create a new colour swatch and custom brush; good fun but image needs redoing
(1h) creating a “Magritte and Nefertiti” composite of the image above and a couple of versions of the “Magritte Graffiti” image below
(2h) Amersham Photographic Society – lecture by Andy Phillips Landscape Photography “with lots of post processing”
7th January 2024
Hours 8,337 to 8,338
(1h) selecting images for my entry to this year’s Royal Academy Summer Exhibition and this week’s APS Mono meeting
(1h) planning the shooting of the sculpture for the Magritte-style “Memory” image, including the excellent YouTube from Envato Tuts+ “How to Make Blood Effects in Photoshop“
6th January 2024
Hours 8,334 to 8,336
(2h) processing images from Wednesday’s Night Walk with the Amersham Photographic Society
(½h) Art History School YouTube: “The Life Of Claude Monet” ahead of the immersive experience I was given as a Christmas present to be attended next week
(½h) updating this journal
5th January 2024
Hours 8,329 to 8,333
(½h) preparing PDI’s for next week’s SPPC “Fur and Feather” Print competition, which included debugging my Photoshop action
(½h) Magritte Panel spreadsheet of images
(4h) processing images from Wednesday including “Light Painting with the Amersham Photographic Society” above, “Woman and Dog Amersham Old Town” right and “Late Night Tryst” below
4th January 2024
Hours 8,327 to 8,328
(2h) Amersham Beyond Group – Current challenges
- #42 Film Noir (revisited)
- #43 Oil and Water
3rd January 2024
Hours 8,322 to 8,326
(1h) updating the Stormy eye image, above, including using Topaz Gigaixel and expanding for print with mount overlap
(3h) night/ low light photography with the Amersham Photographic Society
(1h) editing the evening’s images
2nd January 2024
Hours 8,319 to 8,321
(1h) draft a “Winter 2023/24” post so that I fill it in as I go along – be more directed in my day to day work, start with the end in mind – also created a template for future seasonal reviews
(½h) YouTube – Blind Dweller: “A Brief Study of the Paintings of Leonora Carrington“
(½h) reworking the Croft family portrait from a 2:1 aspect ratio to 9:7 (to fit the required frame!)
(1h) Stoke Poges Photographic Club – Talk by Rojer Weightman “Why we take Photos”
1st January 2024
Hours 8,317 to 8,318
(1h) updating this journal including all the new month and new year admin
(½h) updating the filenames on my 3 main cameras to reflect the new year, as per notes of 27th Jan last year, to avoid replication of filenames
(½h) creating images for this week’s Amersham Beyond Challenge