Ten Thousand Hours Photography

10,000 Hours Deliberate Practice Learning the Art of Photography

July 2022

Ten thousand hours of deliberate practice studying fine art photography

This journal records my actual ten thousand hours of deliberate practice studying fine art photography.

Hours 6,606 to 6,694

(August 2022)

31st July

Hour 6,694

(1h) working on the outline of the “Two Thirds of an Expert Photographer” post.

30th July

Hours 6,692 to 6,693

(1h) processing the images shot at the Stoke Poges Horticultural Show last weekend.

(1h) drafting a “Two Thirds of an Expert Photographer” post.

29th July

Hour 6,691

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

(½h) changing a friend’s web portrait

28th July

Hours 6,687 to 6,690

(½h) updating the following:

Rene magritte ten thousand hours of deliberate practice studying fine art photography
“Magritte’s Pipe”

The above really needs reshooting as the outline cutout, made using a pen created path, is a bit “blocky” and unnatural in places.

(½h) updating this journal together with the associated Flickr site.

(1h) creating a list of potential Magritte images to emulate from the LearnMasters’ list “Rene Magritte 376 Paintings” – list recorded in my daybook.

(2h) YouTube:

  • Sean Tucker: “Recreating the Famous Portrait of Ernest Hemingway by Yousuf Karsh”
    • black background – close to subject to absorb light
    • rim lights at 45 degrees to the subject (from behind) – narrows the face and makes it pop from the background – don’t worry too much about flare
    • harsh, bare bulb key light above the subject and slightly to the right to create the rugged look
    • dodging and burning in post to enhance the effects of the lighting
  • Mark Denney: “A Hard Photography Skill that Pays Off Forever!” – Landscape photography
    1. find good light on bad days using a longer lens and focussing on areas of high contrast
    2. look down, find the detail on the ground
    3. create a series of images that tell a story
  • CAI: “The Story of: Jenny Saville (b. 1970)“
  • Teo Crawford: “What counts as photography?“, i.e., how much editing is allowed before it become digital art?
    • His definition: If it starts in photography, it is photography.
    • My thoughts: the whole question is irrelevant, for documentary or wildlife photography an accurate record of what’s in front of the camera is important, but for anything else it’s not.
  • “Compilation of Surrealist Images”
    • Use the moon
    • Photograph my little wooden chest
  • Art History School: “Life of an Artist: Rene Magritte”

27th July

Hours 6,685 to 6,686

(½h) updating this journal together with the associated Flickr site.

(½h) creating a new version of the “Taped Meerkat and M Magritte” image below where I have moved the apparently focal plane from the wall to the subjects in front of it.

(1h) creating the following version of Magritte’s “Time Transfixed” image (without the clock):

“Magritte’s Fireplace”

26th July

Hour 6,684

(1h) creating a new version of the “Magritte Under-Pass” image based on Laurie Turner’s suggestion that the image need not be to scale, but instead would benefit from more prominent subjects. Thus increasing the shock value and surreal nature of the picture.

“Magritte meets Magritte”

25th July

Hours 6,681 to 6,683

(3h) processing images from Sarah & Mark’s wedding blessing.

24th July

Hours 6,677 to 6,680

(4h) processing, mainly the evening shots of, Sarah & Mark’s wedding blessing.

23rd July

Hours 6,675 to 6,676

(½h) shooting mainly vintage cars at the Stoke Poges Horticultural show.

(1½h) shooting at Sarah & Mark’s UK wedding blessing.

22nd July

Hours 6,671 to 6,674

(2h) working on the “Magritte Mirror Image” photo below in photoshop. There was quite a bit of work required to make the two images fit together.

(1h) reviewing the Mark Collins’ images from Sarah and Mark Wright’s wedding.

(1h) updating the “Surrealist Photography” post.

21th July

Hours 6,669 to 6,670

(1h) YouTube including:

(1h) shooting the following “Magritte’s Mirror Image”

“Magritte Mirror Image”

20th July

Hours 6,663 to 6,668

(1h) creating some better quality images for a couple of CRFs meeting Theresa May on the 15th

(1h) Amersham Beech House Coffee club, mainly discussing the merits of Bernard Wallace’s architectural images.

(1h) watching and writing up the second part of the documentary: “The Secret of Marcel Duchamp” which describes the 20 year development of his posthumously presented 1966 “Étant donnés” mixed media installation (now at the Philadelphia Museum of Art) visible only through a pair of peepholes (one for each eye) in a wooden door, of a nude woman lying on her back with her face hidden, legs spread, holding a gas lamp in the air in one hand against a landscape backdrop.

(3) working on the following Magritte composite. Base image provided by Yin Wong, Magritte look-alike added by me. Next step modification by Laurie Turner – very much in line with the surrealist’s “Exquisite Corpse” game.

“Magritte Underpass”

19th July

Hours 6,661 to 6,662

(1h) updating this journal.

(½h) watching the writing up the PIXimperfect: “Smudge tool for refining selections in Photoshop” in particular removing halos after using Select Subject. Will be useful for creating better version of my Magritte man.

(½h) watching the first part of the 1997 documentary: “The Secret of Marcel Duchamp“

18th July

Hours 6,659 to 6,660

(½h) photographing the medals and commemorative coins awarded to the Thames Valley CFRs on Friday by Theresa May MP.

(½h) processing the above images, which required quite a lot of work in Photoshop to compensate for the slightly “used” look of the boxes.

(1h) YouTube including:

17th July

Hours 6,657 to 6,658

(2h) further editing a few of Sarah & Mark’s wedding images – mainly enhancing sharpening on a few. Then processing to standard competition size so that they can easily be displayed on an HD monitor at the reception after their blessing later this month.

16th July

Hours 6,655 to 6,656

(½h) updating this journal.

(1½h) finishing off Sarah & Mark’s wedding images.

15th July

Hours 6,650 to 6,654

(½h) learning about locks in Photoshop – PIXimperfect YouTube “This Feature Saves Hours of Photoshop Frustration” and updating my Dodge and Burn action.

(1½h) processing the last of the Sarah & Mark wedding photos.

(1h) preping, practicing and then shooting The Right Honourable Theresa May MP presenting medals to the Maidenhead, Windsor and Slough Community First Responders who worked through the pandemic.

(2h) processing and then distributing the above images.

14th July

Hours 6,647 to 6,649

(1h) setting up to shoot the Magritte mirror image.

(2h) Amersham Mono Group.

13th July

Hours 6,645 to 6,646

(2h) Amersham Beach House Coffee club. Participants passively underwhelmed by my Jamaican Seascapes, although Steve Brabner did like the image to the left which he felt had a dystopian feel.

12th July

Hour 6,644

(1h) entering the PentaPrism Super Circuit (FIAP) – 5 salons, 3 section, all old photos.

11th July

Hours 6,640 to 6,643

(2h) processing Jamaica Seascapes and printing for review at the Amersham Coffee meeting on Wednesday.

(2h) entering a FIAP salon.

10th July

Hour 6,639

(½h) finishing editing Jo & Phil’s wedding images from yesterday.

(½h) reading about Max Ernst and Leonora Carrington who had a relationship, causing Ernst to separate from his wife, but never married. Ernst was arrested in France at the start of World War II, Carrington was stricken with anxiety, was institutionalised, eventually escaped and fled ultimately to Mexico. Ernst escaped to New York, where he married Peggy Guggenheim (for 4 years before meeting and marrying Dorothea Tanning in 1936. A marriage which lasted somewhat longer).

9th July

Hours 6,637 to 6,638

(½h) updating this journal.

(½h) shooting at Jo & Phil’s wedding – no official responsibilities.

(1h) uploading and editing both today’s wedding photos and yesterday’s cloud images.

8th July

Hours 6,634 to 6,636

(1h) further research on surrealism and updating my notes of yesterday.

(2h) editing wedding photos.

7th July

Hours 6,630 to 6,633

(2h) editing Sarah and Mark’s wedding photos in Photoshop

(1h) surrealism research including watching the following YouTube: “Dada and Surrealism: Europe After the Rain documentary (1978)“

  • Spike Milligan’s poems and cartoons were pretty Dadaist
  • surreal comedy could have developed as a spinoff from Dadaism
  • Monty Python is often viewed as surrealist but I would contend that it’s more Dadaist
    • it is definitely (Dadaist):
      • irrational
      • deliberately shocking
      • anti-art
    • partly (Surrealist):
      • not subjectively influenced my dream theory or the subconscious
      • not really outwardly political, but gently satirical and anti-establishment

(1h) learning about Frida Kahlo

  • born 1907, and died of a self-administered opioid overdose in 1954 (aged 47), drugs prescribed for pain after having had her leg amputated, after having written a
  • suffered from polio as a child and then a debilitating traffic accident that meant she spent most of her life in constant pain
  • twice married Diago Riviera, then Mexico’s most famous painter
  • both Diago and Frida had multiple extramarital affairs. Their divorce occurred only after Diago slept with Frida’s sister; this was considered a step too far. However, a year later they got remarried on the basis that they were still very much in love and couldn’t bear to be apart.
  • Frida had relationship with both men and women including Georgia O’Keeffe
  • most famous work: “The Two Fridas” double self-portrait depicting the Frida that Diago loved and the one he didn’t
  • Frida & Diago were active members of the Mexican communist party
  • Leon Trotsky, and wife Sedova, went to live in their second home, Casa Azul, when he was exiled from Russia, by Stalin, in 1929
  • Frida & Trotsky had a relationship that lasted about three months. Frida gave him a self-portrait that he hung in his study
  • Andre Breton considered her to be a surrealist due to her use of symbolism and depiction of the subconscious. Frida denied this label stating that she painted her reality not her dreams. However, she was interested in psychoanalysis and the work of Sigmund Freud; most notably displayed in her 1937 painting “My Nurse and I” in which Frida, as a baby with her adult head, suckles from the breast of her nurse, wearing a traditional Mexican mask and whose nipples drip milk mirroring the droplets of rain in the background. Her nurse said, “rain is the milk of the Virgin Mary giving life to the earth’s plants and wildlife.”

6th July

Hours 6,625 to 6,629

(3h) processing the Jamaica photos in Capture One Pro on my main computer.

(1½h) watching and then writing up the review of the Karl Taylor “Working to a Brief: Assignment 9 – Saw Advert” as follows:

Good points:

  • Composition and angle of view, correct and on spec
  • Saw sharp front to back
  • Logo nicely visible
  • Saw clearly the hero of the piece.

Could be better:

  • Not enough sawdust – Karl couldn’t see any.
  • Gradient lighting on blade, good but could be higher up and focuses on the logo
  • Handle lighting could be more 3 dimensional – perhaps use some back lighting
  • gradient lighting on background needed to be more dramatic.

In the best entry, the author had rim lit the saw to make the saw and teeth in particular stand out from the background.

Top tip from Karl: first get the composition right, lock all the components down with clamps, then experiment with lighting and make adjustments as necessary.

The most common problem amongst other entries was over use of photoshop making the images look “cartoonish”. Elements had obviously been put together and lacked interaction.

(½h) YouTube:

5th July

Hour 6,624

(1h) transferring images from my laptop to main computer

4th July

Hours 6,621 to 6,623

(½h) shooting high key and ICM images on the beach.

(1½h) editing the images shot.

(1h) editing the Groomsmen Throwing Hats image below.

3rd July

Hours 6,616 to 6,620

(2h) reviewing, further culling and initially processing the 197 images I uploaded to my laptop yesterday.

(1h) selecting and importing another 185 images from yesterday. c. 3,500 exposures whittled down to 382 imported, then 152 after the next cull.

(2h) further culling and processing the last set of imports, and the reviewing the set as a whole.

2nd July

Hours 6,610 to 6,615

(2h) updating my “Surrealist Photography” post mainly with references to who I consider to be the …

6½ key painters:

  1. René Magritte
  2. Salvador Dalí
  3. Jean Miro
  4. Marcel Duchamp
  5. Man Ray
  6. Dorothea Tanning
  7. (Picasso)

and 4 key photographers:

  1. Man Ray
  2. Dora Maar
  3. Storm Thorgerson
  4. Brook Shaden

(3h) shooting Mark and Sarah’s wedding.

(1h) initial selection of shots i.e., which ones out of a few thousand to upload to the computer.

1st July

Hours 6,606 to 6,609

(1h) shooting on the beach first thing in the morning.

(1h) editing images from yesterday evening and this morning using Capture One Pro.

(1h) editing this journal including the new month admin.

(½h) test shots and planning tomorrow’s shoot.

(½h) reviewing the test shots and further planning.

(June 2022)