July 2023

This journal records the detail of how I’m mastering photography through ten thousand hours deliberate practice

Hours 7,767 to 7,854

(August 2023)

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31^st July

Hours 7,850 to 7,854

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30^th July

Hours 7,845 to 7,849

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29^th July

Hours 7,840 to 7,844

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28^th July

Hours 7,837 to 7,839

(½h) research ahead of visit to the RA Summer Exhibition and TATE “Capturing the Moment” (CtM) exhibition (again) next week, particularly:

• Gerhard Richter
• Andreas Gurskey
• Lucian Freud and Francis Bacon
• Paula Rego
• Cicily Brown – “Broken Lullaby” Denver Art Museum & “Trouble in Paradise” CtM, both unsettling by suggesting violence toward women in a sexual context
• Jeff Wall & Katsushika Hokusai – the former’s “A Sudden Gust of Wind (After Hokusai)”, CtM, being a photographic recreation of the latter’s “Travellers Caught in a Sudden Breeze at Ejiri”

(½h) planning a homage to Gerhard Richter “Two Candles” photo

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27^th July

Hours 7,835 to 7,836

(½h) identifying images for the 3 sections of the Amersham Exhibition

Images to be submitted as follows;

• Main section – 29^th August – between 8-9pm at the Community Centre bar ( as in previous years)
• Mono – 10^th August – live meeting
• Beyond Group – TBC

(1h) Further YouTubes:

• National Gallery: “Picasso and Rodin: Facing Abstraction | After Impressionism” – an exhibition I visited on 27^th April this year
• The Canvas: “The Painter Who Grieved Through His Art” – story of Danish painter L.A. Ring who after losing most of his family painted death in such an intimate manner that one may trace his grief through his art
• PhotoshopCAFE: “New Photoshop gradients on masks to instantly blend images”
• Contemporary Art Issue: “5 Upcoming Young Artists Today” as ranked by Art Facts – mainly sculptural installations:
  1. Julian Charrière
  2. Oscar Murillo
  3. Tabita Rezaire
  4. Martine Syms
  5. Jumana Manna
• Sean Tucker: “Finding yourself through Photography (feat. Ian Howorth)” – photographer of liminal space
• Tate: “Why haven’t I heard of the artist Hilma af Klint?” – well actually I had even before I saw the exhibition, with Piet Mondrian, that this is promoting

New concepts:

• Liminal Space – literally: where a person is during a time of transition – aesthetically: typically empty spaces that appear eerie, forlorn or surreal
• Internet Aesthetic – a new genre, e.g., liminal space, which is created and popularised by internet enabled social media.

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26^th July

Hours 7,833 to 3,834

(1h) researching how to send an image from the a1 to my iPhone, which is actually really easy and precisely what I wanted. Essentially:

1. Go to image review on the camera, find the image you want to send (or one of them)
2. Press the Fn button (with the send to phone diagram helpfully next to it)
3. Open the IME (Imaging Edge Mobile) App on the phone – press “connect”
   
   It all magically happens.

(1h) watching the Mark Galen YouTube “Sony Alpha Menus A to Z: Focus Area“

I did not previously fully appreciate that the “Expanded Spot” focus system first looks for a point to focus on in the spot area, but if it cannot find line of sufficient contrast to grab focus, looks in the outer zone.

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25^th July

Hours 7,830 to 7,832

(1h) creating a new, experimental version of Magritte’s False Mirror eye image.

(1h) Altering images and adjusting the layout of Lottie & Darwin’s main wedding album with the groom and bride’s mother. Then ordering a new version.

(1h) working on the “Setting up the a1” post.

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24^th July

Hours 7,828 to 7,829

(1h) totally finishing and committing to manufacture the “Director’s Cut” of Lottie and Darwin’ wedding album.

(1h) creating the, slightly spooky, clouds in the eye image below from the eyes shot on Sunday. Currently not sure what I think of this.

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23^th July

Hours 7,824 to 7,827

(1h) creating an image that we didn’t shoot at Lottie and Darwin’s wedding of the bride’s immediate family with the groom.

(2h) creating mono images for the “Director’s Cut” album.

(1h) processing the images shot yesterday: a family group shot and several shots of the children’s eyes that I intend to use in composites, like Magritte’s, “False Mirror”, clouds in the eye painting.

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22^nd July

Hours 7,822 to 7,823

(1h) creating mono images for the “Director’s Cut” version of Lottie and Darwin’s wedding album.

(1h) shooting some family portraits and specifically some shots of the children’s eyes for use in future composite (obviously with the permission of the parents).

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21^st July

Hours 7,820 to 7,821

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20^th July

Hours 7,818 to 7,819

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19^th July

Hours 7,814 to 7,817

Woke up this morning thinking about the use of LAB colour vs RGB; presumably anxious about my one-2-one with Paul Mitchell later this morning where I may have to justify my use of this colour space. Which, quite reasonably, may be considered a ludicrous over complication.

In low light, when my prospective A panel was shot, the human eye relies more on rods than cones, whereas the digital camera has only the equivalent of cones. My theory therefore:

“In low light conditions a scene seen though a digital viewfinder will appear more colourful than it does when viewed directly.”

Theory for testing -19 July 2023

(½h) creating the mono version of the Field Abstract Panel shot over the weekend. Mono conversion made in Lightroom.

(½h) updating this journal

(1h) One-2-One session with Paul Mitchell FRPS discussing my revised A Panel.

(2h) working on the Director’s Cut of Lottie and Darwin’s Wedding album.

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18^th July

Hours 7,809 to 7,813

(5h) working on the Director’s Cut images from Lottie and Darwin’s Wedding.

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17^th July

Hours 7,805 to 7,808

(½h) updating this journal

(½h) review of the images shot over the weekend

(1h) YouTube:

• The Mindful Art: “Surreal Photography by Karl Roberts“
• i3: Images, Ideas, Inspiration: “A Talk By Surreal Photographer Brooke DiDonato” – inspirational.

(1h) creating the panel of images from the abstract field images shot on Saturday (2 days ago)

(1h) working on the Director’s Cut images from Lottie and Darwin’s Wedding.

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16^th July

Hour 7,804

(1h) early morning street photography in Abingdon. Practice using the new camera settings. In particular the burst mode function assigned to the button on the lends and the alternative focus zone that the red record button toggles through.

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15^th July

Hour 7,803

(1h) shooting abstract landscapes from towpath in Wallingford whilst on a boating weekend on the Thames. The goal was to shoot a series which are very similar in format so that the differences are highlighted.

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14^th July

Hour 7,802

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13^th July

Hours 7,798 to 7,801

Notes about the above image from yesterday: although the wider crop feels more balanced, as Laurie Turner explained yesterday, when thought of as a series of rectangular compositional elements, their positioning is “uncomfortable” due to there being the same distance between the window and the edge of the frame, and the width of the window.

(1h) working on some of the mono images for Lottie and Darwin’s wedding “Director’s Cut” album.

(2h) Amersham Mono group where the following images were presented:

Image	…..	Comment
		“Bluebells” A reflective/ meditative work where the subject is suggested rather than explicitly presented. Objective is to show the calm nature of the scene. It was suggested that the second twig, bottom middle, is removes and the image as a whole is cropped to make the first twig relatively larger.
		“Hidden Self Portrait” This was generally liked, at least to the point where my creativity and photoshop skills were admired. Requested to be part of the Mono group exhibition, also that it would be “fun” to see this entered into a competition.
		“Ashmolean Back Stairs” Where it is shot is actually irrelevant, the people sneaking out of the bottom right corner is the subject. Suggested that I: remove the person on the stairs behind, darken the bright light by this second person, and increase the contrast around the main subject.

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12^th July

Hours 7,794 to 7,797

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11^th July

Hours 7,792 to 7,793

(2h) experimenting with the object selection tool to create a better version of the “Movement in the Turbine Hall” image below. This is still a tedious process.

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10^th July

Hours 7,790 to 7,791

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9^th July

Hours 7,787 to 7,789

(1h) starting work on a man and dog composite for the SPPC Composite competition next season.

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8^th July

Hours 7,783 to 7,786

(2h) editing and processing yesterday’s eclectic batch of photos in Capture One Pro, then exporting to Lightroom.

(2h) processing yesterday’s images in photoshop and preparing these and others for printing for next Wednesday’s coffee meeting.

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7^th July

Hours 7,780 to 7,782

(½h) street photography at the Tate, shooting a varied collection of subjects

(½h) initial editing of the day’s shoot.

“Composition No. 1”

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6^th July

Hour 7,779

(1h) working on the “Setting up the A1” post whilst actually implementing some of the setting on the camera as I do so.

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5^th July

Hours 7,776 to 7,778

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4^th July

Hours 7,773 to 7,775

(½h) creating the following, Laurie’s crop, version of the Reflected Window image

“Reflected Window II”

Coincidentally, the diagonal line now divides the image almost perfectly in half, perhaps giving this element more prominence and improving the dynamics.

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3^rd July

Hours 7,771 to 7,772

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2^nd July

Hours 7,769 to 7,770

(½h) updating the Reflected Windows images on the suggestion, from Laurie Turner, that the image was previously a little unbalanced with too much of the white side.

(1½h) editing and processing yesterday’s Battersea Power Station photos in Capture One Pro.

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1^st July

Hours 7,767 to 7,768

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

(½h) street photography around Battersea Power Station London

(½h) editing the day’s photos.

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(June 2023)