June 2021

This journal records the detail of my actual time studying fine art photography through 10,000 hours deliberate practice.

Hours 5,289 to 5,390.

(July 2021)

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30^th June

Hours 5,388 to 5,390

(½h) processing yesterday’s images from Stoke Common. Looking for a better aesthetic that can be applied across a panel.

(1h) processing images from the last week, including the following.

(1½h) very good YouTubes:

• Capture One Pro “One Photo Four Ways”
• Sotheby’s: “Summer Season Exhibition” excellent discussion of work by some of the most famous painters plus a few that were new to me and some ideas for photography projects:
  • Peter Doig – living English painter who spent a lot of time in Canada
  • Peter Lanyon – modernist Cornish landscape painter who aimed to capture the essence of the weather. Influenced by Ben Nicholson and Barbara Hepworth, then Rothko (who he met in New York). Became the leading figure in the St Ives Group. Died in a gliding accident.

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29^th June

Hours 5,382 to 5,387

(2h) finishing and publishing the “Spring 2021” post.

(1½h) rewatching the Tom Nicholas videos initially viewed on the 27^th and updating the notes below that day’s entry.

(½h) watching and writing up the Karl Taylor video: “How to photograph cosmetics on a black gloss backdrop”:

• lot of use of scrims to produce gentle diffuse lighting
• pico-lites to highlight individual elements.

(1h) writing, in its entirety, the “AFIAP – Artist FIAP” post.

(1h) evening shoot Stoke Common.

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28^th June

Hours 5,379 to 5,381

(1h) collecting top 10 images for, and working on, the “Spring 2021” post.

(2h) watching the Karl Taylor Review of the “Shooting to a Brief – Challenge #5 Coca-cola”. Comments on my image below:

Karl’s comments:

• Shooting angle too exaggerated
• Makes can look too squat
• General mood though quite good, product certainly heroic, just too much.

My comments from the 15^th: position of subjects, particularly the bottle doesn’t match the brief; can and glass not properly sharp front-to-back, should have focus stacked; gradient lighting on the can less than optimal.

General comments from Karl:

• beware lighting from below – “horror” lighting which looks very unnatural.

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27^th June

Hours 5,377 to 5,378

(1h) processing variations of the Glass Wreaths for the Thames Valley Heartbeat charity.

(1h) YouTube from Tom Nicholas:

• “The Frankfurt School: From a Failed Revolution to a Critical Theory“
  • Stage Theory of History
    • Marxist theory based on pure economic theory
    • communism is the logical next step after capitalism as the working class recognise that they are being exploited and rise up against it
  • Critical Theory
    • more wholistic theory encompassing influences from multiple academic fields including sociology and human psychology
    • more cynical about the likelihood of a communist revolution
    • holds that capitalism has a stabilising rather than destabilising impact on society
  • closed down under the Nazi regime and forced to flee first to Switzerland then the USA
  • concludes with a warning about the trend to social uniformity and the suppression of individuality.
• “An Introduction to Modernism“
  • roughly 1900-1950ish
  • “modern” = better (objectively so) than what came before
  • no single art, style or political movement; includes impressionism and cubism; capitalism and socialism
  • art, pre-modern was concerned with the service of one’s deity or documenting (usually in a subjective fashion)
• “An Introduction to Postmodernism“
  • post-world war 2, scepticism towards “fascism”, “communism”, and various other “ism”s
  • Jean-Francois Lyotard defines postmodernism as “incredulity towards meta-narratives”, i.e., the modernist view that “modern” objectively makes things better, and that the “ism”s represent a path to nirvana
  • also draws heavily on the work of Ludwig Wittgenstein and language games that differentiate between truth as defined by reference to reality and truth as defined by the language used to represent that reality. Example, legal case law.

[Needs rewatching.]

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26^th June

Hours 5,375 to 5,376

(1h) toning and colour balancing yesterday’s glass sculpture images which were primarily shot using natural light which seemed to vary significantly image to image.

(1h) processing images from the last week and updating this journal.

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25^th June

Hours 5,370 to 5,374

(½h) YouTube: Lindsay Ellis: “Death of the Author” a refutation of Bathes’ essay on the basis that the ‘Brand of the Author’ exists in paratext that contextualises a work and legitimises authorial intent.

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24^th June

Hours 5,365 to 5,369

(1h) writing up this journal, mainly notes from yesterday’s YouTubes.

(1h) at the Banksy exhibition in London.

(1h) shooting head and shoulders business portrait of my goddaughter.

(2h) processing the above images.

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23^rd June

Hours 5,360 to 5,364

(1½h) YouTube:

• Sean Tucker (feat. Simon Baxter): “Finding Great Photos Locally“
• Ted Forbes: “Good artists copy, great artists steal? Uh…“
  • “cover bands” will never create work as important as that of the original artists
  • my note: Isaac Newton said: “If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants”; Ted introduces the concept of consolidators and innovators:
    • consolidators: typically come towards the end of an artistic period and create work that is the epoch of that era, e.g., J.S Bach in the Baroque period (1600-1750)
    • innovators: the influencers of an artistic period, a break from the past, e.g., Mozart and the Classical period (1730-1820)
• YaleCourses: “Semiotics and Structuralism” – fairly dry lecture
  • semiotics is precursor to structuralism in the theory of literature and communication in general
  • basics such as the “signified” (subject in real life) and the “signifier” (subject in language)
  • “Langue” commonly agreed collection of all signifiers in a particular cultural context
  • “Parole” signifiers used by a single author to communicate, usually a subset of the Langue
  • founding theorist, Ferdinand de Saussure
  • [needs rewatching and/ or complementing for a full understanding].

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22^nd June

Hours 5,356 to 5,359

(1h) writing the following notes from yesterday’s YouTubes:

Structuralism:

• categorisation, e.g., genre and the expectations this implies
• elements of each genre and expectations relating to these elements
• relationship to previous works

Post-Structuralism:

• greater appreciation of the role of the viewer and the context in which they view the work
• less certainty as to the intent of the author.

(2h) shooting Glass Sculptures for Thames Valley Heartbeat charity.

(1h) processing the above images.

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21^st June

Hours 5,354 to 5,355

(½h) transferring images from laptop to main computer as per the “Second Revision: Workflow at 2,000 Hours” post (which by the way needs updating. Some reworking as masks from Capture One adjustment layers were lost. Perhaps due to different versions of the software one the two computers.

(1h) philosophy YouTube relating to the Roland Barthes ‘Camera Lucida’ that I’m currently reading:

• WTF: “Structuralism and Semiotics: Saussure, Lévi-Strauss and Barthes“
• WTF: “Post Structuralism: Jacques Derrida, Roland Barthes and Judith Butler“
• WTF: “Barthes, ‘Death of an Author’ explained” – analysis of the seminal essay that minimises the role of an author relative to the linguistic and cultural environment from which the reader/ viewer interpreted their work.

[All merit rewatching.]

(½h) writing up this journal.

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20^th June

Hours 5,352 to 5,353

(½h) early morning forest shoot.

(½h) processing these images.

(1h) updating this journal and the “Spring 2021” post.

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19^th June

Hour 5,351

(1h) processing images from earlier in the week.

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18^th June

Hours 5,349 to 5,350

(1h) early morning street photography in York.

(½h) updating this journal.

(½h) working on the “Spring 2021” post.

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17^th June

Hours 5,347 to 5,348

(½h) working on the “Spring 2021” post.

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16^th June

Hours 5,345 to 5,346

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15^th June

Hours 5,341 to 5,344

(1h) finalising my entry for the Karl Taylor Education Coca-cola challenge. The following has many failing but I have no time to reshoot it before tomorrow’s deadline.

Failings of the above image:

• positioning of subjects in the frame doesn’t completely match the brief
• rotation of the can and, particularly, the bottle are not optimal to show the logos tubes effect
• lighting on can is not the “gradient” specified
• can, which is the main subject, not sharp front to back; more than a little soft at the front, particularly at the bottom of the can
• right side of glass is a little messy.

Good points:

• condensation on can, and glass
• heroic positioning of can in frame
• gradient lighting on background
• backlighting of the liquid in the glass
• overall feel and tonality of the image.

(1h) updating this journal – mainly with images from the last few days.

(1h) reviewing comments from Yin Wong about my latest horse photo; in general considered an improvement on previous attempts.

Initial Image	…..	Yin’s Comments	…..	Revised Image
		Lovely and sharp eye on left. Not sure of right eye?
		Does not work for me. Looks like a hooligan horse!		x
		Too much hair (mane) on right. Possibly crop off the right.
		Would be nice if we could see more of the head.( Try portrait mode rather than square mode here).
		Crop square format to omit white mane.
		Left white triangle does not work for me.		x
		No nothing.		x
		Yes. Like it a lot.
		Yes. Like it but not as much as previous image
		Yes. Possibly be improved by cropping on the right.
		Like it. Possible crop the right. Try Portrait mode rather than square. Show the nose if you have one with the horse’s nose.
		Don’t fancy the scar beneath the eye and grass stalks. They distract and spoils the image		x
		Horse eye is down. Better if the eye is looking up

(1h) creating a draft “Spring 2021” post.

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14^th June

Hours 5,336 to 5,340

(3h) processing Lottie’s exotic animal images.

(1h) shooting Thames Valley Heartbeat presenting a public access defibrillator to the Stag pub in Wexham, including a local councillor.

(1h) processing the above images.

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13^th June

Hours 5,331 to 5335

(½h) updating this journal.

(1h) further processing of yesterday’s images of gypsy ponies in Gray’s Field.

(1h) shooting my goddaughter’s (Lottie’s) exotics.

(2h) culling the above 635 images to 28, sending to Lottie for initial selection.

(½h) sending the Gypsy horses and Lottie’s Exotic animals to my friend and mentor, Yin Wong, for feedback.

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12^th June

Hours 5,329 to 5,330

(½h) updating this journal.

(½h) shooting the illegally grazing horses at Grays Field.

(1h) culling and initially processing the above images – some of which I’m currently quite pleased with.

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11^th June

Hours 5,327 to 5,328

(2h) YouTube:

• Star Arts: “The Real Rembrandt” why was Rembrandt so important and what separates the real thing from the countless forgeries
• “Damien Hirst at Tate Modern“
• Southerby’s Expert Voices: “From Picasso to Motherwell: A Singular Vision of 20th Century Artistic Innovation“
• San Francisco Museum of Modern Art: “Ellsworth Kelly on Abstraction” interview with the artist
• NewYorkMakers: “A Conversation with Ellsworth Kelly and Agnes Gund“

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10^th June

Hours 5,323 to 5,326

(½h) updating this journal.

(1h) YouTube:

• Great Art Explained: “Judith Beheading Holofernes by Artemisia Gentileschi” powerful feminist painting from the 1600s revenge for sexual assault
• Heni Talks: “Bridget Riley: The Art of Perception” Op Art exhibition viewed on 7^th November 2019
• Tate Shots: “Agnes Martin: Beauty is in Your Mind” title comes from the artist showing her niece a rose, then holding behind her back and asking if it is still beautiful
  • the repetition in her paintings is like rhythm in music
  • depiction of pure emotion

(2h) Amersham Photographic Society Mono Group my images below:

Image		Comments
	…..	“Month Old Foal” Considered quite strong but it was suggested that better images should be possible particularly of details of the animal.
		“Magdalen Street Exeter” Good the way elements of the image are displayed in their own squares within the railing. Could possibly lose the intruding railing arm on the left.
		“The Ancient Mariner” A dramatic image, but one that will be forever dammed as a photograph of somebody else’s art.

(½h) updating this journal.

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9^th June

Hours 5,321 to 5,322

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8^th June

Hours 5,314 to 5,320

(½h) updating this journal – mainly dealing with images from yesterday.

(1h) drafting a new front page for this journal.

(1½h) shooting and processing images of Harley for a birthday card for Fran. I was working under time pressure and he really didn’t want to be photographed.

(1h) YouTube

(2h) Stoke Poges Photographic Club – Lecture “Odd Things” by Diane Seddon, loads of creative images.

(1h) making the first version of the Karl Taylor Education challenge: Working to a Photography Brief – Assignment #5.

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7^th June

Hours 5,308 to 5,313

(2h) shooting glass window pendants for the Thames Valley Heartbeat charity

(1h) at the Amersham Photographic Society reviewing the winning images for the season.

(1h) processing the TVH images including the window triptych below.

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6^th June

Hours 5,305 to 5,307

(3h) shooting the Karl Taylor Education challenge: Working to a Photography Brief – Assignment #5.

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5^th June

Hours 5,302 to 5,304

(1h) setting up the initial shot for the Karl Taylor Education challenge: Working to a Photography Brief – Assignment #5.

(1h) YouTube:

• The Art of Photography: “Is this a creative rut?” – dealing with obstacles in one’s photographic journey – obstacles or unplanned life changes can often be a stimulus for creativity – positivity is everything, even when bad things happen
• Gary Gough: “Golden rule of Landscape Photography Hartland Quays Devon“
• Think Big: “The Neuroscience of Creativity, Perception, and Confirmation Bias“
  • creativity involves opening oneself up to uncertainty by looking at things in a different way. The human psychology has developed to avoid uncertainty, such that this causes us discomfort and sniffles creativity.
  • expanding creativity is to consider different, often conflicting, viewpoints and thus create the uncertainty that we find so uncomfortable.
  • but … the mind can only move in small steps: great breakthroughs are usually the culmination of a series of incremental steps by the creative over a long period of time, that are seen by the observer as a single leap of brilliance.

(1h) reading Camera Lucida.

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4^th June

Hours 5,299 to 5,301

(1h) preparing for call with Chris Palmer FRPS for an informal “steer” regarding my potential Stoke Common Trees ARPS panel.

(1h) informal, but detailed and very helpful zoom meeting with Chris. “Still a long way to go”:

• be careful that I fit a genre Landscape is about mood and sense of place, not man’s interaction with the environment, that’s documentary
• some images are just not up to A standard
• processing needs to be done more sensitively, in particular don’t bring the black point in too far.

(1h) FIAP salon submission.

(½h) updating this journal.

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3^rd June

Hours 5,293 to 5,298

(3h) processing images from the recent trip to Exeter.

(2h) YouTube including:

• The Art of Photography: “Why most people don’t succeed at their passion” – everything comes at a cost and “most opportunities arrive dressed in overalls”
• Jamie Windsor: “Roland Barthes’ Problem with Photography” – I’ve bought the book “Camera Lucida” which defines the essence of photography:
  • Studium – shared understanding of what a photo is about – objectively understood – cultural/ linguistic/ political
  • Punctum – the, often incidental, element of the image that resonates with a viewer – a personal meaning, unrelated to any cultural code – entirely subjective and personal to the viewer
• The Photographic Eye: “The vital skill all photographers must master” – stop comparing yourself to others, judge progress only against yourself.

(1h) updating this journal with images and completing the new month admin that couldn’t be done remotely.

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2^nd June

Hours 5,290 to 5,292

(½h) shooting in Exeter.

(1h) creating the following composite (shot on 31^st May):

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1^st June

Hours 5,289

(½h) shooting in Exeter City centre.

(½h) updating this journal including start of month admin.

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(May 2021)