This journal records the detail of my mastery of fine art photography through 10,000 hours deliberate practice:
Hours 9,019 to 9,107
30th September 2024
Hours 9,104 to 9,107
(2h) “9,000 Hours – Review at 90%” post
(1h) creating the “Salt Pan” above and “Layers of Salt Pan” right for the 46th Amersham Beyond challenge: “Nature as Abstract Art”
(1h) at the Amersham Photographic Society – talk by Peter Lillywhite ‘In the wake of Shackleton’ about his recent trip to Antarctica. Interesting but not entirely about photography.
Interesting discussion with Laurie Turner about my Statement of Intent, which he felt said a lot about the history of the Surrealists but lacked focus about my personal motives for reinterpreting this work. The danger being that I could be accused of merely copying Magritte’s painting
29th September 2024
Hour 9,103
(½h) preparing prints for this Wednesday’s Amersham Coffee meeting
(½h) updating “Mysteries of the Horizon”, right
28th September 2024
Hours 9,101 to 9,102
(1h) Art Documentary: “Anselm Kiefer: Remembering the Future“
(1h) editing and processing last week’s street photos including “Constructing Mire Lee” below
27th September 2024
Hour 9,100
(1h) editing and processing the street images shot yesterday, including “Blue Poles” below (title stolen from Jackson Pollock but my poles are bluer)
26th September 2024
Hours 9,096 to 9,099
(½h) updating this journal
(½h) updating the “Magritte Poster”, left, on the basis of comments made by Laurie Turner yesterday
(½h) updating my Statement of Intent
(1h) at the British Art Fare, held in the Saatchi Gallery
(1h) at the Tate Modern including revisiting “The Expressionists” exhibition
(½h) street photography, mainly in Waterloo Underground Station and the Tate, including “Window Exhibition” right and “Inside the Machine” below
25th September 2024
Hours 9,091 to 9,095
(½h) worrying about and preparing to change the Memories of Nefertiti image below where the post, running down the right edge of the picture, appears to change colour (brightness) in line with the horizon. This seems to be an anomaly of how the collage was photographed. Viewed directly, no such change occurs. No change to the underlying image was made
(1½h) at the Amersham Coffee meeting, mainly reviewing my collection of Magritte inspired images with a view to producing a Fellowship panel in the contemporary category
Many images such as the eyes (“Sunny”/ “Stormy”) and “Maison Lumières”, were deemed just not suitable
In others, technical defects were identified
(1h) updating the “Kissing Like Magritte” image, right
(1h) working on a Statement of Intent for this submission
(1h) at the Amersham colour group where my “Memories of Nefertiti” collage was roundly applauded – I don’t think they were just being polite, but that is always a risk
24th September 2024
Hours 9,088 to 9,090
(1h) preparing PDIs for this week’s Amersham Mono group; and, on behalf of the Stoke Poges Photographic Club, next week’s North West Fed competition that we are hosting. In both cases using the suite of Photoshop Actions that I have developed for batch processing of such images
(2h) Stoke Poges Photographic Club – the first ever Edwina Chown Cup for photographs shot within 5 miles of the village hall where the club meets
23rd September 2024
Hours 9,084 to 9,087
(½h) updating this journal
(1½h) creating a collage, left, of my Magritte inspired “Memories of Nefertiti” composite using 3 different paper types:
- Hahnemuhle Photorag for the statue, wall and sky
- Hahnemuhle Baryta for the sea, wooden post and leaf
- Metallic for the orb, large splatter of blood and small drop of blood
I think it works reasonably well but I shall take it to the Amersham Colour Group on Wednesday for a second opinion
(2h) Amersham Photographic Society – talk by Steve Smith on Christmas celebrations in Cuba. This centres around a huge but crude firework display involving thousands of primitive rockets fired from vast racks in the street, resulting in lots of smoke and balls of fire going in random directions. Many award winning colour images, plus monos, shot on separate occasions using digital or medium format film, which formed the basis of his two RPS fellowship panels
22nd September 2024
Hours 9,081 to 9,083
(2h) creating the revised version of the Son of Man image right, based on Magritte’s 1964 painting of the same name
- main change is to the apple which has been tidied up; specifically the leaves where missing sections have been filled and brown areas replaced
- some anomalies around the hat and face have been corrected
- raindrops have been added to the sections of the coat which were previously dry, e.g., the reversed left elbow
(1h) creating “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?”, left, for the season’s “Book or Poem Title” set subject competiton at the Stoke Poges Photographic Club
21st September 2024
Hours 9,079 to 9,080
(1h) producing PDIs for the Flobecq salon which entailed creating a new 2560x2560px photoshop action
(1h) working on the “9,000 Hours – 90% Review” post and updating a couple of others, which were being reviewed
20th September 2024
Hour 9,078
(1h) reorganising my Magritte images and preparing for printing
19th September 2024
Hours 9,074 to 9,077
(½h) shooting and then …
(½h) processing “Old 12 Speed Casette”, left, for the forthcoming SPPC competition on the subject of “Bicycle or Motorbike Parts” set subject competition
(1h) preparing images for the Stoke Poges Photographic Club’s new Edith Chown Cup competition where images must have beem taken with 5 miles of the village hall
(2h) Amersham PiC Group meeting
18th September 2024
Hours 9,071 to 9,073
(½h) shooting and then …
(1h) processing and creating the following “Driving Success” image for the Stoke Poges “Bicycle or Motorbike Parts” set subject competition in a few weeks time
(1h) at the Amersham Coffee meeting
(½h) writing up this journal
Reading (actually listening to) Chapter 17 of Mark Fisher’s “Ghosts of My Life”:
“Surrealist painting has one dominant characteristic: a glassy isolation, as if all the objects in the landscapes had been drained of the emotional associations, the accretions of sentiment and common usage”
J.G. Ballard’s 1966 Essay, “Coming of the Unconscious”
17th September 2024
Hours 9,065 to 9,070
(1h) updating this journal, mainly with notes from yesterday’s talk by Tom Way
(2h) at the excellent “Fragile Beauty” exhibition of the photographs collected by Elton John and David Furnish at the Victoria & Albert Museum – mainly portraiture
(1h) creating a new version of Magritte’s “Modéle Rouge”, right
(2h) Stoke Poges Photographic Club – talk by Lloyd Moore, “The Art of Story Telling”
“Leaving the V&A” below, shot on my iPhone as my most readily available camera when I saw the scene
16th September 2024
Hours 9,062 to 9,064
Woke up thinking about using Sony’s Image Edge Mobile
(½h) updating this journal, mainly with images from Tim’s Ultra Marathon
(½h) fiddling with the Magritte feet image – this really needs completely reworking; which will be an interesting test to see if my technique has improved over the past two and a half years
(2h) Amersham Photographic Society – excellent talk by Tom Way – “African Safaris” – he sees himself as a wildlife portrait photographer:
- simple front lit pictures sell best – although strong side lighting can exaggerate character, and backlighting pleases other photographers
- light, composition and character more important than the rarity of the species or behaviour (to him, not necessarily competition judges) – shoot for yourself
- shoot from a low angle to both emphasise the majesty of the animal and to simplify the background
15th September 2024
Hours 9,060 to 9,061
(1½h) editing and processing the Ultra photos shot yesterday
(½h) preparing prints for the Amersham Coffee meeting on Wednesday and the Flobecq Salon
14th September 2024
Hour 9,059
(½h) updating this journal
(½h) shooting a friend running the Thames Path 100km Ultra Marathon – image relayed to supporters via direct transfer to iPhone then WhatsApp
13th September 2024
Hours 9,057 to 9,058
(1h) identifying images for SPPC externals
(½h) creating the following version of the “September Fantasy” image following yesterday’s comments from the Amersham Mono Group
(½h) updating this journal
12th September 2024
Hours 9,052 to 9,056
(½h) updating this journal and Flickr site
(1h) creating the images below, a slightly coloured version of the original with a shadow on added to the box on the wall to show its 3 dimensional prominence from the rest of the wall. Now called “September Fantasy” to suggest back-to-school
and one in mono, which I had printed and took to the Amersham Mono group
(1½h) sorting images for the Stoke Poges Photographic Club’s entry into external competitions
(2h) Amersham Mono Group where the above image was critiqued – generally liked but the white inside of her coat was deemed to be too white and to have lost the texture that was visible in the colour versions
11th September 2024
Hours 9,050 to 9,052
(1h) creating a combined version of the “Son of Man” image – which is my best version to date
(2h) at the Amersham Coffee meeting where my images were discussed (comments below), along with Laurie Turner’s workshop on Monday
| Image | ….. | Comment |
 | Currently untitled “Friends tells friends never to do spot colour” Need to bring back a little colour in the background | |
 | “Pinstripes” Considered a potential competition image | |
 | “The Passenger” There was some confusion as to what this was an image of, let alone about. Which disqualifies it as a competition image – I still like it in terms of composition | |
 | “Hassan and Oryx” Oryx is perhaps slightly too sharp and distracting | |
 | “The Distorted Voice of Space” Nobody knew the Magritte original which is a general problem for the accessibility of my series of recreations | |
 | “Insight” Again nobody knew Magritte’s, 1935, The Portrait, painting which inspired this image (along with the success of my “Magritte Hat Pipe Flower & Cloud“) |
10th September 2024
Hours 9,048 to 9,049
(1h) updating this journal, mainly with notes and reflections from yesterday’s APS talk
Not to be confused with the philosophy of Mark Fisher and his book of the same name; “Capitalist Realism”, as an art term, refers to the Berlin-based movement of the 1960s expressing their unique position between the Soviet Realism of the East and Pop-Art of the West
(1h) at the Stoke Poges Photographic Club – interesting following the post-processing workflow of Ken Grant, a professional photographer and highly competent photoshop user
9th September 2024
Hours 9,046 to 9,047
(2h) Amersham Photographic Society – talk/ workshop by Laurie Turner: “Wonderful Images: the Art of Composition”
This essentially boils down to:
- decide the objective; what the image is about rather than what it is of
- work out how to deliver this in the clearest way; with fewest distractions and maximum simplification
This is the same principle as writing clear concise text
Left me feeling unsatisfied as this does not work for abstract art – also the element of intrigue was missing. A good image commands the viewer’s attention
8th September 2024
Hours 9,044 to 9,045
(2h) starting the “9,000 Hours – 90% Review” post
7th September 2024
Hours 9,039 to 9,043
(1h) finishing and publishing my “Summer 2024” post
(2h) shooting the Stoke Poges Village Market – Organising Committee, right
(2h) editing and processing the day’s images
6th September 2024
Hours 9,035 to 9,038
(½h) creating and ordering prints for next Wednesday’s Amersham Coffee meeting
(½h) creating the following “Climate Change” variation of the previous Damaraland Grasses which might work as a PDI making it look like a torn image as it will be surrounded in black with an incomplete keyline so that the torn areas blend in with the background
(2h) working on the “Summer 2024” post, including finalising the selection of top 10 images and creating the cover image
(½h) collating the rest of the time data for the “After 9,000 Hours – 90% Review“
(½h) preparing for tomorrow’s shoot at the first ever Stoke Poges Village Market
5th September 2024
Hours 9,033 to 9,034
(2h) creating the, temporarily named, “August 2024”, above which started as a mono conversion of a derelict building shot in Riga a few days ago. I thought it might make an interesting backdrop for a CosPlay model, e.g., shot at ComicCon last year. I think it works better with just the legs, and the shadow suggesting the rest of the image
4th September 2024
Hours 9,029 to 9,032
(1h) entering the Flobecq print salon in Belgium
(1h) Amersham Coffee meeting discussing, inter alia, the images in the catalogue of last year’s Smethwick salon – this also being largely print based
(2h) updating the August 2024 journal page, adding images from Riga
3rd September 2024
Hours 9,026 to 9,028
(1h) updating this journal with images from Riga
(1h) adding the tear to “Insight”, right
(1h) Stoke Poges Photographic Club including long discussions with a potential new member, Rick Moore who has a lot of experience
2nd September 2024
Hours 9,023 to 9,025
(1h) early morning street photography in Riga:
- “Riga Contre Jour”, left
- “First Day of Term Riga”, below
(1h) editing and processing the morning’s images
(1h) at the Amersham Photographic Society where each of the sub-groups presented the best images from the previous season – inspiration stuff
1st September 2024
Hours 9,019 to 9,022
(1h) early morning street photography in Riga, “Beyond the Art Nouveau Quarter”, above. I like the woman leaning out of the window, smoking a cigarette and looking at her phone as the world passes by in the street
(2h) at the Latvian National Museum of Art, including at least 5 minutes sitting directly opposite and appreciating the massive 8x10m painting by Andris Eglitis which was commissioned or the opera Hamlet by Janis Kalnins, below. The Eglitis exhibition continued in the basement as “Some Encounters of Imagination and
Matter”
(1h) editing and processing the day’s images
New artists:
- Andris Eglītis, born 1981 in Latvia, exhibition “Some Encounters of Imagination and Matter”
- Jānis Deinats, photographer, “The First Five Years”, documentary of the period before Latvian independence