ICM Challenge - June 2023 - Long exposure. Charlotte Bellamy Photography

Welcome to the sixth of the 2023 ICM challenge publications. After last year’s massive success, I have decided to organise once again, an annual ICM challenge for my creative group.

I created this ICM challenge, to offer a friendly competition within the creative group I run for all previous course attendees and mentee students. It is to encourage interaction in the group and to offer a reason to share or make photos in reaction to a prompt. Each month in 2023, a new challenge subject will be set in the group. It may be interpreted however an individual wishes, but the ICM technique must be the overriding element in the image. I have chosen an outside judge for each challenge to offer a wide variety of feedback and varying outlooks on ICM photography.

This is a cumulative competition:

• Points 1- 10 are awarded for the top 10 placings each challenge. (1st place gaining 10 and 10th place 1)

• A point is awarded to every entrant to say thank you for submitting. In December there will be an online awards evening, with some small prizes, and to celebrate everyone’s achievements.

Long exposure

The long exposure challenge is now complete. This wonderful challenge was inspired by a wonderful presentation given to my creative group by Shona Perkins. I have always advocated that around ¼ of a second is a perfect shutter speed for ICM. However, since seeing Shon’s presentation, I am a slower shutter speed convert, and just love that she opened my eyes to other possibilities

Once again, a wonderful selection of images submitted, but I know this challenged some of the participants as it was a new technique to embrace – so congratulations to all that entered, and as always, a wonderfully diverse range of results for our wonderful judge to look through.

This challenge the entries were judged by Shona Perkins. I’ve been following Shona’s work for as long as I can remember. Her beautiful coastal seascapes evoke a wonderful sense of peace, tranquillity and beauty. I’ve always wondered how she captured these images with ICM, and her presentation to my group was enlightening and inspirational, so I was delighted when she agreed to judge this challenge. Shona can be found in various location online. Do please go and check her work out, and follow her and let her know if you took part in the challenge.

Please go and check out her website

https://mybeautifulscotland.com/ and Instagram

https://www.instagram.com/my_beautiful_scotland

If you are interested in online or in person courses, please check out my website for more info www.charlottebellamy.com

I also have a You tube channel https://www.youtube.com/c/CharlotteBellamycreativephotography/videos

Please email with any questions or comments Charlotte@charlottebellamy.com

Copyright remains with each of the photographers, please do not save in anyway the images from this document.

Without further ado – I would like to introduce you to your winners. Congratulations to the top 10.

Judge’s comments

The more I look at this image, the more I see. This really makes the eye linger and offers up an immense feeling of calm. I love the texture of the grass in the foreground and the light through the trees. The colour and tones are sublime and so vibrant with a beautiful composition which allows me to feel as if I am actually there – FABULOUS IMAGE!

Winner – Maureen Stuart

Runner up Steve Knight

Judges comment

Compositionally this is a strong image, but what makes it stand out to me is the skill and control in the movement required to create this, with what looks like very slight horizontal movement that hasn’t impacted the soft flow of the water. This image really draws you in.

Ania Rolinska

Judges comment

I love everything about this image!! The mood is palpable, it is intense!! The dark mono works really well and the texture adds to the mystery of this almost gothic like shot! Fantastic detail throughout! LOVE THIS!

4th Place

Sue Woodbridge

Judges comment - I immediately think of Sunflowers by Van Gogh – Beautiful image!

5th Place

Federica Morgan

Mary Seddon

7th Place

Debbie Christie

8th Place

9th Place

Birgitta Larsson

Valerie Huggins

Carol Sinclair

The other entries

Barbara McKenzie

Anne Kleff

Michelle Jackson

Malcolm Brown

Angie Robertson

Reiner Heisel

Lorraine Grey

Carol Hudson

Dawn Westwood

Margaret Stapper

Zoe Steel

Lou Sayers

Miriam Manners

Colin Smith

Charlie’s picks

This year I am going to pick a selection of images out of the challenge after the judging is complete

so these images will never be the same as the top 10. I just wanted to have the opportunity to recognise even more of the beautiful images. There is no t a set number each month, so some months you may see more in this section than others, especially if I agree with the judge on all their choices! These images all achieve a bonus 2 points.

I love this image for a number of reasons. Its colours, its beautiful ICM movement and the composition. I’ve been playing with light reflections on water recently and love the creative results you can achieve.

This month’s images are:

Christine Griffiths

I love the colours and energy, but also the composition, which give you a great feeling of the location. The ICM movement is playful and creative.

This image has a beautiful sense of peace and calm. The line of the estuary river running up through the image takes the eye beautifully. A lovely muted colour palette, a super capture of the light and gentle ICM all contributed to this being in my choices.

Joy Tracey

Annabel Foot

Jaana Kotoneva

This is an intriguing image. Every time I look at it, I see something new. The colour palette is beautiful and the figures have just enough detail that I know what they are, but not so much that the image is easy to read. It actually reminds me a little of the ‘potato eaters’ by Van Gogh. The ICM movement is lovely.