Any evening that will involve ICM photography will have my vote – you all know this is one of my favourite styles of making photographs.
As in many other forms of art or music, it can sometimes fall to one particular person to push something to the fore and suddenly, it’s a thing! In the case of ICM, whilst it has been around for many years – 50 or so – much of the recent growth can be attributed to the person we were fortunate to have presenting to us this evening – Stephanie Johnson.
Stephanie hails from Iowa now but retains an affinity with the Chicago area. Her interest in photography, in general, flowered in the 1990s with film cameras. That time was spent mainly in California, with overseas travel added on.
The usual bits of life limited her opportunities in the landscape up to 2015. Then she said to herself, “It’s time to do more for me!” – a common thought I’m sure we’ve all had at some point!
In 2017, she discovered the creative possibilities of ICM photography and also found her perfect landscape location – Ireland. Some eight visits in 30 months saw Stephanie develop her style and she visited many UK locations and workshops.
It was clear to her that she had found something to give her inspiration and she stayed closer to home as she fine-tuned how she worked.
Finding little by way of other ICM users and a dearth of anything ICM-related on YouTube, in 2021, Stephanie went all in and decided to create a community for her passion – and so the ICM Photography magazine was born! It is online only and, in my opinion, an excellent resource with many talented photographers sharing some great images.
It is published four times a year and can have up to 300 pages! It is run by just Stephanie and her daughter and currently has around 900 or so subscribers.
Much of what Stephanie shared with us on our evening can be found in the copy of the presentation she has kindly made available to club members. But, for anyone else reading this, her main points are:
- There are no rules in ICM – you do not have to be in focus (well, maybe a bit close to it), you can use almost any lens – Stephanie prefers her 70-200, but any can work.
- It gives the photographer freedom to create – there are many ways to move the camera and the shutter speed can be brought into play.
- Pretty much no two images will be the same – the light is the key which, combined with the movement, will make every image different.
- It can be used in any location and in any conditions.
- Be prepared to take lots of images and experiment – try turning the camera upside down when taking multiple exposures, for example.
One big takeaway for me was that it allows you to keep going to the same locations time after time. You will always get something new with ICM.
In post-processing, whether it is on one image or a set from a multi-exposure that you’re working on, playing with the many Photoshop Blend Modes adds a further chance to create something different.
Pushing her ICM skills has also seen Stephanie blend multi-exposure and ICM images, where she is happy to try different post-processing techniques.
Meanwhile, with smartphones getting smarter every day, the potential for ICM and multi-exposure is growing with them.
On Android, it is Camera FV5 as her most useful app – but if it’s a Samsung, their in-house “Expert Raw” is pretty good. Apple has Slow Shutter Cam and Average Cam Pro for this kind of image making.
Smartphone edits are carried out in Lightroom – not Snapseed!
And just to show that Stephanie’s creative mind does not settle, her most recent works involve cyanotypes!
All this and more can be seen in the document that Stephanie has kindly shared with club members and I really hope you have downloaded it and enjoyed what you see!
Links to Stephanie’s work and the ICM magazine are as follows:
Thank you to Stephanie for a great evening and some truly fascinating ideas on image making and processing.
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