Abstract ICM Landscapes

Image Critiques Abstract Nature Critiques
1

I’m fairly new to NPN, and this is my first post for critique. I’ve been primarily focused on ICM (intentional camera movement) landscape work for about the past two years. I’ve taken tens of thousands of ICM frames and spent countless hours immersed in the landscape to do this work.

When I first got back into landscape photography about three years ago, after only having done it in spurts for many years, I became enthralled with photographing the landscapes of Ireland. I traveled to Ireland, from Iowa, more than a half dozen times just to photograph the amazing landscapes, and each time I would return to Iowa and feel less than inspired to even get my camera out of the bag.

Somewhere along the way, I was introduced to ICM, and I thought maybe that technique would help me find the inspiration and drive to get out to shoot where I am…rather than wait until I could take another trip to some more majestic landscape.

I began just getting out for walks along nature trails with my dog, carrying my camera and experimenting with different movements, speeds, and camera settings. That ended up leading me down a path I never really expected, and here I am two years later doing ICM work almost exclusively. It has become my passion, as I’ve learned to see the essence of nature in a totally different way.

I also learned that getting out to do the work was more important than waiting for inspiration to hit, and in getting out to do the work day in and day out, I’ve been inspired to hone my craft into a unique personal expression of what I see and feel in nature.

My hope is that this kind of blurred landscape work can/will find a place among some of the best crisp, literal landscape works, as a way to inspire and encourage people (viewers and other photographers alike) to see and think about the natural world in new and different ways.

I welcome any and all feedback. This is an image from November 2018 that I’ve only just processed. I’ve got literally thousands of images to sort through and process. But, what I particularly love about this one is the color, the movement, and the slight hint of the sun’s last light just above the horizon moving across the frame.

What technical feedback would you like if any?

Any and all technical feedback is welcome.

What artistic feedback would you like if any?

Any and all artistic feedback is welcome.

Pertinent technical details or techniques:

(If this is a composite, etc. please be honest with your techniques to help others learn)

This is an in-camera, hand-held ICM (intentional camera movement) image, using a horizontal movement to create the effect. The RAW file has been processed in Lightroom for most of the adjustments and Photoshop to remove any sensor dust or spots.

Exif data is:
Canon 7D
Canon 70-200mm f/4L at 121
ISO 100
f/32
1/13"

If you would like your image to be eligible for a feature on the NPN Instagram (@NaturePhotoNet), add the tag ‘ig’ and leave your Instagram username below.

@stephjohnphoto

You may only download this image to demonstrate post-processing techniques.
4-Ebook-BonusImage-6620-YearningLight-FtMadison
4-Ebook-BonusImage-6620-YearningLight-FtMadison5184×3456 6.42 MB
2

Hi Stephanie,
I like this one a lot. The sense of sunset color on a beach gives this just enough info to be pleasing while maintaining an abstract quality. I’m looking forward to seeing more of your ICM work. I have been playing with it a bit myself, and I find it can create/capture the unique color palette of a place in abstraction.

If I were to suggest any revisions, and I’m inclined not to, but might as well offer up one possibility, it would be to crop just a tish off the top (where the orange shifts toward gray).

ML

1 Like
3

Thanks so much, Marylynne @Marylynne_Diggs, for your thoughts a feedback on my image. I appreciate you taking time to comment, and I’m glad to hear you been playing around a bit with ICM, as well! :slight_smile: I’m always happy to hear that, and I’d love to see some of your ICM work.

One of the things I do love most about ICM work is the way it captures color and how expressive it can be in the use of color. :slight_smile:

I’ll take your suggestion and work with a bit of cropping and will post the results here later. I can definitely see why you are inclined to suggest that now in looking at it from that perspective. I tend to like these kinds of color changes at the tops and bottoms of my images, but I’m interested to see how my thoughts might change by revising to your suggestion. :slight_smile:

Thank you again for your thoughtful feedback!

4

Stephanie, welcome to the Landscape Critique forum, I’m glad you decided to dip your toe into the water and post one for critique. I enjoyed the interesting discussion generated by your earlier “I’m new to NPN, what do you think of ICM’s” post in the discussion forums.

I think you will find many sub- genres of landscape photography are welcomed in this critique forum, and in my opinion ICM landscapes will be too. That doesn’t mean all the comments you receive here will be favorable, but usually the criticism here is done very constructively. One lesson that I have learned here is that it is usually small, subtle changes that take images from good to great. And the collective knowledge and views of the people in this forum often do a good job of forcing you to think about these things.

With that said, abstract type images can be some of the most difficult to critique, because appreciation of them becomes very subjective. I tend to react to abstracts more emotionally, instead of reacting to them rationally. For me, ICM images are most successful when they create an emotional reaction or a strong mood.

I think you will find a number of people here who appreciate images that make them think. My reaction to this image is favorable, it does make me think. Clearly this image creates a strong sunrise/sunset mood, which carries some emotion. While some people might try to to think about what they are looking at, instead I try to think about do the creative elements here work cohesively. I like the cool and warm color contrast, and I like the gradient of color in the sky. What might be an apparently tilted “horizon” which would be a deal breaker in a traditional landscape, works for me here because it only adds to the surrealism of the image.

This image is primarily about color, and there is an aspect of the color that concerns me. The strong orange saturation low in the sky feels a little discordant to me with the more muted colors above and below. Again this is subjective, but I think the image would be more harmonious if the disparity in saturation across the image wasn’t so great. I would suggest reducing the orange saturation low in the sky, and increasing the vibrance in the colors of the “land/water/whatever” below, to bring them into better saturation balance. I’m not saying the orange is over-saturated, in abstract images strong saturation can be used for creative effect much more so than in traditional landscapes. But I think the saturation here would benefit from a better balance across the image. Just my $0.02.

And BTW, here is an ICM of my own that I posted recently in Flora Critique

1 Like
5

Welcome to the landscape critique forum. I like the color gradient in this image. It is a relaxing image to look at and works well. I think Ed gave some good counsel. I to like to take intentional blurs. The first one I tried of some prairie grasses won best landscape in show in a photo contest at the Western Nebraska Arts Center. If you have not watched it go to You Tube and type in “Pleasing Blurs”. A presentation from the B&H Events Center will come up by Arthur Morris and Denise Ippolito. It is very good and inspired me to try taking blurs. I am looking forward to seeing more of your work.

1 Like
6

Thank you, Ed @Ed_McGuirk and Richard @Richard_Teller, for your thoughts and feedback on my image.

Ed, I agree that abstract images can be difficult to critique because they are so subjective. Perhaps in this forum it can be an exercise in encouraging other photographers to think outside the box a bit to see things they might not have thought about before. :slight_smile:

I do also feel that these kinds of images have more of an inherent ability to create emotional reactions, and I do get that kind of response to my work quite often from viewers.

I think there will always be those viewers who try to figure out what it is exactly the image is or is about literally…but I suppose my hope and desire is to encourage people to think and see beyond the literal. I understand the reactions and comments might not all be favorable, and I don’t take that personally, because I know we all have our own unique ways of seeing things. But, if even just one comment, favorable or not, can help me grow, I take that and appreciate it for its ability to expand my own vision. :slight_smile:

Thank you for your thoughts about the color in this image. I can see what you’re talking about, and I’ll have a look at it again in Lightroom and see what making some adjustments will do, based on your suggestions.

Generally speaking, though, there are a lot of times when I’m out shooting sunsets that the color will be quite vibrant and vivid just above the horizon, especially just as the sun fully dips below the horizon, and if there are no clouds in the sky to catch the light, there will be a significant saturation of color just above the horizon, as opposed to higher in the sky.

I also tend to under expose my ICM images, especially if I’m trying to get that streak of sunlight before it dips below the horizon…which means I generally have to bring up the shadows quite a bit, and I will also generally take the highlights down quite a bit, as well, in post. Those two things are actually the first things I make adjustments to in post-processing, and then that usually guides my way forward with the remaining edits.

But, I definitely do understand what you are saying about the disparity, and I’ll work with it a bit more. Thank you for your feedback. I do greatly appreciate it. :slight_smile:

Your flower ICM is very nice, as well. I’ll have to make a comment on the actual post here in a bit. Thanks for sharing it. :slight_smile:

Richard, thank you for your response, as well. Glad to hear you’ve done some ICMs and have had success with it. Thanks also for the video recommendation. I’ve not seen it, so I’ll have a look at it on YouTube. I’ve been doing this kind of work for about two years now, and my style has evolved tremendously over that time. I hardly ever take traditional landscape images anymore, and I’m always looking for new ways to create with ICMs. I’ve shot nearly 70,000 frames of ICMs in 2 years, so it has been a very intentional process of honing this as my craft and vision and developing a unique style that expresses who I am as an artist.

This year has been a bit slower for me, in terms of producing new work, comparatively speaking, because I lost my very special animal companion (who had been such a huge part of my creative journey) six months ago, and it has taken me some time to find my way back to the light, so to speak. But, I’ve been starting to get back out the past few weeks, and I’ve got a lot of new images to work on, so hopefully I’ll be ready to share more soon. :slight_smile:

7

Another gem Stephanie. For me, this one is totally about color, movement, and emotion. I love it. I have the same experience looking at your work as looking at Mark Rothko’s paintings; it’s all just color and emotion. Well done.

1 Like
8

Thanks so much, Tony @Tony_Siciliano. I appreciate your feedback and am truly honored to know ny work evokes the same kind of experience as Rothko’s work! It’s amazing to be compared in some small way to his iconic abstract expressionism, and he definitely has influenced and informed my own work.

What you said about the image being about color, movement, and emotion…that’s exactly what I hope to convey in the abstract work I do. So, it is really valuable for me to know my work does have this impact. Thank you so much for giving me this feedback. It means more than you know. :slight_smile: