Charlotte Bellamy Creative Photography December 2021 newsletter

Charlotte Bellamy Creative photography Newsletter – Issue 3 – December 2021 Wishing you all the best for the winter festive days, and for those of you celebrating Christmas

‘Have a very happy Christmas’

What’s in the newsletter….

Something new for me – a newsletter to keep you all UpToDate with training opportunities and my work. I hope you find it useful. o That was 2021 – a roundup of the year o Encouraging creativity – Stuck inside with a lockdown? Weather rather grey? Some hints for getting creative close to home. o Online course dates - 2022 o In person workshop dates - 2022 o YouTube channel o My recent work o Other useful links

That was 2021 Wow, who would have thought we would all still be waiting and hoping for a return to our previous lives of certainty, travel and social meetups. I for one could never have imagined I’d still be waiting to return to the UK after two years - it’s not that I physically can’t now (as it was at one point due to rules) but now I assess the necessity and predictability of future developments, and so I still am waiting.

However, for me this pandemic has had the most wonderful silver lining that I shall forever be thankful for – I’m sat here sending you all this newsletter and it is reaching every single corner of the world! I would have never thought to call myself a world recognized ICM photographer before, (and it still sounds a bit brave on my part) but I know that there are those of you reading this not only in the UK and The Netherlands, but also New Zealand, South Africa, America, Canada, Hungry, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Greece, Belgium and Germany. I think I still need followers in Iceland and the arctic bit I’m sure they will follow eventually!

I absolutely love having online groups with individuals from all over the world – Not only do I get to see wonderful images from your home locations, but I also get to hear about your lives and the fun you have trying to complete homework assignments because of your locations. Imagine for example having to photograph ‘woodlands’ for ICM homework and not having one within 2 hours of your house! More on getting creative regardless of your location further in the newsletter.

All the courses have been wonderfully supported this year, with many of you following multiple courses with me. I love seeing familiar faces continuing to challenge themselves. I ran the intro to ICM, ICM and multiple exposures and creating cohesive bodies of work courses multiple times this year which was fantastic.

Towards the end of the year I dipped my toe in the water, offering a slightly longer and in depth ICM course – ICM deep dive, which I was overwhelmed with the reaction to. Both courses sold out quickly and we have just finished both courses, and they were brilliant.

The next deep dive course dates are already live and I have 4 spaces left (as I write this newsletter) A new course will run from mid-January - 11th and 25th January, 8th and 22nd February, 8th and 22nd March. If you are interested please get in touch. charlotte@charlottebellamy.com

Christmas critique and quiz Those of you who have followed an online course will have also been invited into my online community. As part of this community you are encouraged to continue sharing your images and achievements after the courses end. But I also offer additional free online webinars within this group. One of which was just held on Friday – the ‘Christmas quiz and critique’.

What fun, so lovely to see you all online looking festive. Massive congratulations to you all who submitted images for the critique, every time the standard gets higher and higher and I have a greater challenge to pick my favourites!

This time we also held a little quiz with an ICM and multiple exposures theme!

Congratulations to Sue Woodbridge for winning this. Clinching the extra 5 bonus points on the last question was the key here! But I do apologise if I made it too hard for you!!!!

If any of you would like to watch this on replay, the link is here. https://youtu.be/gzqiGQgqQX0

A worthy winner Congratulations to Barbara Tasko for the image I chose as my favourite from the critique. I don’t normally choose favourites, but as it was Christmas I thought I’d offer a little extra twist to this event.

I felt her image evoked so much emotion, and reflected perfectly the feeling of being slightly removed from the outside world during the last 18 months – having to hold a distance from others. Also, as the winter approaches for me, often stand at the window looking through raindrops and wishing for brighter days to return. In addition to this emotion I felt it was a beautifully balanced image with a lot of depth and interest.– Barbara won a 1:1 critique session as a prize.

The 4 runners up were beautiful images from Mary Seddon, Gunilla Steen, Jaana Kotoneva and Barbara McKenzie – a truly International line up!

Sheclicks, The Guild of Photographers and more This year I presented to the SheClicks online community for a second time –a follow up webinar on ICM photography – This time I went a step back from the technical, back to looking at ICM as a creative process. I absolutely love presenting, and doing it more often now I’m not half as nervous as I once was! You can find both webinars at these links: https://youtu.be/odPQk0V82fI and https://youtu.be/SNmrlEOHo-8 If you haven’t found the Sheclicks YouTube channel yet – its packed full of wonderful webinars, and although principally aimed at female photographers, the YouTube channel is open to all. https://www.youtube.com/c/SheClicks With everything else going on, I have still been busy as Guild of Photographers panel member – judging the monthly image of the month competitions. On average I’m judging 300 images a month. This year under the ‘natural world’ section which encompassed, wildlife, rural landscapes, and all kinds of flowers, birds and insects! I am constantly amazed at the patience that must be required to create the bird shots that I see and the beautiful angles used to photograph the flowers. More ICM images are making their way into the monthly entries as well – and being well rewarded, which I think is super.

This year I was also asked to judge for the Cape Town Photographic society after presenting online to their members earlier in the year. This was lovely, as not only did I judge and score, I also gave positive feedback on every image that I judged – the factors I found captivating about the images, but also the small tweaks for improvement that could be made.

Autumn tours 2021 This autumn was one I’d been waiting for a long time! In 2019 I started planning my autumn landscape photography tours here in the Netherlands – finally in 2021 I got to welcome guests and share with them the magic and beauty of my new home country. Amazingly we managed to fit the tours in perfectly between QR code challenges and lockdowns, and I welcomed 10 individuals over two different courses to the Netherlands.

Myself and Sue Bishop ran the 1st tour offering dawn to dusk photography on a Light and Land photo tour, then I followed this with my own ‘creative landscape experience retreat’ opportunity. The latter, although offering more than enough photographic opportunities, also included time for creativity challenges, feedback on images and post processing. I really enjoyed both opportunities and look forward to offering them both again in 2022.

Life when I’m not with my camera Of course, my life is not only photography, and whilst this is a photography newsletter, many of you will know I’ve been busy with my pony this year. The highlight of my year was being crowned the Dutch National Champion for Trec – In the 6 years I’ve competed in this discipline I’ve never won a class, so to win at the championships was the most wonderful achievement!

For most of you ‘Trec’ will mean nothing – but its normally a 2-day competition. The first involves navigating a 25km route with only map and compass (no mobile technology allowed) and riding to set speeds throughout the route. The second day involves a course of obstacles set to test the relationship between horse and rider. Negotiating footbridges, water, low hanging branches, opening gates and negotiating all manner of challenges you might come across while out on a ride in the countryside. I love it, as it involves a lot of fun and a great challenge.

Phew…. seems like it was a busy year! Looking forward to the same in 2022!

Encouraging creativity So, I alluded to getting creative regardless of your location earlier in the newsletter. This is something I believe in deeply, and It became very apparent during lockdowns, that just because travel was off the cards, creativity didn’t need to be.

It’s been a great misconception for far too long, that to make beautiful landscape images you must travel to beautiful locations. Embracing ICM this year has disproved this point completely. The number of times I heard on my courses “photographing with ICM I saw and photographed where I’ve been so often in a completely different way” made me realise we should all take a little time to realise how lucky we are with what we have on our doorsteps.

So….next time its pouring with rain, its grey and cold and you don’t feel like going out with your camera – go on an exploration of your house! o Think details, macro, abstract. o Give yourself a little prompt and see what you can create for example in one room, or one colour, or use the trigger words of lines, light or patterns to get you started.

Some other fun prompts: o o o o o

Looking out of my window Home Shadows or reflections Guess what it is!

Mundane never noticed

I had a play with this one day and gave myself the word ‘lines’ – I took all these in my office within 10 minutes on my phone!

If you can get out and about a little further than the house, take a walk without your camera – and see what you see when you have no pressure to make a photo. By all means take your phone (because I know I just can’t help myself even if the plan is not to photograph). But go out and give yourself the time to notice absolutely anything that captures your eye, with no expectation to actually photograph. Sometimes the pressure we put on ourselves to make perfect pictures stops us from really seeing…..I mean hands up, if when you have your camera with you, you are thinking in compositions or exposures, points of focus or whether there are lines or where to put the horizon?

For me, my daily dog walk offers me a chance to go looking without any expectations – after all the main purpose is not to make photos. That doesn’t stop me noticing things though!

Go out regularly and take note of the things you notice, keep a notebook of these things and you will soon start to realise that you are noticing colours, textures, sounds, smells, movement and changes in locations that you visit often.

Then…….use these in your photography to bring feelings, emotions and a sense of story or drama to your images.

These images I made right outside my door when I noticed the water running into my waterbutt and creating bubbles, and then the beautiful reflection of the blue sky on the water. Had I not had my eyes open to everyday beauty right under my nose, I would have missed this stunning display of colour, light and shapes.

Online course dates for 2022 Intentional Camera Movement - Deep dive 6 subjects’ course - 6 sessions 11th and 25th January, 8th and 22nd February, 8th and 22nd March . – Tuesdays 20.00 21.30 Central European time (1hr earlier in UK) Over 6 sessions I will guide you deep into 6 ICM subjects - Each week a new presentation with loads of material from real shoots to fully understand all the aspects and factors that influence ICM photography from 6 subjects - woodlands and trees, water, architecture and urban, animals, details and the last week will actually cover a number of smaller subject (so actually you get more than 6 subjects!) In addition to the presentation each session you will be asked to submit a homework assignment in response to each presentation. From this, you will gain timely and valuable individual feedback and an opportunity to discuss any challenges you found or questions that you have.

By the end of the course you will have a deeper understanding of a variation of ICM subjects - some you may wish to take further, others you may not. But having the support to experiment and gain immediate feedback is an invaluable way to learn and be supported if this interests you.

This course is 6 sessions run over a 3-month period. Sessions are 2 weeks apart. This allows adequate time for homework assignments to be completed and lots of time for experimentation and development of understanding.

Cost for this course is 155 euros per person

Multiple exposures with ICM 9th, 16th and 23rd February – Wednesdays -20.00 - 21.30 Central European time (1hr earlier in UK) Over 3 sessions we will explore various methods to produce multiple exposure images using ICM images. Non-ICM traditional images will also be utilised during the combination process. Lots of reallife examples showing the process from the initial idea, through capture and then post-processing in photoshop. This is not a workshop to learn in-camera multiple exposure work. Presentations, homework and 1:1 feedback.

Cost for this course is 80 euros per person

Creating a cohesive body of work 2nd, 9th and 16th March– Wednesdays -20.00 - 21.30 Central European time (1hr earlier in UK) Over 3 sessions we will explore what makes a cohesive body of work and why you might want to create them. An ideal course for anyone wanting to understand how to make images work together in portfolios, creating photo books, presentations, applying for photographic qualifications or wanting to improve the presence and balance of web albums or social media posts. Presentations, homework and 1:1 feedback.

Cost for this course is 80 euros per person

New online course for 2022 Personal project This course is perfect for those interested in mentoring, but who enjoy the camaraderie of the group sessions I offer. Aimed at those wanting to take their photography a step further.

During this course you will brainstorm and come up with a photographic concept or project that you would like to work on. This could be something you have been thinking about for a while but unsure of how to get it started. It could be you have no ideas right now and feel something like this would give you a focus for your photography in 2022. It need not be ICM or multiple exposure.

The end result is completely driven by yourself – it maybe you want to create a photobook, or have images ready for an exhibition or qualification submission – anything goes as far as a personal goal. Through a combination of group and personal 1:1 sessions, you will set goals, create yourself identifiable milestones and be supported towards your end goal.

The group will work together over the timescale of 3 months. It is envisaged to start the course in March or April.

Group session 1 – How to identify a project for yourself.

1:1 session 1 – Formalising your project goals and setting milestones and discussing techniques and ways to ensure forward momentum.

Group session 2 – Introducing your project to the group and sharing of ideas with each other.

Group session 3 – Discussions and sharing of experiences and work 1:1 session 2 – Tailored to your personal requirements for your project – this can be utilised at any point within the project time scales. So could be early on if you want help with technical aspects, or later if you need additional help with decision making or bringing the body of work together.

Group session 4 – Creating artists statements Group session 5 – Presenting the final project

If this sounds like the next step for you in your photographic journey please drop me an email and I will keep you up to date with start dates for the course.

A reminder of the little extra bonus to signing up for a course Many of you have already completed a course with me, and have enjoyed the bonus of the creative community group I have set up on Facebook for the sharing and feedback of images. Once every few months I also run a free critique session where everyone and anyone in the group is welcome to submit an image (need not be ICM), and we spend the evening discussing the positives and possible improvements that could be made to elevate the images further. A great way to keep in touch with previous class mates, see work from other individuals and hear how images can be improved with just the tiniest of tweaks.

Once you have completed a course you will receive an invite to the group – completely closed and private and only accessible to previous course members or mentor students.

There will of course be other courses on offer next year, I just haven’t had time to formalise these – so keep your eye out for the next newsletter.

In person workshop dates for 2022 I enjoyed my autumn workshops so much and am already crossing all fingers and toes that there can be more of those in 2022.

The first dates are the Light and Land Tulips tour in April that I will once again be leading with Sue Bishop. At the moment this is sold out, and I’m really excited for this, as it will be 3 years waiting for this one to happen!

I am delighted to have just booked my first dates for the UK as well.

ICM – Norfolk forest and waves May 9th, 10th, 11th 2021 This three day course will be packed with super coastal and woodland and heath locations – all picked for their rugged beauty and opportunities to be explored with ICM photography.

I’m just finalising the itinerary at the moment, but accommodation is already booked at The Rose and Crown in Snettisham for the nights of the 9th and 10th May. Which is located a short drive to many super locations. The beach possibilities are endless but Include Holm, Brancaster, and Holkham. Not forgetting Hunstanton for the beautiful coloured beach huts.

Sandringham estate with its beautiful woodlands is on the doorstep for the woodland location. Places will be limited to 6.

It does not matter your level of ICM, I will ensure that during the course you are supported and challenged at the correct level.

In the planning - an optional day – bluebells – before or after this course

The following 3 courses will run on consecutive days, so if you want to book multiple options there will be a discount. June 2022

Landscapes and cityscapes - Possibly Gloucestershire – 2 day course.

Equine ICM – 1 day ICM woodlands at Westonbirt – 1 day July 2022

Creative retreat in Netherlands - 4 days – A variety of locations to inspire,

challenge and invigorate your creativity. Photography on location each day, combined challenges to stimulate your creativity and support with post processing and technical photographic skills – this is not just a photo tour – this is a full on 4 days of exploring your creativity with my guidance.

Autumn creative landscape retreat 4 days – A variety of autumn woodland

locations to inspire, challenge and invigorate your creativity. Photography on location each day, combined challenges to stimulate your creativity and support with post processing and technical photographic skills – this is not just a photo tour – this is a fully supported 4 days of exploring your creativity with my guidance.

Light and land autumn woodlands tour – November – In discussion If any of these appeal to you, please drop me an email then as soon as I have exact dates and locations, you will be the first to be notified.

Creative Light – 3 day creative event with a selection of super speakers (including myself and

Paul Sanders) and workshops organised by Margaret Soraya 28/29/30 October – I will be giving 2 half day workshops during the weekends in the stunning location in Scotland not far from Inverness. – More info will follow as soon as the details are finalised.

YouTube channel The YouTube channel goes from strength to strength. As I write this I know Santa is bringing me some rather handy new additions to my recording tool box, so I’m looking forward to getting in front of the camera bit more in 2022 and showing you some real time ‘how I ICM’ out in the field rather than just videos of the location.

My ethos with these videos is always to stay true to my processes and show you in a straight forward way my work processes from concept to creation.

In the meantime, if you haven’t found me there yet – please check the link out and do share with anyone you think might find the videos useful.

Equally if you are a subscriber you can always let me know what you would like to see in future videos. https://www.youtube.com/c/CharlotteBellamycreativephotography/videos

My recent work Since the last newsletter most of my work has been in two periods – during the autumn colours, and in the run up to Christmas.

Firstly a few images from the autumn. I had the most wonderful three weeks out in the beautiful Dutch woodlands, on my own and with the groups. Coming away with over 6000 images I’m still busy trying to work through just finding what to edit. But a few have taken my eye very early on that I will share here with you.

First unusually for me, some non ICM images! Sometimes the beauty of a location is just perfect as it is, and needs no ICM to show its magic. These first 4 images were made in the mystical Speulderbos.

Having so much time out to photograph the same location on multiple occasions, I also found myself seeing new opportunities – I was looking down as well as up, and noticed all the intriguing reflections, and clusters of leaves on the water.

I was fascinated by the way the leaves falling onto the water landed on the reflections, taking their place once more on the branches of the trees, only this time in a second life.

Watch out for a full project regarding the leaves and the water.

Of course, not forgetting my fun visits to the local garden centre to create some sparkling Christmas multiple exposures – which are documented on my YouTube channel.

Other useful links With hopefully a little more time in the next couple of weeks for yourself, or maybe you will just want to escape the hustle and bustle of Christmas and find a quite few minutes for yourself – my recommendations for a selection of podcasts.

This week I had the privilege to be asked by Margaret Soraya to be part of her podcast series – my episode will air sometime in the new year. In the meantime, do take a look and listen as she has had some wonderful guests already discussing creativity and inspiration for life and photography. https://quietlandscapes.buzzsprout.com/ If you haven’t yet found the super podcasts of David DuChemin you are missing a treat – I could listen to his voice forever and as he discusses creativity and photography and their intertwined challenges, I defy you not to identify with the subjects he covers. https://www.abeautifulanarchy.com/ And lastly If you would like weekly dose of peace and mindfulness, do follow Paul Sanders on his Instagram page – each Friday morning at 9am UK time he introduces a mindful concept that you can practice during the week. These short 10 minutes each Friday morning are a wonderful way to ground yourself and realise you are not alone if you are struggling with life or creativity. All the previous episodes are still available to watch as well. https://www.instagram.com/discover_still/

Just one more thing before I go……..

If you have the time and inclination, I am looking to develop my collection of reviews on Trustpilot. If you have a few minutes and have been on any course that I have organized I’d love to hear from you. Please use this link. As a thank you, I will send all those who make a review a PDF copy of my latest small photo book of mindful images, words and poems created during the Covid pandemic. https://uk.trustpilot.com/evaluate/charlottebellamy.com

Till next time………..

Have a lovey Christmas and new year Do keep in touch via the email, Facebook group, Instagram or YouTube.

Any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me Enjoy your photography and explore your creative side

Charlie