Strands of Swimming HuesStrands of Swimming Hues

My fine art background is that of art education and photography as my main medium. I’ve been a fine art photographer since the early 70’s and in all that time never practiced or was aware of impressionistic photography or as commonly called ICM or intentional camera movement. There are filters in photoshop which when applied to an image will have it look like a painting as well as a host of plug-ins and software programs which do the same.

Intentional Camera Movement uses just the camera and your delibrate movement of it in specific directions to control how and where the light falls across the sensor. I was a late comer to Instagram and came upon a beautiful image there created by an Australian photographer, Janet Togs which was created using ICM. That was in March of 2020. My exploration started with the iphone and an app called slow shutter. I loved the effect which by the way didn’t happen with every shot. I found it took many shots to get maybe one I liked. I would study the image, then change the direction I moved the iphone if I wanted something different. I was also able to control the length of time for the shutter and blur effect. Not too long after I took out my camera and continued to take pictures using this technique. The control was my movements and of course my exposure which I manually controled through the ISO, F stop and Shutter. I found the brighter the sun the harder to get a longer exposure with a longer shutter so I invested in a neutral density filter which cuts down the light therefore increasing exposure time. Neutral density filters are commonly used to get the soft effect when shooting moving water or shooting clouds on a windy day.

I read everything I could on the technique and watched tons of YouTube videos. Two of the basic moves to start with is for example when photographing trees, move the camera up and down. Experiment with slow movements and quick movements. Landscapes is a right and left movement. Of course there are combining different movements and following the curve of what you are shooting. Mainly HAVE FUN!!! You don’t need a tripod nor cloudy diffused light. You can shoot in any condition and anywhere. You can use any lens too. My favorite is my macro lens. As a trained traditional photographer I found this so freeing. I also found that I was able to control my movements and exposure more to create what I was feeling in the image. 

For me at this time in my life I am drawn to the unpredictability of ICM, much as life can be. At the same time we can learn how to control it and achieve what we want to a certain extent. I also love that there is more in life and in reality then our eyes can see. The flow and movement created with ICM reflects that. It echos a vibration and movement that we can barely detect.

I hope this blog has inspired you to try something new and to have fun with photography! Check out on Facebook ICMPhotoMag which is a large supportive community on ICM and the ICM magazine which is a wonderful publication featuring many diversified ICM artists and articles. I leave you with the thought to Create an image instead of taking one.