Intentional Camera Movement (ICM) – Wisdom Wednesday!

Recently I posted about my amazing new Canon R5 Mark 2 and some of the features I’m loving about this camera. However for all the technology invested in capturing tack-sharp images and freezing action, its also important to remind yourself to slow down every now and again.

One of the techniques I employ often is dropping the ISO down to 100 and stop down the aperture and let the motion move across the image. This “intentional camera movement”, or “ICM” technique is a great way to convey the sense of motion in an otherwise still frame, inviting the viewer to imagine the subject in action as described by the blurred image.  Ernst Haas was one of my early influences, a person who’s work I continue to admire. He was a pioneer of using this technique to show the motion in his subjects.

It takes some experimentation and often you won’t really know if you have any successful images until you’ve edited and evaluated them. Some may still show the eyes of the animal in reasonably sharp contrast to the blurred legs in motion – I like this look – but I also like those images that make me think of ancient drawings on a cave wall, where nothing is particularly defined and the entire animal is abstracted in it’s motion and the background a blurred canvas.

I won’t always see the potential in these images immediately. Some I shot on film many years ago I nearly tossed out but decided to file away at the last second. I pulled them out years later and found a new appreciation for their abstract qualities and I’m glad I did!

If you’re interested in more photos captured with this technique, check out Rhythms From the Wild.