Intentional camera movement

Most of the time a photographer works to keep the camera still. Intentional camera movement, or ICM, does the opposite. The shutter stays open for longer than usual and the camera is moved on purpose during the exposure, so the subject is drawn across the frame as streaks, layers and soft shapes.

Autumn trees in rust, orange and green, swirled by a twist of the camera — Autumn trees.

Pale, motion-blurred shapes of water birds on grey water — A Phantom Raft.

The direction of the movement decides the picture. A sideways pan pulls water into long horizontal lines. A vertical sweep stretches lights and buildings upward. A twist of the camera turns a line of trees into a swirl. A small circular movement repeats a bright point around a ring.

A grey heron at the water's edge, streaked sideways into soft bands among sharp reeds — Grey heron.

Two cormorants on bare branches, pale and layered against a white sky — Cormorants.

The results are part plan and part chance, and most frames are discarded. The ones that work keep just enough of the subject to recognise it.

The moon repeated in a small ring of pale discs among dark, blurred cloud — Moon through cloud.

A lit glass building at night, its windows stretched into vertical streaks — City lights at night, taken on a phone.

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