10 October | Intentional Camera Movement & Street Photography

This Wednesday the club experienced a night of 2 halves.

The first half was led by David P, introducing us to the art of ICM, or Intentional Camera Movement. Having had a foray into the technique himself, he was able to share some of his wisdom regarding settings. Naturally enough, a longer shutter speed is beneficial to allow the motion to be reflected in the image. This does cause issues on a bright day – so David used a polarising filter to reduce the amount of light getting to the lens. An ND filter would also work for this purpose.

We were taken through David’s experiments – motion blur achieved from within a driving car, handheld free-styling and the single-axis rigidity afforded by a tripod.

He did warn that fascinating as the results may be (and they were), it seems that the competition world isn’t quite ready for the genius of ICM. This was borne out by the distinctly unimpressive scores (by his standards) in the last competition, where he entered 2 of his works of art.

Anyone interested in learning more can ask for David to add his notes to their Photocraft CD. Alternatively there are a few informative pages on the web regarding this technique:

• https://digital-photography-school.com/how-to-take-creative-landscape-shots-using-intentional-camera-movement/
• http://blog.juergenrothphotography.com/2011/07/fine-art-of-intentional-camera-movement.html#.W8Sd2GhKiUk
• http://blog.juliaannagospodarou.com/guide-icm-intentional-camera-movement/
• https://www.wexphotovideo.com/blog/tips-and-technique/a-guide-to-intentional-camera-movement-photography/

The second half was led by Martin F, who introduced us to his interest in street photography, an eminently flexible concept. Drawing from both his own extensive experience and also some of the historical street photography greats such as Henri Cartier-Bresson, Saul Leiter, Steve McCurry and Martin Parr, he was able to show us how street photography draws from clever use of contrast and combinations, associations and conflict to create striking images that elicit an emotional response from the viewer.

Both of these thought provoking talks were also precursors to nights in May 2019, where there will be a night dedicated to each of these topics – and everyone is invited to participate and enter our own “just for fun” competitions!