ICM vs Long Exposure Photography - What's the Difference?

People often ask me if my abstract work is long exposure. It's a fair question. Both techniques involve blur. Both play with time. But the feeling they create? Worlds apart.

Let me break it down.

What Is Long Exposure Photography?

Long exposure uses a slow shutter speed - sometimes seconds, sometimes minutes - while the camera stays perfectly still, usually locked on a tripod.

The world moves. The camera doesn't.

Waterfalls turn to silk. City lights streak across the frame. Clouds smear into whispers across a dark sky. It's beautiful, controlled, and intentional in a very precise way.

The photographer decides exactly what stays sharp and what blurs. The structure of the scene remains. You can still read the landscape.

What Is Intentional Camera Movement (ICM) Photography?

Intentional Camera Movement - ICM - flips that idea entirely.

The shutter opens. And then I move.

I might sweep the camera upward through a forest, pulling light into vertical streaks. I might pivot through a coastal scene, letting colour and form dissolve into each other. Every movement I make becomes part of the image.

There's no tripod. No locking down. No controlling the outcome frame by frame.

ICM is more intuitive than technical. It's closer to painting than photography. The camera becomes a brush, and light becomes paint.

So What's the Real Difference?

The biggest difference for me is the relationship between photographer and image.

With long exposure, you set it up and wait. With ICM, you become part of the exposure. Your breath, your speed, your instinct - all of it shows up in the final image.

Why I Chose ICM as My Signature Technique

I've been a photographer for over 25 years. I've worked in forensic photography, weddings, newborns, families. I've seen what a camera can do when it follows rules.

ICM is where I stopped following rules.

There's something that happens when you surrender control inside the camera - when you trust your body to move in a way that responds to the light and the landscape in front of you. The images that come out feel alive in a way I couldn't manufacture with a tripod and a remote shutter.

Every piece in my abstract collection is created entirely in-camera. No digital manipulation. No filters applied after the fact. What you see is exactly what I saw - plus the movement I brought to it.

That's what makes each print unrepeatable.

Can You Tell Which Is Which?

Sometimes, yes. Sometimes, no.

Long exposures tend to hold more structure - you can still read the shape of a mountain, the line of a horizon. ICM tends toward abstraction - colour fields, light trails, texture without form.

But the best ICM work sits right on that edge. It feels like a place you almost recognise. A landscape seen through memory rather than a lens.

That's the space I'm always chasing.

Explore the Collection

Curious what Intentional Camera Movement photography looks like as fine art prints? Browse my Abstract Collection - each piece is a one-of-a-kind in-camera creation, printed on archival media and available in a range of sizes.

If you have questions about the technique or want to know more about a specific piece, get in touch. I love talking about this stuff.

Michelle Fey is a fine art photographer based in Hawke's Bay, New Zealand, specialising in Intentional Camera Movement (ICM) photography, landscape, and abstract fine art prints.