For many years, I have used panning across a static subject in the landscape as a way of abstracting its intrinsic rhythms: for instance, I wrote a post on the Wonky Horizons blog about this. More recently, I've tended to add to this by using multiple exposures, and variations of camera movement, not just panning. I suppose this would be called multiple exposure intentional camera movement. It can be tremendously effective at removing unnecessary elements and conveying a feeling of place.

I used this method a lot on Harris, and it generated some of my favourite pictures from the whole visit. I'm posting a few here from a couple of locations, at different times of the day and in different weather conditions.

Some of them were taken by intentional panning; some by having a heavy camera at the end of an extended arm and just allowing my natural wobbles to move the camera; others still were taken by, for instance, moving my hand, again at the end of an extended arm, across the subject making a series of exposures every time the camera crossed the same point in its movement. There are endless variations that are worth trying. Typically, I'll combine about 5 or 6 exposures between 1/2 and 1/15 sec with auto-gain on with the D810, and either a 24-120mm lens or 70-200. It really helps that the lowest ISO on the D810 is 32 (Lo 1), as this means that even in moderately bright conditions slow exposure can be achieved by stopping down; nevertheless, sometimes either a neutral density filter or polariser was required to limit the exposure. It is important to turn off image stabilization (VR or IS).

I think of this as a stochastic process, although the results are not really random: they are taken with clear intent. But success always relies on many attempts, and being very selective with the results. There's no point being disappointed if a particular attempt yields nothing: that's the nature of the approach. When it works, though, this method can convey an impression very effectively.