Beyond the Sharp: Finding Abstraction in Fall Colors

October 2024 – Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Sometimes the best photographs happen when you decide to break your own rules. When Atlanta-based photographer Prashant Gharpure headed to the Smoky Mountains last week, he made a conscious choice – no more typical fall photos. What emerged from that decision was a series of impressionistic images that transform autumn’s familiar palette into something closer to watercolor than photography.

“I didn’t want to shoot the typical fall colors, you know,” Prashant tells me over a call, his voice carrying that mix of excitement and modesty that marks photographers who’ve discovered something special. “People shoot the usual fall colors with sharp photos and streams or roads leading into the colors. So I just decided that this time I’m not going to shoot any of them.”

The Technique: Intentional Camera Movement

For those unfamiliar with ICM (Intentional Camera Movement), think of it as photography’s answer to impressionist painting. Instead of keeping the camera steady for tack-sharp images, you deliberately move it during exposure. 

The technique has been championed by photographers like Chris Friel, whose haunting landscapes blur the line between photography and painting, and Doug Chinnery, who’s become something of an ICM evangelist in recent years. Stephanie Johnson and Valda Bailey have pushed the technique into fine art galleries, proving that blur can be just as powerful as sharpness.

But here’s where Prashant’s approach gets fun and instructive for anyone wanting to try this technique.

The Technical Foundation

“What was your technical approach?” I ask, knowing our readers will want specifics.

“Well, I used my 100-400mm for that,” Prashant explains, referring to his Sony 100-400mm GM lens. His kit, built around Sony bodies (an A7R3 and an A1, with plans for the new A1 II), reflects his seven years of serious commitment to the craft. 

“My shutter speed was one-fourth or one-fifth of a second handheld. And I was shooting, depending on whether the light was harsh or not, like f/8 or f/11. ISO was 100 – my base ISO.”

These settings are crucial. Too fast a shutter and you won’t get enough blur. Too slow and the movement becomes chaotic rather than artistic. That sweet spot of 1/4 to 1/5 second should give you just enough time to create deliberate motion.

The Critical Detail: Perfect Vertical Movement

“Here’s the thing,” Prashant continues, and I can hear him getting more animated as he talks technique. “Depending on whether you are moving straight or across, it shows the dark trunks of the trees differently. But if you don’t go completely vertical, it doesn’t look nice.”

This is where practice meets artistry. Prashant discovered through trial and error that even slight diagonal movement broke the illusion. “Some of the shots I unknowingly went sideways, but I didn’t like those. There were some where I was not perfectly vertical. So I made sure that when I move my hands, I go perfectly vertical.”

An Unexpected Discovery About Stabilization

When I ask about image stabilization – a natural question since most photographers turn it off for intentional movement – his answer surprises me.

“I always keep it on,” he says simply. “There are different theories, but I just always keep it on.”

Even during ICM? “Yeah, yeah.”

Sometimes the best technique is the one that works for you.

Light as a Creative Element

The morning light on Foothills Parkway brought an unexpected gift. “When the light came out, it was really cool,” Prashant recalls. “Through the leaves and branches, when I went vertical, it almost felt like LED bulbs falling down or something.”

He was watching how light interacted with that movement, adjusting his technique to emphasize those bright spots filtering through the canopy. When harsh light typically ruins landscape photos, Prashant found it created streaks of brilliance in the abstractions.

The Inspiration: From Gallery Walls to Camera

The start of his approach reveals something important about creative inspiration. During their stop in Asheville’s art district before heading to the Smokies, Prashant encountered paintings that would help shape his photographic vision.

“I saw this huge painting that was almost 15 grand in one of the galleries,” he remembers. “That’s when I think I might have thought about when I went to Smokies that I may want to try to mimic that painting.”

This cross-pollination between painting and photography isn’t new – photographers have been learning from painters since the medium’s invention – but Prashant’s direct translation from gallery wall to camera shows how immediate that inspiration can be.

The Philosophy: Breaking Free from Social Media Sameness

Throughout our conversation, Prashant returned to a theme – the importance of finding your own vision rather than chasing likes.

“Keep trying different things,” he advises. “Don’t stick with whatever you see on Instagram or Facebook, because I keep seeing the same things over and over again. Don’t worry about how many likes you get. Just post it.”

He practices what he preaches. With 35,000 images in his Lightroom catalog (some still unprocessed), he posts daily to Instagram (@prashant_gharpure), sharing everything from birds and wildlife to what he calls “micro landscapes” – those intimate details within larger scenes that photographers sometimes miss.

“Even when I go for landscapes, I don’t just shoot one shot,” he explains. “Once that sunrise shot is done, I bring out my long lens and focus on certain sections of that landscape rather than just taking the shot that everybody takes.”

The Results: When Risk Becomes Reward

“I didn’t know if people were going to like it or not because it was not conventional fall photography,” Prashant admits. But the response was immediate and enthusiastic. Comments comparing his work to watercolors validated his artistic risk-taking.

What strikes me most about these images is the abstraction of color.  They capture something about autumn that sharp photos can often miss – the dreamlike quality of walking through fall colors, where individual leaves blur into an impression of warmth and light.

Practical Tips for Your Own ICM Journey

Based on Prashant’s experience, here’s your leafy roadmap to play with ICM:

Camera Settings:

• Shutter speed: 1/4 to 1/5 second
• Aperture: f/8 to f/11 (adjust for light conditions)
• ISO: Base ISO (typically 100)
• Focus: Set before movement begins
• Stabilization: Experiment with both on and off

Movement Technique:

• Practice perfect vertical movement for trees
• Start movement before pressing shutter
• Continue movement through entire exposure
• Watch for light patterns that enhance the effect
• Review images frequently to refine technique
• Have fun and experiment

Creative Approach:

• Look for strong color contrasts
• Use telephoto lenses for compression and isolation
• Shoot when others might pack up (experiment – sometimes harsh light can work)
• Take multiple variations – this technique is inherently unpredictable – If at first you don’t succeed…
• Don’t delete “mistakes” immediately in the field – they might surprise you later

Moving Forward

“My goal is always to have one great shot every time,” Prashant says near the end of our conversation. But his approach to achieving that goal – shooting hundreds of images, exploring micro landscapes after the “money shot,” carrying multiple lenses even on dedicated landscape shoots because “you never know” – reveals his work ethic behind the art.

The lesson here isn’t just about ICM technique, though the technical details matter. It’s about giving yourself permission to see differently. When everyone else is shooting sharp, maybe it’s time to embrace the blur. 

Prashent’s parting advice resonates: “Keep trying different things.” In a world of photographic sameness, where algorithms reward conformity and popular spots get photographed ad nauseum,  his vertical strokes of color remind us that personal vision still matters.

The next time you’re standing before brilliant fall colors, what would happen if you tried to show how it feels?

Prashent Gharpure is a photographer specializing in wildlife, birds, and landscapes. You can follow his daily posts on Instagram @prashant_gharpure.

Have you tried Intentional Camera Movement yourself? Share your thoughts and fall color experiments in our forum here.

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