Lately, I’ve been chasing blur.
For the past month, I’ve been experimenting with the Slow Shutter Cam app on my iphone, leaning into messiness and motion. Instead of chasing detail, I’ve been letting go—moving my phone’s camera intentionally during longer exposures, allowing it to smear light and dissolve shapes.
In early May, fellow Viewfinder Kirstin Mckee shared a video about three slow shutter photographers in a group chat. We were particularly inspired by the dreamlike street photography of Olga Karlovac. Shooting handheld in low light, her images strip the world down to light and shadow, gesture and mood.
Inspired, we decided to try a week of taking black and white photos with a slow shutter. At first I planned to use my camera, but we agreed we would all use the Slow Shutter Cam app. I created a black and white preset for my photos in Lightroom for my first image stuck with that for nearly all my monochrome shots.
I started noticing light in different ways. I looked for lines and shapes and contrast. One week turned into a month. The images became more abstract, more about feeling than content. I started to understand how different kinds of camera movement—still, swift, slow, jagged—affect the image.
Moving water and moving camera:
I like how some of my images look like charcoal drawings:
Blurry self-portraits are easier for me:
Scenes from my evening jogs:
Neon and flags:
Using this app has changed how I relate to my phone camera. Shooting with my phone has often felt too easy, not challenging enough. But slowing down is different. It demands intention. You don’t just take an image, you create an image—with motion, with time, with patience.
It’s also been liberating. I love my digital and film cameras and usually bring one along when I leave the house. But they’re not always practical—especially when I’m on one of my evening slow jogs. With this app, my phone is now a creative tool that allows me to play and explore, so I don’t miss my “real” camera.
Toward the end of the month, I found myself leaning back into color:
Leaning into the blur:
I hope my friends who did this with me find a way to share some of their images too. I saw this project inspire some amazing creativity.
Trust the blur.
~Deirdre
This is so cool in all the ways. I love the black and white blurs, and the variety of what you photographed with this app. These images bring me back to days shooting film before owning a digital camera. I love the mood and feelings that these images evoke. And then scrolling to see the pop of color with the blur — all so good! Thank you for sharing these. You are inspiring me.
Thank you so much, Carolyn! I feel like setting some limits on how I can shoot helps so much with creativity, whether it’s just 36 exposures on a roll of film or sticking to a single app.
I remember! Your spins, right? I loved those!
Oh My Goodness!!! I love this so much. Your self portraits are gorgeous.
This app is the one I used for my iphone movement series, it is so fun! I totally understand how it changes the relationship you have with your phone. I hope to see some of your friends pics around the place too.
My response seems to have gone to the wrong spot, but thank you, and I remember those spins well ❤️