“A photographic journey capturing one image a day while traveling from the Arctic to Antarctic over land.”

I had been driving for a few days without seeing a single soul. I was in the heart of the Yukon, a place that only sees little visitors during the Summer. I found a camp spot next to a raging river, with the nearest village nearly 100km away. Earlier that day, I had tried to photograph the raw nature surrounding me, without much success. I felt I couldn’t capture the feeling I had in a single photograph, which included the raging river, the raw beauty of the mountains around me and the pine trees that were balancing on the edge and would likely soon be swallowed by the river. 

While listening to nordic music that only strengthened the mood I was in, I decided to play with the shutter speed and camera movement. I tried to overlay different elements around me in one single exposure; the river, the mountains, the trees. From that moment, I have been fascinated by this technique, a genre within the Intentional Camera Movement (ICM) technique. It also made me aware that wherever I would be, there would always be a possibility to capture an emotion, mood or feeling. The project ‘The Alphabet of Trees’, a photographic journey, had been born. 

Find the photo I took on this day down below.

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Find a small selection of my work below

Day 119 - Baja, Mexico

My final day in Baja. I was overlooking the ocean and created a final ICM seascape from this beautiful place.

Day 115 - Baja, Mexico

Watching whales swim by all day long, a sight I will never get tired of.

Day 112 - Baja, Mexico

Beautiful soft tones during sunset at the pacific coast. Image is created using the intentional camera movement technique.

Day 109 - Baja, Mexico

I found this skeleton of a puffer fish on the beach and thought it was a peaceful sight in a way. Even though it is no longer alive, it has a certain calmness around it.

Day 100 - Baja, Mexico

Date palm leaves lit by streetlights, photographed using intentional camera movement.

Day 94 - Baja, Mexico

Warm temperatures, a beautiful sunset and lots of sea birds photograph. A great way to end the day!

Day 91 - Baja, Mexico

A long exposure intentional camera movement with a snowy egret at the coast of the sea of Cortez.

Day 85 - Joshua Tree, USA

A really long exposure intentional camera movement of an arch I found in Joshua Tree NP.

Day 79 - Sequoia, USA

I've used the intentional camera movement technique to create this image of the gigantic sequoia trees. The black bark is a remnant of an old forest fire.

Day 53 - Yellowstone, USA

Structures of Yellowstone NP during the blue hour. As the sun set, the true colors emerged.

Day 32 - Vancouver Island, Canada

The wind was cold on this foggy morning. At times, I could see the fjords in the distance, but more often the fog and the Pacific Ocean merged into one, creating a wall of whiteness. I stood on the deck of a ferry, enjoying the solitude and calmness of the water. When we crossed a larger body of water, I noticed two black silhouettes in the distance. It appeared to be a mother and a calf humpback whale sleeping near the surface, a strong contrast to the whiteness that surrounded them.

Day 23 - Alaska, USA

Thousands of salmon were struggling near the shore, all trying to make their way up the river. With the receding tide, thousands of salmon were struggling. I wanted to capture this chaos, so I slowed down the shutter speed and waited for one salmon to be lifted onto another.

Day 21 - Alaska, USA

Painting with light: a 10 second exposure to combine several elements around me, from the pine trees to the river, from the bushes to the birch trees. Depending on where I would linger my camera, the photo drastically changed. After a few tries, I came up with this composition, with the pine trees and clouded sky in the upper part of the image, and the river raging through the center. in the front/bottom part, I used the bushes to blur out any details, so the focus would be in the middle.

Day 16 - Alaska, USA

Creating mountains at sunset using intentional camera movement.

Day 1 - The Yukon, Canada

The photo that inspired me to start this project. Using a 2-second exposure, I smoothed the water of the river in front of me, while using the trees and clear sky to my left to shape the image.