What if a photo felt less like a snapshot in time and more like a memory of how something moved, capturing not just what you saw, but how it felt to be there?
That question sits at the heart of my 60 Second Series.
All of the images in this series were created using an iPhone and one simple feature — Live View. The process may sound casual, but the results carry movement, motion, light, and above all, feeling.
Let’s explore the approach behind the ICM photography technique, and how a camera in your pocket can help you see a place in a new way:
The Technique Behind the 60 Second Series
If you’ve used an iPhone in the last decade, you’ve probably come across the Live View feature. Apple rolled it out with the iPhone 6, and when it’s turned on, it captures 1.5 seconds of motion and sound before and after you press the shutter.
That means you’re not getting one single still – you’re getting a three-second video, quietly stitched together behind the scenes.
Here’s where it gets interesting:
Inside that three-second video, you can apply something called “Long Exposure Mode.”
It takes every movement captured during those three seconds and collapses it into a single frame. If you’re steady and intentional, you can create something entirely different than a traditional still image.
You can create motion. You can play with light. You can bend time (just a little 😉).
The Idea Behind the “60 Second Series”
The name might sound like a timing trick, but it’s actually a creative constraint.
For each city or location, I review dozens (sometimes hundreds) of my Live View captures. From there, I narrow it down to just 20 long exposure frames that speak to the energy of that place.
If each of those came from a 3-second video, that’s 60 seconds total.
One minute of movement = One minute of lived time, stretched across space.
There’s something satisfying about putting a limit on each gallery.
Much like film photography, it forces me to slow down, pay attention, and be selective. It keeps the work focused.
These boundaries mean each image, ideally, plays a part in telling a broader story.
A Familiar Tool, Used Differently
I’ve been exploring photography for decades, and much of my fine art work centers around intentional camera movement.
The 60 Second Series. pulls from that same spirit, but in a more accessible way.
With ICM, I’m often behind a camera with a longer exposure and physical movement.
In the 60 Second Series, I’m just as intentional, considering subject placement, speed, light, and rhythm, but I’m doing it all on a phone, often in the middle of a crowded street.
The result sits somewhere between street photography, abstract art, and motion study. And because the camera is so lightweight and discreet, I can stay inside the scene instead of standing back from it.
Featured Cities in the 60-Second Series
Each 60 Second gallery focuses on a single place, not just in terms of where it was shot, but in the way that place feels when it’s in motion.
The goal isn’t to document the city, but to capture its energy.
Here are three of my personal favorites from the series:
New York City’s Chinatown
New York has always had my heart: the movement, the tension, the sheer amount of visual material you can find on a single street corner.
I’d been wanting to return post-COVID, and when the timing lined up with friends, I booked the trip without thinking much about what was happening in the city.
Turns out, it was Lunar New Year. Total luck.
I found a room right on the edge of Chinatown where the streets were full of lanterns, smoke, red paper, neon, and so much energy I could barely keep up. It was the kind of environment where you don’t have to go looking for photographs….they come at you.
In this gallery, you’ll see a city that never stands still.
Figures pass through color like brushstrokes. Storefronts stretch and glow. The rhythm of Chinatown reminds me why I love travel photography, especially when it lets you capture moments that feel more like memories.
San Francisco
San Francisco had been on my radar for a while, and a friend’s concert in Redwood City finally prompted me to make the trip.
I kept things loose and open to chance. I prefer travel photography without a strict agenda, just time to wander and see what pulls at me.
Every neighborhood had its own beat, from the Presidio to the Mission to downtown. It’s a city full of history and newness mashed together, and that tension shows up in the photos.
The San Francisco 60-Second Series captures all of that: soft light, layered movement, people disappearing into place.
I love how ICM photography gives room for a city like San Fran to breathe. As long as you capture its authenticity, it doesn’t have to be tidy or perfect to be beautiful.
Washington DC
I’ve been to DC several times over the past few years, mostly thanks to my niece and a good friend who both live there.
Each visit gives me a different angle. There’s a certain kind of energy, not just from the history, but from the constant motion of people moving through it.
Tourists, commuters, protestors, runners. The city is constantly in motion.
On this trip, I gave myself room to wander. I walked the National Mall, the Tidal Basin, past monuments and memorials that I’ve seen many times before.
But this time, I slowed down.
I paid attention to light and shadow, to how the shapes of the city could stretch or soften through long exposure.
This gallery plays in the area between movement and structure, where the solid forms of DC meet the blurred rhythms of daily life.
Final Thoughts on the 60 Second Series
What started as a simple curiosity, how far I could push the iPhone’s Live View feature, has become one of my favorite approaches to travel photography.
Whether it’s the motion of a crowd in New York City, the rhythm of cyclists in San Francisco, or the soft blur of cherry blossoms in Washington, D.C., these images ask you to slow down and see what you might otherwise miss.
If you’re drawn to storytelling in travel photos, if you’re curious about ICM photography, or if you just want to bring something meaningful into your space, these prints are available for purchase.
Each one is made to order in your choice of size and paper type.
You can explore the full galleries on my website. If something catches your eye, feel free to reach out here.
I’d love to hear what you see in these images. Thanks for looking.
