Movement and Meaning with Bill Ward

About the series

Bill is one of the presenters we ask back most often, and it is always for the same reason. Every time he joins us, people write in afterwards asking when he is coming back. His Shooting Water series in January 2025 was one of our favourites of that year, and we have wanted more from him ever since. This autumn we finally have it.

Most of us are taught that a sharp picture is a good picture. Bill has spent well over a decade proving otherwise.

Intentional Camera Movement is the deliberate act of moving your camera during a long exposure. Done carelessly it is just a blurry photograph. Done with intention it becomes something closer to painting, where the movement of your hands carries the feeling of standing in a place rather than a record of what that place looks like.

Bill has been working this way since 2012. For him it is the way to capture the energy of a landscape rather than just its geography. Across three evenings he takes us from first principles right through to his editing, which is a great deal simpler than you might expect.

Outline

Part 1: The Mechanics of Movement — Monday 12 October, 19:00 BST

Bill starts from first principles. Why do this at all, what it gives you that a sharp frame cannot, and then the practical detail of how to get it. This is the most technical of the three evenings and he has written a great deal of new material for it.

• Beyond the shake. Working with specific movements: the pan, the tilt, the zoom and rotation.

• Shutter speeds and filters. Managing exposure when you are deliberately slowing everything down.

• Subject selection. What makes a strong ICM subject, and what does not.

• Examples throughout. Movement by movement, shutter speed by shutter speed, so you can see what each one actually does.

Part 2: Energy and Flow — Monday 2 November, 19:00 GMT

Bill has built this evening around three ideas: emotion, time and place. It is about how to stop observing a landscape and start experiencing it, even if that means swimming in the North Sea in a wetsuit!

• A woodland shoot made for this series. Bill went out last week and shot a bespoke woodland ICM session specifically for us, putting into practice everything he had just written. He will show us the results and talk through what happened.

• Immersive. His four year investigation into water, energy and movement, made by getting into the sea with a waterproof housing and a moving camera. Published by Kozu Books in 2025 with a foreword by Doug Chinnery.

• Mood over description. Making images that feel visceral rather than descriptive.

Part 3: The Less is More Edit — Monday 23 November, 19:00 GMT

This is the session I specifically asked Bill to include. In a world of AI skies and heavy processing, he has a strong reaction against fake imagery, and his own editing is famously brief. Here he pulls back the curtain.

• A live edit, warts and all. Bill's own words. He will work through a handful of his raw files in real time, with nothing tidied up beforehand.

• Keeping it real. Why he prefers an analogue feel, and how to avoid over-cooking your files.

• The tool kit. The few sliders he actually uses, and the ones he ignores.

What you'll need

• Any camera where you can set the shutter speed yourself. A phone will get you some of the way, but a camera you can slow right down is better.

• A neutral density filter is useful, though Bill will cover how to work without one.

• For Part 3, whatever editing software you already use.

Who this is for

Anyone who wants to make more expressive images with the camera they already own. You do not need new kit and you do not need to be an experienced landscape photographer. If you have ever looked at a painterly, abstract image and wondered how on earth it was made, this

series is for you.

What people said last time

Kim wrote to us after Bill's three-part Water series:

I participated in all 3 Bill Ward workshops, and I would like to say thank-you for organising them. They were probably the best zoom workshops I have ever done, and it was ajoy to see Bill's enthusiasm for his art and his information was very well presented. Thepictures he presented were inspiring and I am now enthused to give it a go.

Kim, one mile from the Suffolk coast

About Bill

Bill Ward is a multi-award-winning photographer and actor, born and raised in Newcastle-upon-Tyne. He was awarded the Adobe Prize at the UK Landscape Photographer of the Year Awards and Best Seascape at the Scottish Landscape Photographer of the Year Awards. He judges for UK Landscape Photographer of the Year, writes regularly for ICM Photography Magazine and is a Tour Leader for Light and Land.

Many of you will also know him as Charlie Stubbs from Coronation Street, or as James Barton in Emmerdale. He has been an actor for over twenty years, most recently touring in The Full Monty and Twelve Angry Men. His photography, as he puts it, is an antidote to the time he spends working in the public eye.

His book Immersive was published by Kozu Books in 2025 - I have a copy myself!

See more of Bill's work: billwardphotography.co.uk · Instagram @billwardphotography ·

Immersive at kozubooks.com

From Mark

I have had the pleasure of hosting Bill a few times now, and we also met for a cuppa while he was touring with The Full Monty. Every time he finishes a session I end up asking him when he can come back, and I am not the only one. He is the only person I know who can put a single image on the screen, talk about it for three minutes and hold the entire room.

What I love most is his obsession with energy. He does not just take a picture of a place, he captures how it feels to stand there. Whether he is waist-deep in the ocean or standing in a quiet woodland, he teaches us to be an active participant rather than an observer.

We also had a good chat about his editing. Bill was modest about showing his process because he really does not do very much to his files, and I told him that is exactly why we need to see it. If you want to put real feeling into your work without spending hours at a computer, you will enjoy this one.

Tickets

£18 for all three live sessions.

Every session is recorded, and you have full access for four weeks after the final session.