October 7, 2025- the 3rd day of our Hunt’s Photo Adventure in Yellowstone National Park– somewhere between genius and utter photographic bewilderment.
Every time — and I mean every single time — I spend a day with Don Toothaker, I walk away smarter, humbler, and slightly more confused about everything I thought I knew about cameras. The man’s a walking encyclopedia of photography, philosophy, and accidental comedy.
We were in Yellowstone, taking a brief break from chasing animals with long lenses, when I noticed Don doing something… odd. He’d raise his camera, then drop it. Repeatedly. Like he was trying to dislodge a squirrel trapped inside.
I watched him for a while, wondering if I should step in. It looked serious. Maybe his shutter jammed? Maybe his lens was haunted? Maybe he was performing some ancient Nikon exorcism ritual?
Finally, I couldn’t take it anymore.
“Hey Don, you okay? You, uh… seem to be losing your camera.”
He looked at me with that patient grin that says, This is going to be a teachable moment for George.
“ICM,” he said.
Now, to my credit, ICM sounded like a government agency. So I naturally assumed paperwork would be involved.
“What’s that?” I asked.
“Intentional Camera Movement,” he replied, as if that explained everything.
I stared at him blankly.
“So… you’re… shaking your camera on purpose?”
“Exactly,” he said. “It makes the images look like paintings.”
Oh. Right. Of course. Silly me. Shaking thousands of dollars of precision optics to get blurry photos. Brilliant.
But then he showed me one.
And holy shutter speed — it was art. Abstract, ethereal, mesmerizing. It looked like Monet had borrowed his Nikon.
“Try it,” he said.
So I did.
And within three minutes I was swinging my camera like a fly fisherman at dusk, convinced I was the next Picasso of pixels.
I’m hooked. (Literally and metaphorically — my camera strap got caught on my jacket.)
ICM might take a while to master, but I’m equal to the task.
After all, I once thought Scotch whisky tasted like jet fuel — and now I’m an aficionado.
So here we go: I’m on a mission from Don.
Stay tuned. Things are about to get blurry. Intentionally.
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