Day 15: Trail lights

This was a fun challenge. You have all probably seen such photos before across social media. I’m talking about those photos in an idyllic and most likely famous location at night, with a bunch of light trailing across your picture.

This exercise focuses on correctly exposing your subject, which is usually a landscape, using low shutter speeds to allow enough light through your lens. When a car, bus or anything with lights turned on passes by while your shutter is still open, you get this uniquely stylized photo.

I consider living in London with its trademark building and views an advantage. But I didn't want to take just another picture of the Tower Bridge or the London Eye.

I took my camera and headed to Temple and Embankment, hoping to snap a few banger trailing shots. I was not disappointed!

London’s night lights are ideal for long exposure photography. I set up my mini tripod on the side of the road and played around with the shutter speed to try and get different results.

As fun and easy as it sounds, slow shutter speed photography holds a number of traps. Focusing using slow shutter speeds at night with your camera grounded on your tripod, can be challenging. More so when there’s heavy rain and you end up drying your lens every 3 seconds.