Crescent Moon Over the City: Light-trails

madlyinlovewithlife has added a photo to the pool:

Still on a moon theme. This is another archival shot. The thing that looks like a helicopter searchlight in the sky beaming down to earth is a crescent moon light trail. A wisp of cloud came over the moon, obscuring it slightly, but I liked the shot anyway.

For anyone wanting to know, here's how I got this light trail shot: I set up my tripod and camera on my balcony (which overlooks the city) just after dusk. There was still a little color in the sky, but you can play with light trails at any time of night. A tripod is essential for this kind of light trail shot. If you want straight line light trails, the camera cannot move or even be shaken. You also need to use a zoom lens to get these kinds of light trails. Set the exposure properly for a night shot (a long exposure, this one was 15 seconds). Make sure Auto ISO is off (I used ISO 100). Click the shutter, then slowly zoom your lens, either in or out, trying to extend your zooming over the entire exposure time and being as careful as you can to not shake the camera (if you don't want wiggly lines). For this shot, I smoothly zoomed the lens throughout the whole time of the exposure to get the trails even, but you can experiment with different effects. If you want something emphasized, either at the beginning or at the end of the shot, let the zoom lens pause there a little longer.