An Garda

A member of An Garda Síochána directed traffic in Blarney last night when Santa visited and the lights were turned on in the village.

This is a long exposure zoomed shot, of about one second duration with the flash firing at the end of the exposure.

To replicate:

• Make sure you set your flash to “second curtain”. Use Google to find out how on your brand of flash. Normally the flash will fire at the start of an exposure.
• Have the lens at it’s widest zoom.
• Set the camera to one second exposure in shutter priority mode (Tv on Canon cameras, S on others) or use manual mode with an aperture as wide as possible.
• Line up your subject, hit the shutter button and slowly zoom in.

If you’ve timed it right the flash will fire when you’re zoomed in right. They’ll be lit by the flash and any background lights will appear as streaks going towards them. It’s hard to get right and not overexpose your subject so keep practising!