Newbie looking for advice

jonnybadd

Complete newbie looking to (hopefully) enter the world of photography as a hobbie and just have some questions.

Getting my first camera for christmas off 'santa' so i dont know which model/make im getting, all's i know is that its a digital camera of some sort, anyways

A few of the pictures in the photo competition have a pretty cool effect, its in the "citywest bridge" picture primerily. The effect is like a streaking of car lights, into one continious stream of light.

How is this effect achieved, is it a special kind of lens or a skill to the shot.

Cheers in advance

DotOrg

it's simply a long exposure (ie leaving the shutter open for several seconds) you need a tripod or solid surface for this otherwise everything else in the shot becomes blurred too

FX Meister

Chances are you won't be able to do this with your digital camera. Do the people buying it for you know much about cameras? There's no way I'd let my parents/bird buy me a camera they chose.

jonnybadd

They dont know much but i know even less, as i said its my first camera im not looking for anything fancy so it will do me for the moment