Eleventh Hour

This work by Adam M is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Australia License.

My watch, showing how near the end of the day was when I took this photo. I changed the zoom during the exposure to get this effect.

Pentax K-x - 1/4 sec - f/? - ISO 3200 - ~82mm

Pop up flash, gelled to match ambient light, two little LED torches, stationary in background to create streaks

Used GIMP to adjust levels, scale and watermark for web.

I would like to do this one again, and do it better. I also learned a lot.
Try after try of the zoom part just wouldn't come out like I wanted, so I think I need to go check the tutorials I read about this, to see if there's a trick that I'm missing.
Perhaps more point light sources in the background would help show the zoom effect better.
I also was planning on setting my watch forward so it read 23:59, but I was making so many attempts I would have been constantly re-adjusting it (also, it would have been awkward, as it was hanging by a thread).
I got to learn a bit more about the K-x's flash settings. Turns out that by default the white balance switches to auto when you pop up the flash. This meant that while I was expecting it to be tungsten balanced (and was gelling the flash to suit) it wasn't. Gelling the flash had about the opposite effect, and made me think that I was just really really bad at judging colour cast. I finally figured it out and changed the setting (easy enough - Menu, Custom 2, 8. WB When using flash, change to 2. Unchanged). I'm glad to have figured this out now, and I'm sure I'll be making plenty of use in future of these gels. Infact, I wonder if they've caused problems in the past without me even realising.