There is a triangular traffic island along Bayswater Road, on London's West End, where another street merges. I paused here, as a bicycle tethered to a stand on the island caught my eye. Just a single bike - nothing “special” about it. Except for the smattering of still colorful late autumn leaves alongside it on this November night…and the long bicycle-shaped shadow the street light was casting on the concrete. And, of course, the briskly moving rush hour traffic whizzing by on Bayswater Road - traffic that, I noted, included tall red double-decker buses.

As I had the luxury of a tripod, I set a nice “slow” ISO of 125 to ensure the purest rendition, and started making some text exposures. The camera’s display would tell me when I got it “about” right. I stopped down to f/22 for most of the shots, as I wanted both lots of depth of focus and the sort of star burst effects that small aperture can bring.

But I was also seeking the right kind of light trails, combined with all three lamps of the traffic signal being lighted, if that could all come together. So, the variables were mainly exposure duration and choosing my traffic moments, hoping always for a nice red double- decker streaking by.

I think it all came together in this one, with the added attraction of the high-mounted bluish-white lights of traffic veering in the opposite direction crossing on the far side of the island.