London by moonlights

It could almost be a stairway to heaven. This remarkable picture of the full moon was taken by photographer Alisdair Macdonald from the South Bank this week after 20 years of trying. It is not a montage but one picture exposed 10 times.

Mr Macdonald shot it with traditional film and said: "I had to sweat overnight until I could take it to be developed.



"When I saw it I just said 'Yes!' It's a lovely feeling when you know you have got it. I've tried many times to get the shot but I always messed it up or a cloud would come along.

"This time there was not a cloud in the sky. Tourists stopped to see what I was photographing. Then they all tried with their little cameras. I was thinking 'Good luck!'"

Mr Macdonald used an 80mm lens on his Nikon mounted on a tripod. The nine hundredth-ofasecond exposures are all four minutes apart. For the final shot he captured the buildings with a two-second exposure.