For any exposure longer than about 1/100 sec, you need stability, that means a tripod or some such other firm, fixed stable support. No ifs, no ands, no buts. Next, you need a remote release so you do not have to physically touch the controls with your finger to trip the shutter. If your camera is equipped, the best is a simple cable release. If your shutter has a bulb (B) setting, with a cable release, you can hold the shutter open for as long as you depress the cable release. Many cable releases have a screw clamp to hold the button down so you do not have to use your finger for an exposure of many minutes. Next best is to use the built in self-timer and let it trip the shutter itself without your finger on the button. Set the shutter time and trip the self timer and stand back while the camera does the rest. Now, as to subject matter, just be aware of two things, motion of objects in the frame and depth of field so you know what will be sharp and clear and what will be blurred. The longer the time, the more motion affects things. Aperture determines the depth of field, so you use a combination of time and aperture to get what you want sharp and clear and exposed correctly. You need a GOOD light meter, preferably a Cadmium-Sulfide (CDS) type. They use a battery and a light sensor and can provide you with an exposure that can last up to hours if needed. The light meter in your camera is NOT as good as a CDS device. What you are doing is getting a 2nd opinion on what the exposure should be. The CDS meter has a much wider accurate range than the built in meter. If the readings differ, I would favor the CDS meter over the internal. If this camera is a decent one, you should have the ability to set ISO film speed, focus, shutter speed and aperture manually.just as you can with any decent 35mm SLR. The ultimate in time exposures is a pinhole camera. I once made one with a shoebox which I left on my front porch overlooking the street. What I got was the front yard with shadows shaped as semicircles (because they moved slow enough to record on the image), but no cars on the road. The cars went by too fast to end up on the film, but there was a slight blur from the many cars which went by all adding up. Other than that, what you with long exposures is up to you. What do YOU think it would interesting to do? I recently built an "interval" timer for use with a cheapie digital camera. An interval timer is simply a device which trips the shutter at a specified interval of time. I opened the cheapie and use some small relays to bridge the control buttons, and added 2 light sensors to "see" when the power LED was lit and the selftimer indicator was lit. When the interval timer runs down, it checks to see if the power LED is lit, If not, it "pushes" the power button until the power LED is lit and then it releases. If the power LED is lit, it then presses the selftimer switch until it lights and then shuts itself off until the next interval. The camera is now on its own to snap a picture. After the picture, it automatically shuts itself off after 30 seconds (the lowest auto power down setting), until the next time. Then by mounting the works in place, I was able to take pictures spaced several hours apart, one after another over a whole week. Instead of an interval timer, I could have used a motion sensor and when the motion sensor saw something tripped the camera, which would then take a series of pictures spaced as far apart as the delay in the selftimer. If you are willing to do a little brain surgery, there are a lot of nifty things you can do with cheapie digital cameras. A friend of mine used my timer idea with a tethered helium balloon big enough to lift his camera to take still pictures from overhead a boat race. He added a windvane to the balloon so it stayed stationary and did not rotate by staying aligned with the wind direction. The point of view of the images was, to say the least, unique. Use your imagination. You'll think of something interesting to take your pictures of that is equally unique and creative.