When capturing photos after drawing with a flash light, what does it mean by long exposure time?

Question

http://flickr.com/photos/ameliabeth/2692334101/

this is the kind of picture I mean, but what does the "exposure time" mean?

Answer 1

Exposure time is how long the shutter of the camera stays open.

If you can throw your camera into manual mode you may have an option to control the shutter speed. One of my cameras, a Canon SD 1000 can do up to a 15 second shutter speed (Read - from the time you press the button the shutter stays open for 15 seconds witting information to the sensor that compiles it all together)

You're going to want to experiment with shutter lengths to get the right look / feel that you're going for.

Oh, and you might want a tripod becuase any movements of the camera will cause the photo to blur.  

Answer 2

How long the shutter stays open.

That's how you can get the effect of all the cars taillifgts running together on a freeway shot at night, or you can make the water stream or cascade in a picture of a fountain or a waterfall.

There are lot of neat effects you can achieve by using a slower shutter speed.

Good Luck....