Posted by Dave Bull at 11:12 PM, August 9, 2008

Well ... the print seems to be arriving at destinations here and there around the world ... so time to open it up for everybody to see.

Here's a small version ... and you can then jump over to the main page, where you will find links to an enlargement, and the usual process slideshow ...

"... And on a sudden impulse, I remember my binoculars, dig them out of their pouch, open the tent flap wide, and lie back on the mattress to steady my head and arms as I peer up into the sky to see what she looks like - close up.

"And now again, as I have many times before in my essays, and will many times in the future, again I have to bemoan my sorry writing skills. How can I find any words to describe to you what I saw up there in the sky? I can say at once though, that during the remaining travels for this little diary of four seasons in a few solitary places, if I were to discover nothing more of interest, nothing at all, then this project would still have been an outstanding success. Because tonight, I saw the moon, and in fifty-odd years on this planet, I have never seen it before. I think there are two kinds of people reading these words: one group, the amateur astronomers, who know very well just what I saw there in the sky, and who are smiling in compassion at my inability to describe what I saw, and then all the rest of you, who are reading these words in a general incomprehension. ...

"It is a sphere! Not a flat, silver-coloured disk stuck onto a flat black backdrop, but a gorgeous spherical silver orb floating in a deep velvety black cavern. Now I understand what that word 'orb' means! This moon is as fully round and textured as any ball that you can hold in your hands. Think of the difference between a coin and a ball. Do you have a good impression of this difference in your mind? The flatness of one, and the sphericity of the other? Well that thing hanging up there in the sky is a sphere! Of course I knew this intellectually, I knew that men have even flown around it, have walked on its surface, but now I know what shape it is. Now I know that it really is another world, hovering there in space in partnership with this one on which we live. "

The thread continued here ...

Following comment posted by: Jennifer on August 9, 2008 11:21 PM

Oh Oh Oh Your moon is just so beautiful and what a surprise. It is just so different from the previous run, was my first thought, how incredibly skilled was my second.
You have so absolutely caught the magical sense of that great orb just hanging there in the sky, to bewitch us all. Thank you for all the care and skill that goes into your prints. I love it.

Following comment posted by: Marc Kahn on August 10, 2008 12:05 PM

All that, and with only 10 impressions. Astounding!

Following comment posted by: Marc Kahn on August 10, 2008 1:31 PM

And, by the way, the three-dimensionality in a raking light is wonderful!

Following comment posted by: Dave on August 10, 2008 1:42 PM

And, by the way, the three-dimensionality in a raking light is wonderful!

Hah! I was going to wait until a bit later to post about that! A couple of weeks back, I was at a small dinner 'party' with some friends here. I had just finished up the first batch of prints, so put one into my bag to show around and get some reaction.

As the evening wore on, it became gradually darker, but we didn't put the main room lights on, just sat around the large low table on the floor, with a couple of desk lamps here and there giving just enough illumination. Nice food ... nice wine ... nice people ...

Anyway, you can guess what's coming. As we sat around after dinner, I quietly pulled the print out of my bag, stood it up on a nearby desk just at the right angle under the soft light of a desk lamp, and then came back to the table to take my place. When I turned back to look at it ... !!!

I have to say, I had never intended this as a 'trick' print, but yes, it looks just astonishing under that special lighting condition. The people at the dinner wouldn't believe that it was flat, and had to get up there and see for themselves that yes, it's just a smooth piece of paper ...

Fun!

Following comment posted by: Barbara Mason on August 10, 2008 4:05 PM

Dave,
what an astonishing print and such a surprise. Good job.

Following comment posted by: Bette on August 11, 2008 12:52 AM

i was absolutely wowed by this print when i received it the other day, and still am. it is more than outstanding. excellent work, dave! and tonight i'm going to place it by a lamp like you did at your dinner party and see the magic :)