Give me the moonlight, give me the book deal, and leave the rest to me

Robert Self-Pierson's blog Moonwalking - Discovering Britain By Full Moon does what it says in the title. 

(Well, almost; the blog uses a crescent moon in the banner, which is a bit of a tease.)

Robert's been writing for nearly a year about his obsession with exploring Britain by the light of the silvery full moon.  (The first post, from last December is here). 

Each month he's done a long walk overnight in the full moon, outlining the result on the blog and presumably reserving a full essay for a future book.  The first moonlit walk was on January 11th 2009, and it was 17 miles from the Royal Observatory Greenwich to Waltham Abbey. 

Yesterday, in his post My Agent, he announced that he now has a literary agent.  Now he needs a book deal.

I'm not sure how wise it is to announce all this in advance.  It could work both ways:  On the one hand he might get people taking his idea and stealing his thunder (and moonlight).  On the other hand - the sunnier side, so to speak - the blog can give him valuable feedback, support on his walks, or useful advance publicity.

However good has his essays might be, in raw sales terms I suspect the success of a book like this will hinge on the photographs that accompany them. 

Moonlight photography is still - for some reason - an unexplored phenomenon.  It's very hard to convey the atmosphere of a moonlight walk;  I know, I've done dozens of them, and on Granny Buttons I've done my best to propagandise it. 

There's no better light to portray landscape.  I've written quite a few posts where I was given the moonlight and the rest was left to me.

Just for starters: 

• My boyfriend's the man in the moon - Cropredy Lock, Feb 2008
• John Jackson's memorial seat at Bosley Locks, Macclesfield Canal, October 2007
• 'Watercolour' of canal near Winkwell, 1am in the moonlight - Feb 2009
• A little more frozen canal at night, near Berko, Feb 2009 (the same 7-mile midnight walk as above)

In my case, I spent each blog post talking about the trick of photographing the landscape and the strange 'other-worldly atmosphere that resulted, not about the countryside itself or my impressions of it. 

If there's one GREAT time to photograph canalscapes in the full moon, it's when the snow falls.  That's a rare occasion during climate change, of course.  How about the photograph above, taken during last February's midnight walk from Berkhamsted to Apsley.

Below is a photo of the railway bridge near Winkwell.  The snow's not so visible, but it was on the same early-hours full-moon walk.

(Daylight photo of this location here.)

Robert, on this Halloween weekend of all weekends, good night and good luck!

See also: Full moon vs. Granny Buttons

And now please excuse me; I need to nip out and photograph Mercia Marina in the full moon.

Comments

[Andrew Denny]

Rob,

My pleasure, best of luck with the book!  It's an untouched subject, you are the first.

 

Andrew

[Rob Self-Pierson]

Hopefully it's not absolute lunacy to believe one day my adventures may be published. If it is lunacy, at least I have a nice record of my year with the moon. Thank you for your kind words.

Lunar blessings,
Rob