I printed a fly today

[claytume]

This was a first for me.....I've been printing for about 10 years and today for the first time I printed a very sharp image of a fly in the middle of the sky of a city panorama. Never saw the fly land.....never saw him leave but I got nice impression of him on the paper.

Hope I go another 10 years before I get another one. Anyone had anything similar during a printing session?

Clayton

 

[colrehogan]

No, but I'll bet that looks interesting. Does the fly appear white on the print?

 

[claytume]

No, but I'll bet that looks interesting. Does the fly appear white on the print?

Yep....bright white on a grey sky.......perfect outline of him, he must have stayed dead still for the whole exposure which was 90 seconds in total. My wife wants to keep it and hang it on the wall........I'm not sure about that.

Clayton

 

[colrehogan]

Let her hang it. Depending on how big the fly is, she'll have a nice conversation piece.

 

[arigram]

Maybe you can get the fly to model for you for some makro shots.
I can imagine your next prints:
"Fly reclining on sofa"
"Abstract nude of a Fly"
"Waiter, there is a Fly in my soup"
etc

 

[Andy K]

Excellent! Can we see?

 

[srs5694]

Yep....bright white on a grey sky.......perfect outline of him, he must have stayed dead still for the whole exposure which was 90 seconds in total. My wife wants to keep it and hang it on the wall........I'm not sure about that.

Submit it to the Weekly World News. They'll publish the story of the amazing giant white fly that terrorized your city.

 

[Shmoo]

It's definitely a "one-of-a-kind" print, eh? I'd keep it just for grins and giggles!

Never had anything like that happen, but a friend of mine in Hawaii had a gecko crawl into her b&w laser printer and she...uh..."printed" him...wasn't a pretty sight and it cost her a fortune to fix the printer. The gecko didn't make it.

 

[Bob F.]

I think I hear eBay beckoning to you....

 

[Lee L]

Keep some liquid light handy and apply it to the fly next time. You'll either have a mobile exhibit (if the developer and fix don't do the fly in), or you can mount the photo and "missing piece" side-by-side.

As it stands, you should display it and call it "Landscape with Rayograph".

Lee

 

[vet173]

catch a fly, put it in the freezer for 15 min, then you can do a series.

 

[glbeas]

I've printed a fly too, but not the same way. I was working at a print shop running a newsprint web press. While starting a run a fly apparently landed on the plate and got squashed. As the plate dampened and ink was applied there was a perfect image of the pancake fly on the paper for several hundred sheets until it finally washed off the plate.

 

[claytume]

Excellent! Can we see?

I'll post it later today when I get a chance.

Clayton

 

[philldresser]

There was an old man who printed a fly.
I dunno why he printed that fly,
Perhaps he'll die.

There was an old man who printed a spider,
That managed to wriggle inside his enlarger.
he printed the spider to cover the fly.
But I dunno why he printed that fly -
Perhaps he'll die.

There was an old man who printed a bird;
How absurd, to print a bird!
he printed the bird to cover the spider
That managed to wriggle inside his enlarger.
he printed the spider to cover the fly.
But I dunno why he printed that fly -
Perhaps he'll die

There was an old man who printed a cat.
Imagine that, he printed a cat.
he printed the cat to cover the bird ...
he printed the bird to cover the spider
That managed to wriggle inside his enlarger.
he printed the spider to cover the fly.
But I dunno why he printed that fly
Perhaps he'll die

There was an old man who printed a dog.
What a hog! To print a dog!
he printed the dog to cover the cat...
he printed the cat to cover the bird ...
he printed the bird to cover the spider
That managed to wriggle inside his enlarger.
he printed the spider to cover the fly.
But I dunno why he printed that fly
Perhaps he'll die.

There was an old man who printed a goat.
and had to give the paper a second coat!
he printed the goat to cover the dog ...
he printed the dog to cover the cat.
he printed the cat to cover the bird ...
he printed the bird to cover the spider
That managed to wriggle inside his enlarger.
he printed the spider to cover the fly.
But I dunno why he printed that fly
Perhaps he'll die.

There was an old man who printed a cow.
I don't know how he printed a cow!
he printed the cow to cover the goat... he printed the goat to cover the dog...
he printed the dog to cover the cat...
he printed the cat to cover the bird ...
he printed the bird to cover the spider
That managed to wriggle inside his enlarger.
he printed the spider to cover the fly.
But I dunno why he printed that fly
Perhaps he'll die.

There was an old man who printed a horse -
he used Sean's enlarger of course.

 

[Andy K]

Most chuckleworthy Phil!

 

[raucousimages]

I built a darkroom sink for the University of Utah in 1989. It was fiberglass over wood. 6 in. deep 36 in wide and 32 feet long. We did the resin in a single pour. With all the windows open the smell seemed to attract insects. They would fly low over the sink pass out and drop into the wet resin. we must of had 6 or 7 flys and numerous mosquitos and other bugs in the mix. Maybe they just love the darkroom like us.

 

[Ronald Moravec]

I printed a few hairs in my life. They always fall across an eye or something.

 

[claytume]

ok.........here he is.......this is a small section of a panorama which I'll post next.

Clayton

 

[claytume]

Here's the whole panorama in sections.......the real thing is one image shot with a scanning film camera, neg size is 60 x 300mm.

Clayton

 

[colrehogan]

Cool!

Attack of the Killer Fly!

 

[arigram]

hmmm... maybe next time you can print the fly on the tower to make it more like King Kong, or maybe Godzilla...
"You will be terrified and astonished by the mighty power of the FLYZILLA!"

Btw, Phill, great poem there. Maybe you can get it published.

 

[middlecalf]

Model Release

Not sure, but is a model release required before you can market this print?

 

[Christopher Walrath]

Y'all are nuts.

 

[Shmoo]

Not sure, but is a model release required before you can market this print?

Considering the life span of a fly, you may need it's mommy's signature as well...

lol

 

[dphill]

So, what's all the buzz about?