The Inconstant Moon by Chipka
Open full image in new tab Members remain the original copyright holder in all their materials here at Renderosity. Use of any of their material inconsistent with the terms and conditions set forth is prohibited and is considered an infringement of the copyrights of the respective holders unless specially stated otherwise.
No AI - This artwork was created entirely by hand or with traditional digital tools.
Description
In Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, Romeo offered to swear by the moon to support his claim that Juliet was the fairest of those girl-sorts-of-people that he'd ever seen. Juliet, a bit miffed, declared: "Swear not by the moon, the inconstant moon..." as she apparently thought that the waxing and waning of the moon foretold fickle things. Thus, Romeo backtracked and offered more appropriate oaths of fealty and romance and raging male hormones. This satisfied Juliet.
In terms of symbolism, I suppose the moon might very well represent inconstant emotions. It lends its name to insanity, after all. Lunacy is viewed, even in the modern world, as that sort of crazy behavior that tends to follow...rhythmic, lunar cycles. Police reports, some more dubious than others, do point to a rise in violent crime rates on the nights of the full moon, and lay-people often say, "It must be a full moon tonight," when a day goes off the rails and becomes disturbing and surreal. Judging by this, we must have quite a lot more full moons than the calender implies.
I took this photograph on a particularly, um, lunar night, following loads of rain and a vast number of computer crashes. I'm posting it, now, from Corey's computer, awaiting the one phone call that will inform me of completed computer repairs. I rather like this shot. The moon is a bit washed out and lacking in detail, but those clouds are nicely dramatic...they are, as I like to say, lunatic clouds, surrounding Luna herself. I can't attest to the actual artistic merit of this shot, but it's definitely one of my favorites.
As always, thank you for viewing, reading, and commenting, and I hope you're all having a great week.

Comments (20)
Right away I saw a dog face in the clouds...maybe a St. Bernard...haha.
When I first read the title, I thought you might be a Larry Niven Fan, but this is just as good Great capture
Beyond words,to me!The moon is magic and the sky is so misterious with this colours!!Love it!!
wonderful image
that image is absolutely awesome...i love watching the moon cycles...especially the full moon...and the clouds definite add lots of drama to your excellent capture!!! chills and thrills...
A fantastic shot, Chip!
I'd say it's a beautiful shot, the kind of thing one sees in something like a werewolf movie, for example. It's funny to me that we always equate the cyclical nature of the moon with crazy but the linking to things like werewolves and such seems to be diminished these days. Makes me kind of sad really. Werewolves are under-appreciated in these times of zombie-walks and the like.
It's a beauty of a lunar shot, Chip. Something about it speaks to me of nearly fogotten fevered childhood dreams, as if I'd seen this before a long long time ago. Excellent work!
Ah yes, the full moon crashes computers too, making them inconstant. And Juliet is one to lecture about being inconstant. I've always believed that the full moon triggers an instinctive response saying that we've got an extra twelve hours to hunt tonight. Our eyes have a secondary response to the spectra that is reflected by the moon. Speaking of spectra, I love how it scatters through the clouds tinging them in red in orange.
Superb capture my friend. God Bless.
Ah, the moon--she gives us such a range of emotions. And shots like this are the reason why. Another wonderful one from you!!
Most dramatic! I see a slightly supercilious face in there.
And don't forget that everlasting tradition of mooning, and also the often heard description of being moonstruck...yes, the lunacy continues, and this is a nice grab of a what, scrambled moon?
WOW! That is indeed a dramatic shot. SO beautiful and peaceful too. Love the colors. A fantastic capture.
Awesome work.
I can see why you like this so much! It's loaded with drama and suspense. Anything might happen on a night like this! Outstanding image.
SUPERLATIVE IMAGE!
Very well done shot. I like when the moon is shining through the clouds.
Beautiful work!
Perfect cloud cover for this moon capture. Excellent lighting in the clouds too!