The 4am Project

Social media is great for bringing a diverse set of people with similar interests together for a particular project. An excellent example of which has been Karen Strunks extremely successful 4am Project:

The aim of the 4amproject is to gather a collection of photos from around the world at the magical time of 4am. Everyone can take part and join in! All you need is a camera. We want to see what you see at that moment in time on that one day. What’s your view at 4am?

Obviously, as a man who needs at least eight hours sleep a night, my view is that I should have been fast asleep dreaming of unicorns or some such tosh. However, my girlfriend had other ideas. Although I contemplated sending her out into the night with hundreds of pounds worth of photographic equipment to confront the last drunken stragglers staggering home from the pubs and clubs of Wolverhampton, I knew everyone would blame me if she ended up mugged or dead in a ditch (however misplaced such blame would be).

It's been about 15 years since I was serious about photography: with multiple lenses, filters, films, and access to a dark-room. 4am didn't strike me as the best time to start again, so I went along purely in the role of observer - with the exception of 'twitpicing' a single photo from the worst camera-phone in the world at 4am:


The world is very different at 4am, and all in all it was a pleasant stroll around Wolverhampton's West-End:

View 4am Project in a larger map
Without a doubt, the most interesting - and least tiring - part of the day has been watching some of the other pictures, posts, and films that have been put online throughout the day.

-Lee Allen's video of other 4am participants in Wolves
-4am Project Flickr Group
..and of course...
-My girlfriend's view of the world at 4am