Despite my usual reluctance to get out of bed in the mornings, I managed to bound out of bed at 3.30am this morning, and was washed, dressed and out of the door by 3.50am ready to start taking some pictures for the 4amproject [see my previous blog post for more details on what the 4amproject is all about]. I had heard there was an organised meet up getting together at Wolverhampton train station at 3.45am, but this would have meant leaving my flat at 3.15am…so I decided just to take some pictures closer to home instead, although my wander still took about 40 minutes in total.

Back in the day when I was a regular clubber, nightclubs used to close at 2am and I was usually safely tucked up in bed by 3am at the latest, but these days pubs and clubs are open all night long, and on my 4am wander I passed many people who were staggering home from town with half eaten pizzas and kebabs. I had a close call at one point when a young lad thought I was taking a picture of him…but when I explained I was just taking a picture of the litter strewn about the pavement, he must have thought I was either mad, or a reporter or something as he then apologised for questioning me and wandered off.

If you’re not regularly up and about at 4am, it’s easy to imagine how you think your local area will look, but it actually looks a lot different in reality. Where you live will obviously make a big difference to your experience, but for me, the eerie silence was the thing I noticed the most, it felt a bit like starring in a post-apocalyptic thriller, wandering the streets searching for other ‘survivors’. This silence was now and again disrupted as lone taxis whizzed by taking late night revellers home, and from the bird call which I never usually hear so clearly.

The best part about the 4am project is uploading the photos onto Flickr, and seeing the pictures that everyone else took. You come across pictures from other people in your local area, who you didn’t even know existed, yet who you now feel united with due to the fact you were both up at 4am wandering the streets because of your love of photography and the desire to take part in a global creative project. Such a project is a brilliant way of bringing people together, both directly (via organised 4am meetups) and also indirectly (via the world of social media and sites such as Flickr and Twitter).

All in all I really enjoyed my first experience of the 4am project. I will definitely take part in any future events, and next time I may even wander further afield, but my favourite picture from my first event was of the garage at the end of my road.

shell garage, tettenhall road, wolverhampton