4am Project 2011

April 27, 2011 by Author 0 Comments

Many people may not be aware what the 4am Project actually is and it’s a quite a hard one to describe. It’s the brain child of Karen Strunks who thought it would be a good idea to get people from all around the world to capture their own local area at the ‘magical’ time of 4am on the same designated morning and then share these experiences and photos via the global project online at 4amProject.org and via the Flickr group.

The date this year was Easter Sunday 24th April, 2011 (luckily I wasnt working this year! – read last year’s blog post on the my first venture into the 4am Project world!) I was looking back at last years photos which were taken around Cardiff City Centre – trying to conjure up some inspiration for where to locate for this year’s project. I didn’t want to visit the City Centre again as the photos would’ve almost been identical – Cardiff Bay was a possibility but transport was a problem. I also knew that a group of people were joining up and heading out in Roath but thought we didnt want 56 people with all the same photos. So where do I go?

THEREFORE I decided to go back to basics in my approach for the 4am Project and just photograph around my local area where I live. (This satisfied the brief of not being awake too long, getting more time in bed and with no transport issues!) As great as the side-streets are in Pontcanton I decided to take a walk up Cowbridge Road West where there was a bit more activity and some more familiar sights that people would actually recognise rather than just empty street with parked cars after another empty street with parked cars and the odd cat scurring past!

My tripod had broken so I was left with just a camera and trying to find some flat surfaces to balance the camera on to try and take some longer exposures to get the real ambience of the night. (I didnt get as long exposures as I wouldve wanted hence I’ve treated a few of the shots to give them a bit more interest!)

Cowbridge Road West is still the main thoroughfare through Cardiff West thus there was still a fair trickle of vehicles at this time and of course loads of taxis racing to get their next fare.
Having taken a lot of grafitti photos over the years I couldnt resist but take these few bits that I found aswell! Late night naughty stickman indeed! ;)

After being stopped by the police last year I was apprehensive whether to take a photo of the police van that passed – but luckily I got away with it and they didnt stop this year! *phew*
This was Easter Sunday (oh yes I did make up for it later in the day with loads of chocolate and home made cupcakes, oh and some beer aswell!) and so needed to capture some essence of the Easter period. All I could find were some posters advertising some Easter Sunday and Bank Holiday weekend dance events in the City Centre and a message outside a church denoting its Holy Week! I also poked my camera through the window of the local Tesco aswell to see how much the Easter eggs were being reduced!

And so back via Canton Police Station, (i don’t think it’s staffed 24 hours a day now!) and some police cones looking after a bag of sand! Also a last peak inside another local cafe not bussling with fry-ups and people reading newspapers on a Sunday morning!

View the full set here – http://www.flickr.com/photos/djleekee/sets/72157626589818650/ or the slideshow below:-