Looking for the magic on 4/4 at 4 am!
I wonder if there is a "Blogging While Fatigued" equivalent of "Driving Under the Influence." If so, the beautiful thing is the worst thing I can do is not make sense; no one will get hurt!
A couple of weeks ago, I started seeing mentions of "The 4 AM Project" appearing on Twitter. The goal of the project, now in its second year, is to capture images of the "magical" time of 4 a.m. worldwide (technically, the time window is 4 a.m. - 5 a.m.). I can't put my finger on what attracted me to this -- it certainly wasn't the prospect of losing sleep! I think it was the "world-wide-ness" of it. And as I prepared for bed last night and exchanged messages with people in London and other European cities who were taking their 4 am pictures, then again this morning as I exchanged messages with the Canadians who were just getting their chance, I felt a cool kinship with these people who I am unlikely to ever meet.
Here are a few images of my project:
1. Setting up my blog!
2. Uh-oh. I don't think my humble point and shoot camera is going to excel at dealing with a foggy Tallahassee morning.
3. I think it's so cool how the newspaper landed in a way that showed "Passion Play Marks Easter" face-up.
4. I had bigger plans to rig up some bunny ears or something on this sign, as if the Easter Bunny was peeking over the sign, but decided to let the sign speak for itself.
5. As it turns out, he had already visited the Waffle House (where I also played with my food and met a biker-guy (but camera shy) fellow customer).
6. But the highlight for me was meeting manager Bruce and Server Stephanie (who wrote out a pretty cool check complete with illustrations and a Happy Easter greeting):
7. Stephanie had been nice and helpful during my entire visit. But when I went to leave, I left behind a little stuffed bunny that I had thought may end up being a prop on my outing but I had not ended up using. I told her to keep it or give it to someone who she thought needed it on Easter. That's when she said, "well, I have three kids."
And that's why, despite my enjoyment of interacting with people in Great Britain, Bangalore, and Toronto, the most "magical" moment was the one I had with Stephanie, meeting another hard-working mom who just wants to make her kid(s) smile.
I'll "run" into you next week, readers!
4 comments:
Hi!
Loved reading about your 4am Project account!
Even though it's a worldwide project, participants like knowing that there are other people in their towns/countries taking part too. It's like a collaboration.
Thank you for blogging about it. I am still going through the photo on flickr (over 1100!).
There will be another 4am event in a few months. Hope you can join in again :)
I just may have to join the next one...I don't suppose there's an 8/8 @ 8 one is there? Would be little easier to be up! ;)
4 am is an interesting time to take photos. I love the concept and look forward to seeing other photos you take during the next event. Cool.
That picture is of fog? I thought for sure it was snow, though of course that wouldn't make any sense at all.
I love that Stephanie brought the bunny home to her kids. I can see why that was your favorite part of the experience.
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