B4AM – Acocks Green Bus Depot | Karen Strunks Photographer

B4AM – Acocks Green Bus Depot

Posted at 27th December 2008 Posted in 4am Project, Blog, Cityscapes by Karen Strunks

I hope everyone has had a wonderful Christmas! Mine was very quiet and stress free, just the way I wanted it to be. I’m feeling well rested and ready for 2009.

I’ve just realised this is only my third blog post for December! One of my new years resolutions will be to update this blog at least once a week.

This month I had the opportunity to visit TWM (Travel West Midlands) bus depot in Acocks Green, Birmingham. So I hope you understand why I delayed the outing I am taking votes for on this post. (I am still taking votes there, and will be heading out in the new year, so if you have any preferences, please feel free to leave a comment).

Thank you to National Express for granting permission to visit and take pictures of the garage, and thank you to TWM Bus Driver for putting me in touch with the right people at the company.

The bus garage was almost in full swing when I arrived at 4am. The office was manned, the mechanics were fixing buses and the drivers were starting to arrive. I was given a hi-vis jacket to wear and off I set. I had made a visit to the garage a few days before and was given a tour. I wanted to check out the layout, buildings and lighting so I could gather a few ideas before my visit.

The lighting was a challenge. There were so many sources of light; fluorescent strips, white bulbs, orange bulbs, the lights from the buses and their headlights, and I was aware of the hi-vis jackets that could easily soak up the light.

I couldn’t take pictures of everybody I wanted to. Some were camera shy, and some were in a rush to get their bus out exactly on time, so I couldn’t delay them, however I found a few willing participants.

Thank you to everyone who participated.

I’ve had an experiment in mixing media; photos, music and video. The results are at after the pictures. I am quite pleased with the results, and it’s something I am going to play around with more often. In fact, I think I prefer to look at the photos with a soundtrack, it adds some extra atmosphere. Of course, the selected soundtracks may not be to everyones liking, it is just my interpretation. What do you think? Does it work? I was hoping to take a video of the actual picture taking, but found it unmanageable trying to concentrate on taking pictures (the priority) AND taking a video. Maybe by the time my next outing comes about I will have figured it out (and grown an extra set of arms!).