New global 4am Project date plus bonus Nottingham event!

I'm calling out to photographers and those with a curiosity and like to try something a little crazy different at 4am on Sunday 25th November.

The 4am Project is back and not only is this another global event, I'm also hosting a 4am Project photo walk in Nottingham city centre!

Tickets are free and places are limited!



Grab some 4am photography inspiration from some of the 6000+ photography archive from the project from 50 countries!



Where to find the 4am Project online....

• Website
• Flickr Group
• Facebook Group
• Twitter
• View the archives

It's really easy to take part! All you need is a camera (and a willingness to get up at 4am!)

If you have any questions, just give me a shout! :)

Could you be the Photobox Motographer Of The Year?!

Last night I hopped on a train to London to meet up with some of the Photobox crew and some of the London Instagramers in Brick Lane for the launch of Photobox's Motographer Of The Year Awards 2012.

Motographer? Yes, you read it right! A motographer is a photographer who uses their mobile phone to take their photographs. Mobile phones account for 25% of the digital photos taken these days, and the popular mobile photograph app, Instagram, has hit the 100 million user mark!

Of course there are prizes for the winner of the Motographer Of The Year award. Here's what Photobox has on offer:

A brand new smart phone
The winner will be announced in December.
£500 in Photobox credit
Enrolement in an iPhoneography course
£50 of App store vouchers to spend on motography apps
Access to photography events
And your winning image printed on a mug

It's really easy to take part.

Simply take your winning image and upload it to Twitter, Facebook or Instagram and tag it #MOTY2012

That's it!!

All the entries will be pulled together via the tag and the judging panel will do the rest.

Head over to the Photobox site for more details about the judges and rules of the competition.

Good luck and happy motograph-ing!

Here's my competition entry - just because it was the sweetest little rescue dog with such a gentle nature. Awwwww :)

Say Hello on twitter: @karenstrunks

4am Project photo walk in Birmingham this Sunday 15th April

Ok! Here's the 4am Project plan for Birmingham City Centre this Sunday. Yes, at 4am!

Where: Meeting at St Philip's Cathedral, Colmore Row, Birmingham B3 2QB MAP There's lots of parking spaces around the streets off Colmore Row and it should be free as it's Sunday.

 
View Larger Map

Time: 3.45am - 5am-ish

What: We will hit the streets for some 4am urban photography!

What to bring: Your camera. Charge batteries. Memory card. Tripod if you have one.
Wrap up warm! Bring a drink and maybe a snack - it's hungry work!

Take a look at some of the amazing photos taken on previous 4am Project photography walks in Birmingham!

 

After the event: Upload your best 4am photographs to flickr and tag them 4amproject, and geo tag them too. You can find a guide on how to do this on the 4am Project website.

4am Project website
4am Project on twitter

I hope you can make it!

Say hello on twitter @karenstrunks

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Announcing the next 4am Project date!

Get ready to set your alarm clock for 15th April at 4am!

It's 4am Project time! 


I started the 4am Project in 2009 and it's a global, collaborative photography project that aims to capture a view of the world at the often unseen time of 4am.

It's really easy to take part - and I hope you will! All you need is a camera and a free flickr account. Oh, and a willingness to get up at 4am!

I've set up a Facebook Page and also a 4am Project group on Flickr too, so feel feel to join.

4am Project

This April marks the 4am Project's 3rd birthday. Third! It's been an amazing 3 years and the response to the project has been astonishing. I'm so glad people like it and want to take part!

You can expect a few 4am Project posts over the next couple of months. I have a lot to say about it! :)

In the meantime, you can follow the 4am Project on twitter, see the Press Release here, and put the 15th April in your diary!

Say hello on twitter @karenstrunks

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The week that was and what I got up to

I slept really, really well last night and it's no wonder. When I woke up this morning the first thought I had was, 'Did I really do all that this week?!'.

The answer was, 'Yes, I did.' ;)

So, without further ado, I'm going to give an abbreviated version of the highlights from this week. I'd love to dedicate a blog post to each event, but hey ho!

Day out in Lichfield 

Me and my Lovely Mum, @createdineire, had a jolly nice day out in Lichfield last Friday. I hadn't been there before and it's only about 20 miles away. We had a nice time just wandering around this old city, browsing the shops, having a delicious lunch and of course we couldn't leave without visiting the cathedral.

Lichfield Cathedral

Mum lit a candle for me saying "This is for you and that you'll get back to NYC. You have a year to get there", coz I won't shut up about the place lol. 

Top Secret

On Saturday, Sunday and Monday I knuckled down to work on something Big (to me anyway!). My Dad used to tell me 'You don't have to tell everybody, everything, all of the time' and in the case of this Big Thing, I'm keeping it under my hat, for now. It required immense use of my brain power and it may well be one of the biggest challenges I've set myself (as well as NYC that is!). I really had to knuckle down and draw on my resources and hopefully it will pay off. If it does, or it doesn't, I will reveal all either way later in the year!

Speaking at Yardley Photography Society

On Tuesday evening I did a talk at the Yardley YPS. I was booked to do this almost a year ago - they plan their speakers quite well in advance.

I first thought my talk was going to be about 20-30 minutes, but soon realised it was for 90 minutes which made this into my longest talk to date!

It was in two 45 minute sections. The first half I went right back to the beginning of my photography career - how and why I started, what I did next, how I turned my passion into a career for myself. The second half I talked about the 4am Project. I showed over 100 photos in all.

The very first photos I took with a digital camera. So out of focus!

My published work in the Birmingham Post and Birmingham Mail newspapers

Professional Photography shoots

My first 4am Project photographs

New for this year! My Wedding Photography Services!

Digital Editor's Network

On Thursday I headed up to Manchester for the day, well to Media City in Salford to be more precise.

As well as looking forward to the Digital Editor's Network event, I was quite looking forward to my first visit to Media City.

I was really impressed with Media City itself. You could live there and never need to leave. It has apartments, a big shopping centre, cinema, restaurants and tons of business and places to work, including of course, the BBC.

The day ahead was all about innovations in Social, Local and Mobile in relation to new organisations.

Speaking at the event were Nick Turner, Head of Digital Content for CN group, Martha Stone CEO at World Newsmedia  Network, Francois Nel from Journalist Leaders Programme, Sarah Hartley from the Guardian (and of course talk about local!), Aiden McGrath from Aetopia, Paul Bradshaw from Help Me Invesigate and Greg Hadfield from Open Data Cities.

What a power house of people!

This really deserves a blog post of it's own. This was all about journalism, surviving in these difficult time, how to make money from digital assets (it's the way to go), with some amazing facts, figures and data being produced. You can catch some of the highlights over on the Live Blog and I did a very quick Storify from the hashtag of the day #solomoden (but twitter wouldn't let me catch all the tags) and they are worth a look to get an idea of the amazing discussions that were going on!

Birmingham Social Media Cafe

Yesterday was the 2nd Birmingham Social Media cafe of 2012 (the next event is on Friday 30th March at the Birmingham Town Hall. It's free and for anyone who is interested in using social media for work or play. There were about 40 attendees, so there's always lots of peeps to meet!

One of the reasons I took over the running of the event was that I know that as least once a month I will get the chance to go out and meet people, see friends and Be Social! I run quite a tight schedule work wise so I welcome this event at the end of the month. And if you want to 'pick my brains over coffee', this is the best place to catch me! :)

And that was the week that was!

And the week that will be....

Monday - Liverpool delivering a talk about local workshop

Tues - A day in Fazeley with the talk about local team

Weds - Stoke with Nicky delivering talk about local workshop and Wednesday evening having a phone chat with a lady who loves what I do online and would like help with blogging and starting her own website.

Today I'm catching with with 'stuff' (work) and cracking on with the 4am Project launch (there will be a global date in April), and tomorrow is pretty much the same!

Re availability..... It's very limited at the moment and I'm having to say No more than Yes right now and it will be that way until June, so feel free to ask away, but don't be disappointed/offended if I don't say yes.

Right now, I'm going to do some housework (yaaawwwwnnn!) and try not to throw away my tv (the built-in dvd player keeps switching itself on so I'm having a battle of wills with it at the moment).

Have a fab weekend! :)

Say Hello on Twitter @karenstrunks


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Tips and advice on starting and running your online community project

So, you have a super, duper idea for an online community project! You want the world to know about it and join in, but where to start?

I’m writing this from the point of view of running the 4am Project. It’s a global photography project that asks participants to capture a view of their world at 4am. It’s had a reach in over 50 countries and over 4,000 images submitted to date. I wear many hats with the 4am Project (and it’s been an amazing learning curve!), from event organiser, pr person, community manager, press spokesperson, advisor to name just a few.

A little while ago I received an email from someone who was starting an online photography project and asked for my advice

I thought I would share some of my experience of running an online community project with you and the approach I have taken. So, with out further ado!

 Planning

Who do you want to reach? Where are they? Why do you want them to take part? How are they going to take part? How are you going to reach them?

I found twitter incredibly useful for growing the 4am Project. I searched for people with an interest in photography on twitter, checked out their individual profiles (and whether they were actually active on twitter,) and I followed them.

Note: I didn’t follow people randomly. I took the time to research each person individually, as there was a greater chance that they would be interested in the project, follow and take part in the project and also tell their friends. I don’t do this so much now as the project has been established and I generally let it grow organically on twitter now.

Because my project is photography based and using flickr, I tapped into the flickr community. Again, I researched groups and individuals and connected with them. I’ll warn you now that both this twitter and flickr method is VERY time consuming, but both yielded good results as I took the time and trouble to do my research as make a personal connection. Where is your new community hanging out?

As you tick one ‘to do’ off your list of plans, others will take their place. As your project evolves and grows you will probably get a host of new ideas! The more the merrier in a way, but before you dive into them, think about what’s going to work the best and what is worth your time. Some things you will have to try to see if they work, but as soon as it becomes apparent that an idea isn’t working for the benefit of your project, drop it and move on.

Time Investment

This one took me a while to figure out, and it still does to some degree.

From day one I wanted the 4am project to be global. I invested practically all my free time in promoting the project (I had no support/staff or £ to pay anyone to do it). It did take over my life, and there were times when I was exhausted but felt I couldn't take a break from it. (I'm quite driven anyway and put 100% into everything). However, I do think that experience has instilled a new discipline in me to manage time/work/effort more effectively which stands me in good stead for other work and projects.

There were times when it felt like the project was controlling me rather than me controlling the project. Be aware of this. The larger your project grows the more people you will be interacting with. They will ask questions and comment. Are you going to be there to respond?

When your project takes off the ground, there may be press interest. You may be asked to do interviews, that might be by email, or on the phone or even in person. You will have to allow the time to do this.

Another extension of your projects is growth may be that you get asked to speak about it publicly in workshops, conferences, net working events etc. Is this something you will be comfortable with? Of course you don’t have to do it, but it can act as a good way to reach a new audience and of course build up your confidence in public speaking too!

I run the 4am Project around paid work (the project doesn't earn any £). And it’s very likely you will have to work on your project outside of your paid work too. So, start thinking now about how much time you can/want to invest in your project, and schedule it into you diary. I've got a better balance with the 4am Project now, by setting aside specific block of time to work on it ie. Rather than, ‘I’ll do a few hours next Saturday’, it’s "I will work on this next Saturday midday-4pm". Other arrangements, social or otherwise will have to be worked around this. I don’t give myself much flexibility in this area, as it would be all too easy to ‘do it tomorrow’. Don’t fall into that trap if you really want to make a go of your project.

Let's talk money!

Do you want to earn £ from your project? Do you want sponsorship/funding? Start working on that now. You can't start too early. I found with the few companies who have sponsored the 4am Project so far, and the funding I have received, that the wheels can turn very slowly. Frustratingly so at times. I have found that to even get a relatively small amount of sponsorship, it has required a big time investment. Weigh up what's on offer, what you actually want, how it will benefit the project, and whether it's worth it.

However, it’s not all about the money! I would say don’t wait for money, unless it’s an absolute critical part to get your idea off the ground. You may not necessarily need any money (though you might think it’s good to have it). What you really need is your enthusiasm, time, energy and you have all the free online tools you need at your disposal.

Hopefully this glimpse into running an online project and community doesn’t sound too overwhelming!

There are a lot of upsides. It can be a lot of fun, it can give you great experience (that can stand you in good stead for future work), it can raise your profile and put you on the ‘radar’, and it will bring you into contact with people you wouldn’t ordinarily have met.

The bottom line

What do YOU want to get out of the project? When you are deep in the middle of it all and it really takes off and it's keeping you really busy, it can be easy to lose focus, so most importantly don't forget why you have started it. Put a sign up. Remember what your online adventure is all about! :)

Say hello on twitter! @karenstrunks