1: the morning bus.
Well, Going to Work – images from Bristol’s morning rush hour – has reached 100 posts, and I’m both pleased and surprised. As is usual with my photo series, I haven’t the faintest idea of how – or indeed, if – it will progress but, that’s me! I started the series back in July 2016, and have more and more been drawn towards photographing in the dark, cold, early mornings of winter, but so far this winter I have only managed one such sortie. Increasing years perhaps, or changing photographic attitudes / preferences / energies? Early morning buses down to the city centre are still readily available, but these days the vast majority of my early morning forays are local and on foot – and are recorded in this blog’s Outer Suburbs series, which includes the Early Morning series, and which is steadily moving towards 200 posts.
So, anyway, Going to Work at 100, what are my thoughts? Well, on the technical side, I’m grateful for having cameras and image processing software that enable me to photograph in such challenging, early morning conditions. And then, second – and especially since retirement has given me the space to look at and think about the world around me more – I continue to think about the dehumanisation that modern workstyles can bring – of which work-related stress (which I fell prone to, twice) is a sure pointer. And especially with regard to working in cities and other large conurbations, with commuting long distances to work, with feeling the need to look at work emails and mobile texts outside of working hours >>> and to balancing all in the “busy modern lifestyle”.
So here are images illustrating just one of these phenomena: the morning rush hour, the morning rush to work, which most people engage in five days out of every seven. Links to the whole series, should you wish to look through them, are given below. I hope you will like these pictures – clicking onto them once or twice will enlarge them in separate windows.
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2: the first post, 23 July 2016; the birth of an idea.
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3: the morning bus, overcrowded, overheated, steamy.
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Recent Going to Work posts are here: 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 . Each will open in a separate window.
GOING TO WORK: THE EARLIER POSTS: 1-92.
You can see a summary of the Going to Work series here .
Earlier images from this series can be found here: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 . Each will open in a separate window.
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4: that expression; we’ve all been there.
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5: hurrying to work, hurrying through the cold, hurrying towards the unreachable light.
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6: a rather scary part of walking and photographing the morning rush hour is the frenetic and often careless driving of those apparently thinking of little else besides getting to work on time. When I compiled this post, a week or so back, I wrote “I’ve seen numerous near misses, i.e. near collisions, between vehicles …”. Well that has changed now: around dawn on Wednesday, on a well lit main road, a car pulled out into the traffic and their came the dull thud and flying debris of an impact; fortunately both drivers were only shaken up.
And I’ve avoided being hit more times than I like to think about >>> and this includes numerous occasions when people reversing out of their driveways fail to ensure that no one is behind them on the pavement! I particularly remember a woman rushing out of her front door, slamming it, jumping into her big BMW, switching on the ignition, revving up and lurching forward a foot or so before realising that I was a couple of feet from her front bumper: I’ll never forget the totally bewildered and stunned look on her face. Do I have great admiration for all members the species to which I belong? Well that’s a very iffy and loaded question, I mean, you’re putting me on the spot here …
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7: waiting for the morning bus
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8: lurching forward out of the early morning gloom with a damned big camera, I can have this effect on people.
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9: going to work from way out in the Outer Suburbs – standing in a bus shelter illuminated by the rising sun and surrounded by fields and trees, but entranced only by mobile phones; a lucky, opportunistic capture with the TG-5.
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10: I’ve seen this so often – they’re looking down and preoccupied – they’re going to work.
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11: my overall favourite, I suppose; such an interesting and arresting character >>> I’d love to connect!
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12: another cold sunrise.
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13: on her radar.
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14: another favourite; short of time and the traffic banked up ahead – once again, we’ve all been there; I also like the light on the car’s dirty and “distressed” (but, to me, eminently characterful) bodywork.
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15: reality; this is how it can be sometimes.
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16: perhaps dozing, perhaps temporarily somewhere else.
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17: breakfast, on the go >>> oh, and – of course – role model!!!
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18: reading the morning paper; the couple behind gazing forwards, as if with foreboding.
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19: again, that look.
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20: “Who’s the fat geezer with the camera?”.
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