Book project

Book Project - 

Having investigated a number of different themes for my book I wanted a subject that would not only be interesting to photograph and write about but would also be personal to me. I initially considered steam trains which I remembered vividly from my childhood, leaning out of the window with the wind and smuts in my face, but I felt this was limited so I expanded the field. Although growing up we could not afford anything greater than a Robin Reliant, I remembered that Cars from the fifties and sixties had more character than the mass produced aerodynamic vehicles of today.

With steam trains and cars as my main subject I started to investigate possible museums and collections that we could visit to photograph, only to discover that some of the collections had additional exhibits which included Aircraft. I therefore decided to expand the book to cover all forms of transport and my idea for Trains, Planes and Automobiles (from the John Candy film) took place with a few ships thrown in.

A list was possible attractions were created in my notebook with their locations and post codes to allow me to group nearby places together. I also added opening times, the entrance fee (including student concessions) and worked out the journey time to allow me sufficient time to photograph the exhibits.  

All other possible factors were covered including allow additional travel time to account for possible road works, motorway closures or even accidents. Alternative indoor locations were planned to allow for bad weather to ensure travel and time was not wasted. All camera equipment was taken including fully charged batteries and enough empty SD cards. Finally a Satnav to ensure we could find the places.

Fortunately we had already booked a week off work and this will allow us to travel to locations spread across the country to Beaulieu, Portsmouth Historic Dockyard and York National railway Museum. Local steam trains in Blaenafon and Merthyr were travelled to on Sundays to ensure the trains were running.

So now the fun part, I am ready to go out and start taking the photographs.

Below are copies of the list I made in readiness for my journeys:-