I started the Cello Expressions Photography blog in 2015. Over the years, it’s developed a stable format and approach. This post discusses the inner workings of the photography blog and my perspective and goals. This blog, in contrast, focuses on text-driven and multimedia content.
Subject Matter
As its name suggests, my photography blog is image-centric. Individual posts range from a single titled image to narrative text introducing a large collection of photos. My most typical post format features an image gallery.
I originally planned to focus on construction, architecture, and landscape architecture. The scope quickly expanded to generally cover built and natural landscapes and structures. I occasionally mix in photos that emphasize textures. Anything that I encounter along these lines is a candidate for inclusion on the blog.
Goals
I collect images on my photography blog for my own personal future reference. I also share them publicly with the hope that they will be useful or interesting to others. The images live on this blog rather than any particular social media platform so that I maintain full ownership of the content and control over its presentation (via a custom-built WordPress theme). This approach offers the best opportunity for permanence that the internet enables.
Beyond presenting interesting imagery, I provide educational insight with certain posts. This is especially true for construction blog posts, which document the process of constructing buildings. As I started to generate content for the photography blog, it became clear that captions can be as powerful as the image content in telling this story. The content that I capture ultimately drives the specific information that I present. I supplement that content with captions to present a more detailed story when possible. My secondary goal is to engage readers interested in the construction industry through this content.
Process
My focus is on subject and content over the technical details of photography. Accordingly, content is generally captured with basic smartphone cameras. It’s often taken quickly or in passing. And there are many more discarded shots than published ones.
I do place some emphasis on visual composition and aesthetics. Lighting, particularly natural solar exposure and shadow, is an integral part of experiencing any place and conveying that experience through an image. When I have opportunities to repeatedly capture a given subject over time, I develop a better understanding of context and respond accordingly.
I try to take photos whenever I see a good shot. If I know that I’ll repeatedly visit a particular place or explore a given subject, then I plan more-organized collections grouped into coherent and narrative-oriented posts. For example, my garden series documents my annual gardening work and keeps a record of seasonal progression through images.
Construction projects lend themselves to this sequential-narrative image gallery format. They present an opportunity to explore numerous angles, solar exposures, and the progression of work over time. The end result fits into my architectural focus, and documenting the construction process creates an interesting historical account for the future.
Professional Context
I have worked professionally in the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry for the duration of my photography blog’s existence. My professional roles offer inspiration for subject matter on my photography blog. While I curate and publish blog content on my own time, I do have opportunities to capture images and gather context for them during my professional work.
Employers and Projects
I worked for Hathaway Dinwiddie Construction Company on the USC Village project from mid-2015 through 2016. Given my daily presence on site, I had the opportunity to gather a large collection of images and project information with the opportunity to tell a story. In my personal time, I curated these images into a series of image galleries documenting construction progress. A substantial readership followed along, encouraging me to continue the series in a similar format until I left the project in December 2016.
I have worked at KPFF Consulting Engineers in the Portland Structural office since 2017. A structural engineer’s role in a construction project necessarily differs from a general contractor’s work. But, I have the less-frequent opportunity to capture images of a larger variety of projects. I curate these images into a collection of blog posts highlighting more-focused aspects of projects. I feature some smaller projects on the blog with a single image or a gallery compiling images taken throughout the project. A few larger-scale projects are showcased with roughly-annual galleries documenting progress and interesting details that I happen to capture during the course of my professional work.
Approach
Because I focus the blog on photography, I generally do not publish content discussing proposed projects before construction starts. The projects that I feature in greater detail generally go through Portland’s Design Review or Historic Review process, making a significant amount of project information public before construction begins. During construction, I typically curate and publish content on a roughly-annual basis, presenting a time delay between reality and documentation.
These factors result in a layered approach that seeks to avoid disclosing project information that is intended to be confidential. While I capture some images from publicly-accessible viewpoints, a primary result of my professional roles is that I have access to privileged angles. I also typically have a deep knowledge of project technical details. I am highly selective in curating content to publish, balancing presenting an informative narrative with maintaining an appropriate level of privacy for detailed project information. If you are involved in a project featured on the blog and object to anything shared on the blog, please contact me.
Any opinions expressed are my own and do not represent my employer (KPFF) or other project team members.
Inspiration (Blogroll)
The range of architecture and construction blogs available online present excellent inspiration for my goal to generate interest in the construction process. In fact, similar blogs catalyzed my specific interest in building design and construction. Here are a few examples that I currently follow or followed when they were previously active: