I plan to create a personal photography portfolio for my final project. The portfolio will be displayed in a user-friendly and simply-designed website, and will target those interested in reviewing my capabilities as a photographer – namely prospective employers. Ideally, the site would be easily converted from a portfolio to a marketplace where I could sell my work. This will allow me to turn my portfolio into a for-profit site if it appears there is a profit to be gained.

I currently display my photos in a photoblog titled “RobLSnyder.” That photoblog is hosted on Tumblr and I track the blog’s performance using Google Analytics. The blog hasn’t done so poorly. However, the photos cannot be organized well and that limits how much of my work can be seen at any given time. With a platform like WordPress, I think I could bring a bit more organization and draw more attention to my best work. I think I could also create themed areas, and promote those themes when I think it is most beneficial (firework-related photos during Fourth of July, for example).

I don’t anticipate adding much to the theme that I choose, since I will be looking for a very basic and clean display. What I will likely change is the functionality of the theme, and perhaps even remove a few things. That remains to be seen.

URL:  www.RobLSnyder.com

Description:  A personal photography portfolio that spans over a decade and across the globe.

Goals:  

• To display my work in a well organized and visually appealing manner.
• To create a foundation from which I can eventually sell some of my work.
• To have a functional site to which I can continue to add new photographs.

Audience:  People who enjoy browsing photographs, and are perhaps interested in purchasing original photographs of a location of interest.

How I Will Achieve My Goal:

• Transfer all photographs from Tumblr to RobLSnyder.com.
• Experiment with ways to organize the photographs and choose a method.
• Organize the photographs and create a way to update each section with new shots.
• Create a way for viewers to purchase photographs (perhaps just contact information to begin with).
• I plan to use Twenty Eleven Theme (http://wordpress.org/themes/twentyeleven).

Functionality:

• The site should be organized in clear sections that viewers can access easily, so there should be clear and understandable hyperlinks.
• Viewers shouldn’t have to browse through a bunch of photos in sequence. They should have a broad view and a close view, and be able to move between the two quickly.
• If they like a photo, there should be a way for them to save that for access later.
• I should be able to quickly add photos, preferably from multiple platforms.
• Design should be neat and free of clutter or distractions.
• The display of the photographs should be as artistic as the photographs themselves.

Theme Modifications:

• I’ll attempt to make the TwentyEleven theme less rigid, and perhaps more dynamic in the way photographs are displayed and how they link to other pages. For example, I will try to modify the them to move photographs from the left side of the page, so various places around the page. I’ll see if I can do this without messing up the other widgets, text, etc.
• I’d also like to see if I can create an introduction video (or quick presentation) to my site. In other words, when one clicks on the link, a quick sound and image will display in an Adobe Flash-like presentation. I’ve seen this on similar sites, and I think it works well.
• It would be nice to know which photographs are being looked at the most, get the most unique visits, and are viewed for the longest period of time. I’d also like to insert some kind of protection from obtaining full-resolution photos from the site. I’m not sure if this is already built into the TwentyEleven theme or not.

A few years ago, a couple of people on the Georgetown track team and I started a blog called High On Endorphins, where we would post videos and little articles about running and our comical viewpoints on the sport. Usually we would get really into it for about a week and actually post something, then it would go dormant for a year and a half. The site I want to build would be a revival of this basic idea, mostly comical commentary loosely centered around endurance sports (Without any actual rules. If I want to comment on Miley Cyrus’s latest music video, I’m going to do that too).

In the past the site was a tumblr, this time I want it to be more functional.  Mostly, I want the design to look professional, and I think using CSS and PHP will help me make the site look better than it ever has. I want to have different pages, not just posts, and for those pages to have different functionalities. I want to be able to offer readers ways to vote on certain things in my posts and share their opinions in ways beyond commenting, and have pages that have results of those interactions. I want to be able to post with interactive galleries and polls. Mostly, I want the site to be so good that I won’t want to leave it dormant again, so that it encourages me to post more prolifically.

Update to my idea:

URL: highonendorphins.com

Description: a collection of my most interesting/funny/angry thoughts on exercise, endurance sports, sports in general, pop culture, and anything else I think needs to be commented on.

Goals: to build an aesthetically pleasing, high-functioning and engaging site/blog that has enough constant interesting content to bring new and returning viewers.

• I will focus on a few important style and function aspects that I want to improve on my theme and perfect those changes
• I will have a finished site that looks so good and works so well that I’ll have no choice but to add content
• I will spend all day Googling questions when I hit a wall
• I will have a site that looks and works so professionally that visitors who stumble upon it will take it seriously and not know how few pageviews I actually have

I will be using Twenty-Twelve to start out.

Functionality/Design Changes:

• Post options that allow me to include polls and star ratings to increase engagement beyond comments
• Post options that allow galleries
• Custom post for reviews (movie/game/show)
• Modern colors, fonts, and room for future ads and greatest hits content (I’m going to sketch a mock-up at some point, although the creative art part may be the toughest part)