Tyler Rubis

Tag: Process Post

  • Imagined Audience

    As I’ve been developing my site, I’ve been working towards the goal of building a space for sharing more details about my work than I share elsewhere. The audience that I imagine for this site is one that is interested in the films and photography that I post on social media, and wants to know more about my creative process and thoughts through my blog posts. With my goal of using this website as a “professional” portfolio, I’ve been trying to keep the design simple and well-organized and maintain this look across all pages and posts. 

    Especially as I work towards importing my previous work, I want my photos to be the focal point of the site, not simply a decorative element. Ultimately, I feel like my site should be more about my work than it is about me, with my photos and films speaking for themselves. My blog posts are not meant to be technical or necessarily provide explanations for my work, but rather provide a bit of insight into the kinds of things that grab my interest and inspire my creative decisions.

    I don’t really expect to have a regular audience, a public that I speak to directly. I like to think that my site is more of an open journal, a place for my thoughts and ideas about my work that are perhaps too long or dense for social media, but available to read for anyone who is interested. In this way, I feel like I can keep my Instagram and Youtube a place to share my work quickly and in a way that is easily digestible, while still being able to put out more detailed writings as well.

  • Site Layout Planning

    Site Layout Planning

    1–2 minutes

    I’ve spent the last several days planning how I want my site to look, and what improvements I’m planning to make. I’m really aiming for something minimal so that my photography can shine through as the central focus, and keeping a simple, professional tone so the site can serve as a portfolio.

    I’ve gone through created mock-ups of how I intend to change certain pages on my site, to compare them to how the pages currently look.

    Starting with the home page and general navigation, I’m planning to keep the overall appearance the same, with a single image and a short welcome message being the only piece of media on the page.

    As far as changes go, I want to replace the one still image with a gallery that will rotate through multiple photos one at a time. I also plan to make the navigation menu larger so that it is more visible and easier to access. I also want to minimize the gap between the picture/page title and the navigation bar, as I find the gap distracting.

    For my About page, I mostly plan to add a bit more information about myself and my artistic vision and goals, as well as add a second section that highlights some of my achievements.

    For my Blog page, my main goal is to add search filters, so as I continue to write and develop my posts, users will be able to find specific topics without navigating through my entire blog history.

    This is where the most work needs to be done. I haven’t yet imported my existing photos and films into the site, but my goal is to work backwards, starting with the pictures that I’ve taken during this course that are complementary to my blog posts, and gradually adding my prior work,

    My objective is to create one big page full of photos, where the user can click on each one to enlarge it and reveal additional information, links to a related blog post, or other photos that are part of the series.

  • Site Setup and Installation

    Site Setup and Installation

    1–2 minutes

    I could say that my site setup and installation has been fun, easy, and straightforward, but that would be a lie. Over the last few weeks, I have been troubleshooting my website and have fully reset and restarted a handful of times. One of my biggest challenges initially was trying to find and work with a theme that didn’t require an additional purchase of a “premium” package in order to access all of the features. After several attempts to use other themes, I ended back where I started, with the default Twenty Twenty-Five theme from WordPress.

    As I went through, trying to set up my site, I knew the kinds of features and pages I wanted but had a hard time trying to implement them. As a photographer and filmmaker, I want my site to act as a portfolio, so I know that I want to have a page dedicated solely to my photos and information about my films. I also know that I want my blog posts and process posts to be neat and organized separately from my portfolio.

    Since I’m aiming for something similar, my main points of reference for my website’s design have been other photographers’ websites, particularly Greg Girard’s (www.greggirard.com) and Liam Wong’s (www.liamwong.com), as they are two of my favourite photographers. I also watched several videos on building websites with WordPress, 

    How to Build a Portfolio Website on WordPress (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5TbR5LV2cw) and How to Create a Portfolio Website With WordPress(2026) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PAjcTYc86pg) 

    Since I already have an existing body of work, I’m aiming to import that to my site, while focusing my blogs on current projects and photos. My goal is to post a photo or photo series weekly, and go through the details and thought process in the blog, having a featured photo as well as a link to the series in my portfolio.

  • Talking to a Stranger

    Talking to a Stranger

    2–3 minutes

    I was walking around taking photos on campus, making the most of that golden hour light, when I saw a man in the distance. He was standing in the middle of the transit centre, directly under the dome skylight, shooting photos through the gap between the top of the stairs and the overhanging concrete ceiling. 

    Now, as a general rule, I don’t like to talk to strangers, and I REALLY don’t like to start conversations. I find it awkward, and I usually don’t have anything to talk about. That, however, changes when the stranger in question has a camera. Suddenly, there’s an easy connection.

    So I walk up to the guy, my camera in hand, and ask my go-to question:

    “Whatcha shooting on?”

    We got chatting a bit about our respective cameras, me with my modest but dependable Canon R50, and him with his much larger, fancier setup complete with a zoom lens that likely cost more than my tuition. I felt like I was showing off a family SUV to a guy in a Ferrari. He told me that he’s been a street photographer for about 15 years, and I talked about being a film student. It was a fairly brief conversation about nothing more than our gear; we didn’t even exchange names, but I walked away feeling pretty good about the interaction.

    What’s funny to me about that interaction, is how different it was from my interactions with other photographers and filmmakers online. The truth is, avoiding conversations with strangers is something I do on the internet too. Sure, I’ll leave the odd comment on someone’s social media, but do I send them a message just to chat? No. If anything, most interactions I have with strangers online are simple, short, and to the point. Most of my online interactions start and end with a single sentence or question to a faceless profile: How do I colour grade my photos like that? What lens should I buy? Nice picture! Should I upgrade my camera?🔥.

    That interaction with that guy in the transit centre was different. There was no real point to the conversation: neither of us learned anything new, we didn’t trade advice, we didn’t exchange social media profiles or names. We went into the interaction as strangers and we left the same way. But does that mean that the conversation didn’t have value? I don’t think so. If anything, that short, “pointless” interaction meant more than any online interaction could. 

    And why is that? Why did a short chat with a stranger leave more of an impact than hundreds of online interactions? Honestly, I don’t have an answer.

    I’m just a photographer.

    -Tyler