For almost a decade, from the mid-1990’s to mid-2000’s, I was a volunteer and later a paid consultant at Habitat for Humanity Detroit (also called Habitat Detroit).
As a volunteer home builder, I learned how to build house walls, lay shingles, install vinyl siding, and how to install drywall (after having to take down drywall installed incorrectly).
Over time, my role changed as I offered my web design and development skills to create and maintain the Habitat Detroit website.
In addition, I became the photographer for house builds, dedications, special events, and blitz builds.
Why Publish 21+ Year-Old Photos?
Since the current Habitat Detroit website no longer has any record of the content I created, I wanted to document some of my work on my own website (own your own content).
Today’s post contains photos I took in September 2003 during Habitat Detroit’s Blitz Build ’03.
I remember wanting to publish a daily journal with homeowner and volunteers stories as well as photos showing progress of the 16 homes built during the build.
Instead of creating a photo gallery, I chose to take daily panorama photos showing progress on the homes with my newish Canon G series digital camera.
Something I had never done before.
Each day I waited for everyone to leave the work site, position my tripod and camera in the same location, and take a series of photos.
At home that evening I pored over the photos, chose the best-looking photos, and used software to stitch the photos together.
It took a while, but it was fun to try something new!
They were long days (and and a long week!) since I was often one of the first people to arrive at the work site in the morning.
Some days I didn’t get to sleep until after midnight and would wake up early to head back to the work site.
Check out the panorama photos of the eight-day build of 16 homes in Tricentennial Village, south of Martin Luther King Boulevard and west of I-96 in Detroit.
These are original web-quality photos from 2003, they’re lower resolution photos than we’re used to in the 2020’s.
I’m tracking down my originals and plan to post them online soon.
Pre-Build
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5
Day 6
Day 7
Day 8
