Published in PDN (Photo District News) August, 2008

Common Ground, a popular weekly photo feature consisting of a 6-column-wide photograph with a lengthy caption, had been running in the Virginian Pilot for a year when photo director Randall Greenwell announced it was time for an online component. Rather than custom-design a Web photo gallery or column, Greenwell decided to create a blog because of its practicality: blogs are inexpensive, easy to publish, and subject to less scrutiny by senior editors.

"The blog has a set of tools that are there and ready to go, you don't have to reinvent the wheel," says Greenwell. "I knew we could turn it around pretty quickly and make it happen without ruffling a lot of feathers." Indeed, Greenwell and his staff had the blog up and running with its first post on May 2, 2008, only a month after first discussing it. Following the print format, one staff photographer shoots for the Common Ground blog for several months, exploring a theme of his or her choosing, before handing the column on to the next photographer.

Staff photographer Genevieve Ross's turn to shoot Common Ground happened to coincide with the launch of the blog. She chose the theme of "Firsts." Her images run the gamut of milestone moments: there's a couple's first hours with their tiny, swaddled newborn; a modestly pumped-up, glistening woman at her first bodybuilding contest, and a spiky-haired toddler getting his first haircut. Shot in black and white and color, the images are sometimes posted singly, sometimes in groups and occasionally as a slideshow with audio. Casual comments posted by Ross give the blog a warm, informal feel, as though the viewer is a friend or relative who's observing the moment.

While many newspapers have online photo columns or galleries, only a handful have photo blogs. Some of them lack focus, however, and seem like repositories for outtakes and random staff favorites that didn't make it into the print version.

Common Ground is an exception. The exact photograph and accompanying caption that appears in the print version are posted, as well as additional photographs and text, with or without audio. Greenwell likens Common Ground's print version and its companion blog to a serial novel. "It's a regular feature that readers can attach themselves to, getting to know the photographer. You look at one posting and you have to wait a week to see the next one. It keeps people coming back." Indeed, the blog ranked fourth in the paper's online viewer hits in its first month.

"Firsts" came to Ross as a Common Ground theme because of its universality. "No matter who you are, what kind of economic or social background you come from, there are milestones that you celebrate or pass through," she says. Compared to some of her weekly assignments—which can run from covering a Barack Obama rally to photographing a murder scene—posting to the blog might seem lighthearted, but many of the images are poignant, especially when one reads the accompanying text. "First haircut," for example, shows a close-up of a 20-month-old boy who looks forlornly into the camera as his pacifier creates the shape of an exaggerated smile. The text reveals that his mother let the boy's hair get a little "shaggy" while waiting for her husband to return from Iraq so he could experience this rite of passage.

A month and a half into shooting "Firsts," Ross says she welcomes the blog's unique flexibility. For a photographer who's used to seeing a day's work whittled down to an image or two in print, the blog's capacity for multiple images and audio is refreshing. When she shot Lisa Fowlkes at her first bodybuilding contest, for example, Ross posted an 18-photo slide show with a voiceover on the blog. Fowlkes says that when she saw the blog post, it made her feel special. "[Genevieve] followed me around, but sort of made herself invisible," recalls Fowlkes. "When I saw her, I would pose, but she kept telling me to be natural, like she wasn't there."

Ross has found her subjects through research and serendipity. When searching for a first communion subject, she started by calling every Catholic church in the area, but when people hung up on her (thinking she was trying to sell something) she went church to church, showing examples of her work. Looking for an expectant mother, she contacted the local midwifery center and found Hali Fiano. "Not to stereotype, but I thought people who were open to midwifery might be more open to having someone in the room," Ross says, adding, "I don't know if I would let anyone in my [birthing] room!"

Fiano agreed to let Ross document her delivery after talking to her over lunch. "After I got to know her a bit and saw that she's not overbearing, I felt comfortable with it," says Fiano. "She's real mellow, she was comfortable with whatever I was comfortable with." Due to a last minute complication, Ross ended up photographing the first hours after the birth rather than the delivery itself. "I lost half my blood supply, so I didn't really think to call," remembers Fiano, "but as soon as I got to my room, I said, 'Somebody call Genevieve!'"

In true blog style, Common Ground allows viewers to submit their comments. Staff photographer Delores Johnson, who explored the theme of "Waiting" in the print version of the paper before handing the column over to Ross says, "To say, 'I only want my voice heard through my image,' is very selfish. If we're doing Common Ground for the community, then I think: Why not allow the community to give feedback through the blog's comments?"

At a time when the newspaper industry is facing lay-offs, buy-outs, downsizing and takeovers, only time will tell if blogs like Common Ground are a temporary experiment, or a revolutionary solution for hanging onto readers. For now, Ross says, the most profound effect "Firsts" has had on her is that it has revived her passion for photojournalism. "I'm so excited to find a story, meet new people," she says. "It's really easy for me, and I'm sure a lot of other people in this business, to get discouraged with the changes in the industry—to go downwards and not be motivated. I was starting to go down that road and this pulled me right out and put me back to where I was when I started doing photojournalism."