It is fun and technically interesting. It gets me out of the office and into the real world of historic buildings and the people who care about them. Most people gain their information about old buildings and the fabric of their neighborhoods and communities through their eyes. In the 1950s, television came along and quickly became the center of family home entertainment, replacing the radio. The human being is a visual being.
Photographs disseminate information about architecture efficiently and widely.
They are the basis of such information in books, magazines, and in university courses in architectural history. I cannot imagine how the nation's historic preservationists, architects, and architectural historians could have been educated and trained without the pervasive 35mm slide and heavily illustrated books. I believe that architects and historic preservation professionals must put some time and effort into training themselves to take good photographs. This means, among other things, acquiring the right kind of camera and camera equipment. Composition, lighting, clarity, or just taking snazzy pictures are concepts that should not be alien to architects, architectural historians, and historic preservationists who are intensely visual beings with great interest in the esthetics of their environment.