It’s no secret that having fantastic photography on your blog is a great way to garner interest and make it visually appealing. Not all of us, however, have the funding necessary to purchase fantastic stock photography. I am one of said people. When it comes time to illustrate my writing, I usually go one of two ways: I hop on the Flickr Creative Commons train, or I take photographs myself.
Flickr Creative Commons
If you’ve never been to Flickr, then it is high time you take a look. You probably understand that it is a photo sharing website. What you may not know, however, is that not every photo uploaded to the site is available for use. This is where the “creative commons” license comes in. Be sure to find out what license a photo is using prior to posting it on your blog. If it says “attribution,” then you have to mention the photographer—which is generally no problem! I like to put a little comment with a link to the blog posting just to let them know that I’ve used and attributed the image just as a courtesy. You can go straight to this link to visit the search through this license. Whatever you’re looking for you can search. There is often really quality photography from novices just like us!
Using Your Own Photography
I’ve just hopped on this bandwagon, with a new purchase of a Canon EOS Rebel XS… which is a bit of a pricey toy. If you do quite a bit of writing, however, it can certainly be a worthwhile purchase. I absolutely love it. This comes in handy particularly when you are blogging about activities, crafts, food, or anything else that you’ve created. It makes your site seem much more legit to have high resolution shots of your work, and it’s another creative outlet. If you’re like me and do not have the funding (or hard drive space) for programs like photoshop, free online photo editing software is out there. One that I’ve started using, and rather love, is Picnik. There are many out there, however. Find what works best for you! Remember that you don’t need an incredibly expensive camera to get great shots. A clever friend of mine has an incredibly creative eye and uses a point and shoot very effectively for her post photos.
[Edited using Picnik]
There you have it! Two inexpensive means for getting great photographs on your blog. Enjoy!
I don’t know what I’d do without Flickr. Sometimes I just browse through photos for hours. Besides photos on a blog, what really appeals to me are the collages. I’m a visual person, so if I’m reading an article on the best shampoo or what have you, I need some type of layout to go with it! When flipping through magazines what sticks out the most for me are the collage layouts. I try to incorporate those as much as possible on my page. Another great software is iWork. Thanks for the shout out!