Photography when blogging – it’s a big deal!

Collaborative post.

When I first started my blog many moons ago, the ‘industry’ was very, very different. Of course there were people who made money from blogging, but a lot of content was more along the lines of personal journals, rather than advertorial work. I began writing because I liked writing (if you want to know what got me started in the world of blogging, you can check out my About Me page). I still love writing and sharing my experiences with everyone, both in the real world and online. I also love the new skills that blogging has taught me – basic SEO and photography being the main two that I focus a lot of my energy on.

The blogging industry has exploded.

The blogging industry has since evolved into a massive populated and successful career option! Big name brands frequently use bloggers and Instagram influencers to help market their products and services. Not only that, but more people are heading to blogs to find relatable content and articles that provide them with something they need. 

As Lukeosaurus And Me is a family lifestyle blog, a lot of my readers are here for topics centred around children (days out, crafts, food, things to do) and also how to journey through motherhood without losing your identity. That’s why I also talk about hobbies, relationships, make up, beauty and other topics that are relatable for mums. 

Photography is a hugely important part of blogging.

With all my blog posts I include good quality photos. As a reader, it’s hard to plan a day out if you’ve no idea what you’re going to see when you get there. Imagine trying to create a recipe or a craft and not knowing how the project in front of you is supposed to look. When it comes to blogging, there’s more to it than just the quality of your copy. To make your blog user friendly, as well as making it stand out from the crowd, you need to include high quality photography. 

Sharing your experiences as a family is such a wonderful thing to be able to do, that’s because all valuable moments can be captured in photos. That’s why it’s important to have some good quality equipment. Obviously you need a few basics: a camera, some photo backdrops, props and some editing software.

There’s no excuse for poor quality photography.

Fortunately, most smart phones these days have great quality cameras on them. This means that taking nice photos is a bit easier, and editing them on your phone using apps is also easy and, for the most part, free. Therefore, there’s really no excuse for poor quality imagery. 

I personally use a mixture of photos from both my Huawei P30 Pro and my Canon DSLR. For casual or candid Instagram shots, 99% of imagery is captured on my phone and edited using Lightroom for mobile. For brand work, reviews, days out and holiday snaps, most photos are taken on my DSLR and then edited on my laptop using Photoshop and Lightroom in conjunction with one another. 

Find the style that works for you and your blog.

If working on photography is something you’re interested in, there are tonnes of great blog posts and guides on how to style photography specifically for blogs. Everyone has their own style, so finding what suits you and your blog is important. Some bloggers who concentrate on the outdoors take absolutely stunning photos of their kids running into sunsets and jumping in puddles. These photos compliment their posts amazingly, whereas a flat lay would look completely out of place and add no value to their writing, let alone their audience. 

Trial and error is the best way to help you find your style.

It’s important to figure out what works for you and your blog. Trial and error is the best way of doing this. Some people take a lot of inspiration from Instagram and you’ll find loads of photography challenges there too. These challenges can really help you to learn new skills as well as discover styles of photography that you may not have even realised existed. Using the hashtags, you can also view everyone else’s contribution to the challenge and draw inspiration from their images. 

If all else fails, use stock imagery until you’re more confident.

I have a lot of time for stock photos. Sometimes you just don’t have the props to hand that would compliment your photo subject. Sometimes the post you’re writing about could be centred around something that you physically cannot take a photo of. A lot of the time, stock images can look more professional than images taken without relevant props. I personally use stock images frequently in ‘general topic’ blog posts and it’s easy to find a good collection of royalty free stock images online.