Wednesday 4 July 2012

Do blogs need pictures?

I like words. I like the way they come out to play when I'm not looking. I like the music of them, the way they can tangle my tongue.

It's why I write.

There seem to be an increasing number of blogs that are full of pictures. Which is fine in a travel bog, or cookery blog (you can tempt me with cake any day), or a discussion about shoes. I've seen lovely pictures of people's gardens, or the fields behind their houses, or unusual buildings in big cities. I enjoy pictures of flowers and mountains and small animals.

I rarely add pictures - they fit with posts about my travelling, when I've been away and want to include photos of my trip.

The rest of the time I fling words at you - ideas, trivia, a mish-mash of thinking. I play with words and then offer them, like a verbal lucky dip. A compilation of serious thinking and irreverent reflections, all done in words.

But do we need pictures in blogs? Are you more likely to dip into a blog that is illustrated over one that is simply words? (There isn't a right or wrong answer - I am simply curious. And it might make a different to how I approach writing this blog in the future.)

11 comments:

  1. Hi Jo... Mmmm! Thought provoking. My answer to the question is yes! I love pictures. My love of words is equalled by my love of visuals and I inwardly groan if I open up a long blog post without pictures! I find I skim read one like this, whereas, if the post is shorter, with pics, I will immerse myself in it.... erm, this is probably why my posts are generally littered with photos, unless it's a poem - different ball game then!

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  2. This is an interesting one Jo! Of course pictures aren't needed...they're not compulsory by any means.

    There are some blogs I follow where the words are everything and I create my own images from what is written.

    It's like radio versus tv in a way. I work in radio....I love the medium...where sound effects and words can often have a far more powerful impact for the listener.I always take more in...

    But re pictures...well I use them because in thinking of the days, it's a blog which reflects a day...a snapshot in time, and what's ordinary for me (living in an english country village) , can be so different to readers say in Australia and the USA.

    Inmy other blog..localfoodrules.blogspot.com, I 'm also using photos .


    Also, I've never been a photographer...was alsways absolutely awful at aking photos. Now I have an i phone, it's given me the freedom and confidence to take photos of what I know and like, and I can actually illustrate my blog!

    Don't feel that photos are de rigeur...it's personal choice after all....

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  3. Well, you made me think Jo! If you mean do blogs need pictures in the sense of are they obligatory to a good blog? Then no. You have mentioned instances where you think pictures are suitable as in travel blogs or pieces about flowers, gardens, pets or cooking but I think you can take that even further. And if a picture is relevant to the subject matter in any way then I think they are welcome addition to augment the impact of the words. Sticking my neck out for an example :), I will mention the photograph I used of my Italian lessons which my elderly 'Countess' neighbour laboriously wrote into a small cash notebook in her aged and squiggly writing! I think it would be a very difficult writing task to convey that visual image with words alone?

    You certainly did get my mind going and I am going to pop back to see what other people might think :)

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  4. That made me have a quick flick over at my own blog...
    Being an arty crafty literary person I'm very visual, like Abi, and I tend to put at least one picture on a post. Sometimes the subject matter has no need of illustration and I do have posts without pictures too.
    If I'm blogging about a recipe or a craft, or travel etc then like you said, picture fit well to illustrate, but on the more serious posts I've left them out.
    Generally if I have an appropriate picture that fits the narrative I'll use it!
    My mind leans towards aesthetics and illustration, but sometimes words can be even more powerful without an image.
    I only get put off if the post is incredibly long, without line breaks etc, sometimes I feel the need to breath and sometimes pictures help.
    I choose Blogs according to content that interests me, rather than how pretty they are!

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  5. I prefer text over a series of pictures I have to scroll through to find the text scattered among them. The occasional image is fine, to punctuate the post, but I avoid those blogs that are all images with a bit of text.

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  6. So many different points of view - thank you all. My current thinking - it's impossible to get it right! But maybe blogging isn't about pleasing all the people all of the time?

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  7. It certainly isn't necessary to have pictures in a blog post to make it a good 'un… but I love to use them in my own posts to break up the text and illustrate what I'm talking about. Maybe it's because my own writing process is very visual, and I come from an art background? Who knows! Anyhow, my latest post is almost *entirely* composed of pictures… so, er, I guess that's a big fat YES (for me, at least!).

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  8. Sometimes pictures help with clarity. For a blog, and I follow many, pictures can break up the monotony of reading. I find a lot bloggers make the mistake of believing their readers have the time to spend thirty minutes on their blog post. If you follow only five blogs, that's 2 1/2 hours of reading. Pictures help summarize points that would otherwise take me five more minutes to read through. That's what a novel is for.

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  9. N - I confess, if a blog is monotonous, I'm not likely to stick with it for half an hour! I agree with you - that's what a novel is for.

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  10. I tend to post mostly words but occasionally I will do a photo post. As a reader I prefer to infer over photo blogs rather than blog posts that are too wordy.

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  11. I had this on my mind as well. I think using pictures occasionally is fine. Just my take...

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