Time to Use Your Own Images
Believe in yourself that you can take a good photo.
Christmas Beetle with White Christmas Tree by Rox of Spazhouse
Writing is one component to writing on Medium and imagery is the other. Thumbnails and headlines are the hooks that get us to read an article. And perhaps and the indicator of how long it takes to read it.
There are some very amazing writers out there are certainly pounding the keys with some very great articles. But I am seeing a creep of stock photography (though some of it is very good) making there way into an article. You can take control over that. You are the art director of your work.
Back in the day when I was being paid to be an art director, one can spend hours scanning over stock photography for an article or some promotional project. I was paid to do that but, It can still be eyeball numbing. I choose to use my own imagery for my writing, because I can. I am no Man Ray, but, I understand the principles of good photography and would rather have my articles truly mine.
When writing a Medium article, there is imagery running through the head on the best way to high light the article. (we all look at thumbnails after all) Why spend hours searching the web for the perfect free image? Arming yourself with a smart phone, you have have a tool to capture what you would like to convey to your audience.
Build up a photo library of your images using your phone. Creating a new folder or just hitting the favorite button keeps you from having to scan through the thousand plus photos that have inspired you. Remember the object of the article is to cut down the mindless scanning through trying to find the right photo. Building your own roster of imagery is like the old days of an artist creating an artist morgue. Photo references for future work.
One of the best places to take photos of objects are antique and vintage shops. Use items in your household. I love to items found on my desk. The below image was a stature of Apollo (I added the atoms years ago) and photographed it my front yard. Use your imagination, nothing screams, this is an economics article, more than an image of an antique abacus and a half naked vintage kewpie doll.
Thinking Apollo by Rox of Spazhouse
I will not go into detail of which mobile app to us for photo editing as there many articles and rankings of which one is the best. A professional photographer friend of mine recommended the one I use. It is free, which I like and it does do the job of offering different looks, cropping, adding soft corners and atmospheres, hdr scape, drama, tune image, curves, details, etc.
If you know nothing of photography, you can learn. There are plenty of YouTube videos from photographers across the world offering their knowledge of art and technique of photography. The popular Masterclass series has Annie Leibowitz offering a class on what she can teach others about photography. My city library has free use to Lynda, the online learning platform. It offers eleven courses in photography. It is free, you just need a library card.
Be on the lookout for images that tell stories (Gone Shopping by Rox)
There was a time I spend plenty of time email or instant message an image from my phone to my laptop, then work on an article. I then I realized I can just upload the image I want to a draft on the Medium mobile app. Time saved. Problem solved.
In closing, one has to ask, where do you want to spend your time when creating image content for Medium or your blog?
Rox of Spazhouse, Intuitive Research
