Hello!

The third week of the Student Blogging Challenge is upon us, and this time, the theme is images! Did you know that if you just take images off Google, that’s actually considered illegal? Well, now you’ll get to know all about images, and how to use them properly!

Let’s skip the overly enthusiastic intro and get the the content.

In my opinion, a blog post isn’t complete without images. It is kind of flat and boring, without anything to really look at. It’s important to use photos in a legal way to add interest to your blog.

You have several options as to how you get photos to add.

       1. Make them yourself

This is what I always do. It is very rare that I take an image off of Google or Pixabay or another Creative Commons website. One exception to this is my Featured Images, which I get off of Bitmoji. I have edited a few of them to fit my taste, though. Look through my posts and see if you can find them!

Making images is a great option for student blogs. You can take photos yourself, or make drawings, or use tools like Canva and Adobe Spark to make comics, infographics, word-clouds, etc.

The pros of making your own image:

  • It’s customized, so it’s sure to fit exactly with your post and look great,
  • It’s free,
  • It makes your blog very personalized.

The cons:

  • It’s time-consuming,
  • Sometimes different tools have age-restrictions.

Here is an photo that I took:

My dog pretending to be the Easter Bunny

If this doesn’t suit your taste, there are a few other options:

       2. Use Creative Commons Images

Creative Commons images are images that other people have made, that they decided to let the public use for free. There is generally a large selection of images for you to choose from, and you don’t always even have to credit the creator, though sometimes you do.

Some great Creative Commons sites:

The pros:

  • It is fast and easy,
  • There is a large selection of images,
  • It’s free.

The cons:

  • There are sometimes age restrictions on sites,
  • There may not be images that are right for what you are trying to convey,
  • You sometimes have to create an account or sign up.

Here is an image I got off of Creative Commons:

A random photo of a little bunny

This is a great option, but there is one more:

      3. Buy Images

I personally wouldn’t recommend buying images for your blog, but sometimes it can’t be avoided.

Pros:

  • A lot of the time you find the perfect image that you want to buy,
  • You now own that image and can use it for other things, or edit it any way you want,
  • You don’t have to attribute the creator.

Cons:

  • It can sometimes be expensive,
  • It seems like a bit of a hassle to me.

I’m not going to buy an image to use as an example because that’s not what I want to spend my money on, but you get the idea.

Next, I will show you an image that I took. It’s fun to randomly go around taking photos. I am not very good at it, but I still enjoy taking photos. If you haven’t noticed, they’re mostly featuring my dog, Barley. He is cute and photogenic, so he’s a great subject. Last year for SBC Week 3, my photo was of Barley as well.

This is him right after he got brushed. He is super poofy!

I just took this photo using the camera on my phone. The quality is ok, and I think it turned out well! Our family can sit for hours just taking photos of Barley. We call ourselves “puparazzis”.

Finally, I made a slideshow of images from Pixabay that were all Easter-themed, since today is Easter.

  • The Easter Bunny with a flower in his mouth! I wonder if he eats plants, like a normal bunny, or if he likes chocolate better.

  • My favourite part of Easter is decorating eggs. We make fun designs with dip-dyes, watercolours, crayons, and felt-tipped pens.

  • I had to include the dogs in there. They’re so cute!

After I compiled that, I wrote a sad excuse for a poem about it. If you don’t want your brain fried, I would advise skimming over it.

Finally, Easter time has come around

There are hidden eggs outside waiting to be found

The smell of cooking brownies wafts through the kitchen door

As I take the bunny ears out of the costumes drawer

The flowers are all blooming the grass is a bright green

And we’re all stuck inside because of COVID-19

We can’t decorate eggs since we have to save them to eat

So instead we sit on our doorsteps calling to friends across the street

But even though we’re far apart we FaceTime over dinner

And gorge ourselves with peas and ham ‘cause no one’s getting thinner.

Now we’re finished with that monstrosity and I’m thinking in rhymes. Great.

So that concludes this week’s post! Feel free to leave a comment and I will make sure to check out your blog.

Happy Easter! Stay safe and healthy!

Cheers,

Evelyn 👩🏽