"Picturing" the online writing


The man asked if he could use one of my nice photos to put in the article.  I stuttered and said yes even though the black and white picture of the boat tied on the nice river had nothing to do with what was in the article.

Social media platforms display a 'featured image' or select an image from a page or text when a link is shared.  People apparently are more drawn to click on the link if there is a nice picture, than if there isn't. I guess this is more important if people are not well known or if the profile picture is not pleasing enough to the viewers on social media.

So I have gradually become more obsessed now with featured images when I do the online writing. The anxiety over any piece is increased by whether the image would be beautiful. And since I have never been trained as neither photographer nor writer, the effort now is increased.

There might be words and ideas which are in the head, and then I wonder, where am I going to get a proper image for the blog post.

Twice I had the camera with me and walked around to get an idea of what to write, but did not take any pictures - and I wonder if I missed out on things to write because I was not using my ears and other 'observation' powers.


There are things I have wanted to post on the blog, but have thought of what image to put and have not written.

Sometimes, I  go out with the camera, take a few pictures and then as I watch the picture I restructure the writing around the picture.  

I have used irrelevant pictures (or engaged in fraud?).   I have created images from https://openclipart.org/   I have used GIMP to make my own.
I have also tried to set up objects and so and position them in light, etc.

Instead of a picture speaking a thousand words, more like 700 words speaking a picture.

The likes on social media might be fickle, where people might be liking the 'featured image' rather than what is written.

There are millions of images circulating to be liked, so this online writing thing now involves trying to find that special image which will have people clicking on the link to read the thing that is written after the apparent 5 second seduction.





Comments

  1. AnonymousAugust 3, 2015 at 9:44 AM

    When it comes to articles or blogs, in my experience it is the title that draws my attention. I do agree that a photo can snag my attention faster, but that may not translate into me wanting to do any reading :-)

    You and I appear to be on opposite side of this problem... you sometimes seek a photo to compliment your writing, while I often am seeking in my head for some words to compliment the photo I want to share

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Vidyaratha KissoonAugust 3, 2015 at 9:49 AM

      Oh yes.. though I might just share a photo with a caption and not with well, 700 words

      Delete

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