To me, it’s an annoying trend in blog images: taking a perfectly good image and writing all over it.
How do you like the image for this post?
On this blog, I don’t make any bones about the fact that the majority of my images are stock photography. Unlike some bloggers, who stick to a narrow niche that makes it easier for them to snap original images regarding the topic they write about, this is a multi-topic blog: one day, I may be writing about faith, the following day I might write about grammar and then I might write about the latest celebrity scandal in Hollywood. I’m no jet-setter, and since I post daily, there’s just not the time I might like to go shoot a new image for every post I do.
I use photos here to help illustrate the topic or subject matter of the post. Like most blogs, the photos don’t tell the story; they simply help pull the reader in so that they’ll (hopefully) read the story below the pretty picture.
A lot of bloggers get quite bent out of shape when it comes to stock photography: they seem to have a poor opinion of bloggers who don’t go shoot every image themselves.
Well, that’s their opinion, and while I might respectfully disagree, especially being someone who tries to spend a good deal of care in selecting an image that really works for a given post topic, I’ve noticed a new trend that calls their criticism into question.
Junking up a perfectly good picture…with text.
There’s that old saying that a picture is worth a thousand words.
Unfortunately, it appears some bloggers no longer believe this, because they now electronically scribble words across their blog pictures.
Granted, my images have words on them: a watermark designed to prevent people from stealing the images. A watermark doesn’t bother me.
But burning in a headline that is then repeated right below the image is a major pet peeve. If you feel the need to write on your images, for goodness sake go into your blog design and drop the headline itself and let the image stand as the headline. Having the headline text repeated and stacked on top of each other just looks like a mistake.
Somewhere in the sample image I included, there’s a nice picture of a camera. You might not know it, though, thanks to the text. Some bloggers write less or take up less room than my example, but if you’re going to write on your original images, don’t scoff at my stock photos: if the images were so important, you’d let them stand on their own and be appreciated for what they are.
Okay, I just had to get that little rant out of my system.
You know, I used to wonder why you used stock footage for every post (at least, every one I’ve seen has had that), when taking one’s own pictures would be so much more fun. And it is a lot of fun. But for a great many images that would not be repeated or not quite “right” for the topic at hand. For example, there’s your stock photo used for your post entitled “Jesus and Gun Control: isn’t Self-defence Biblical?”. It makes sense to use that stock footage as it is perfect. It goes all too well with you’re choice of topic.
As for writing all over ANY picture, need I even dignify this with an answer?
patricksplace havertyj I can see how that would be annoying if the title is listed twice.  Then yes, I would agree with your dislike. 🙂
havertyj In the cases I’m referring to, I’ve seen a blog have titles across every image on the page. That annoys me because they’re wrecking an image AND because invariably the headline of the post always appears right below the image, so it is there twice. 🙂
Whether text is over the top of a image or not largely depends on what the blog or image is about. Â If it is the title of their blog over an image, that does not bother me. Â I am not sure I have come across a site where this is done extensively. Â If I was visiting a photography site and this was done on all the images, then I could see where I would be upset about that happening. Â 🙂