How to Create and Maintain a Photography Blog
In the standard world of blogging, high quality content is far more important than pictures. You have probably heard the stories from many bloggers who have “made it” and one of the comments they make most often is that they all started out with basic photography equipment – it was their content that brought them their success. On the other hand, if your aim is to run a photography blog, where your photos tell the story more than the text then you will need to structure and carefully plan your photography just like you would with standard text blog posts.
Here are some top tips that you should bear in mind if you are considering starting a photography blog or if you are trying to develop your existing blog.
Plan Your Content
You cannot expect to just blog as and when you feel like it and expect a crowd of faithful followers. You must do more than just join the crowd and be the same as all of the others in your industry – what can you offer that’s different? Your posts and pictures need to follow some kind of theme or at least be consistent in some way or another. If you normally photograph cars then it will look very strange if your start blogging about something that seems completely different, such as weddings or fashion flatlays for example. The key to success is most industries is defining what you are good at and establishing a niche by defining your editorial style!
The Right Camera and Equipment
Once you have decided what your blog is going to be about, you can decide which camera will be best for you. If your blog is going to be filled with every day-type photos and appears like an extension of your Instagram account then a Smartphone would be sufficient. If you are a photographer blogging about their work then a more professional camera would be better. If you want to achieve high quality images on the go then a Smartphone, Hybrid or DSLR would work well. You can then decide from here whether or not you will require photo editing software. This of course, depends on the type of camera you have, your photos and your blog style.
Pick the Right Theme
There are numerous online platforms on which you can host your blog. This is going to be like your very own little space on the internet so you want it to present you in the best way possible. On platforms such as Blogger, WordPress and Tumblr you will be able to choose which theme you would like to use as the layout of your blog. If you would like to display large images then be sure to pick a theme that allows you to do so. Pick a theme that will work best for your blog and that will allow you to display your content in a way that you want.
Finding Inspiration
Inspiration is important. Each day around 20, 000 people set up blogs but within a year the majority of this number do not continue to post on their blogs. There are two main reasons why so many people give up on blogging – 1) because they are unorganised in their blogging patterns, and 2) because they lose inspirations. Should you suffer either of the above, you may risk losing your readership which takes a lot of hard work and time to regain! Inspiration can come to you at any time and you may find that a break away from technology, your computer, your camera etc. is the perfect way to find that again! Instagram and Pinterest are excellent places to browse and source inspiration for flatlays and photo styling ideas.
