How I Layout the Images in my Blog Post
On an ideal day.
This is my formula – you will all do this differently and I would love to hear how your construct your pages too and what you love to see on a page. The images on a blog page make all the difference to your work. Humans are very image based.
It has to be noted that sometimes I do not follow this formula at all! Especially if I am excited!
But more recently I have been trying to be more thoughtful and intentional. So, I thought I would share a little of my process with you.
I have taken the time in recent months to block out my day into Shifts. This has enabled me to really focus on my blog pages and how I share stuff with you. Time and Motion has always been a study of mine. It dovetails perfectly in with my sustainably managed lifestyle. So creating shifts for different tasks has been a sea change now that I am self-employed again.
Organise and Optimise your images.
I do all this on my phone. First thing in the morning. Before I do chores. I collate all the best images from yesterday. And delete all the rest. Then I crop and fix and optimise. I do all this in the app Snapseed.
If I have been working on my camera I literally email pics to myself in the evening so I can run them through snapseed too. As far as I know SnapSeed does have a desktop version. But I can do this super fast.
Load the shots in order onto the page
Still working on my phone I lay all the images into the post using the WordPress app.
The order on the page is determined by the story that has begun to emerge.
Make sure to use images that tell a story – often these are not technically the best image but the story is more important. – this is not a photography blog.
Then I save the draft, close the app. And go outside to feed everyone.
After chores I go to the computer with my second cup of coffee and call my page back up. The rest of the post is created on a big screen.
Below is an extra image I shot during morning chores to support the story that had emerged earlier.
I collected TEN duck eggs this morning – some news just cannot wait.
Pictures or Words
I always place my images in the blog post page first. Then add the words. So at this stage (now that I have loaded the images and shifted to my keyboard) I begin to write to you.
This blog is literally driven by pictures. Many of you will put up the words first then find the image. Your blog or your favourite blogs might lay down the words first then go find the pictures. Both are totally correct.
But in my world it is all about the sights of the farm. The stories that the animals and the gardens create.
The words accompany what I see and do in the 24 hours before I post.
Below we have my tiny new sage plants in the glasshouse. I am now beginning to take the plants out each day to harden them off. Tdday wil be a great day to introduce them to a little sun (under the trees for the moment)
One gallery per page.
Gallery images are harder to set up than you think. The gallery will naturally crop your image so make sure you have plenty of location around the subject.
Choose images that will balance each other.
I try to have the subjects looking into the centre of the page. This is an old trick my uncle taught me from when he used to set newspaper pages for print. He said never to have a subject looking out off the edge of the page, this would lead a persons eye in the wrong direction.
Use Images to break up text.
The attention spans of humans is shrinking. So images really help us to focus and process.
My sons (literally) only visit my blog for the pictures! That is all they look at. Too many words and they zone right out!
Finish with the wide shot.
This is another way to allow your reader to feel a sense of place. I call this the angel view. (I believe in angels you see). You will see this in the movies. When the camera pans back out they are settling you into the big picture and preparing you to say goodbye.
I want you to feel a part of my journey through sustainable living and a big shot is so comforting and including (is including the right word)? Inclusive? It grounds us.
Alt Text
Don’t forget to click on your image and then describe it for a blind person in Alt Text. This does help the visually impaired and also helps Google find your image in case someone is looking for TonTon, a border collie, standing in the track with an old barn and a sunset behind him.
Pause
Once my post is set up, I save it then I go and fry my fresh eggs for breakfast: chickens eggs on home made bread with LOTS of butter! You know how I am.
This pause allows my post to settle and when I return to eat my breakfast with you I immediately see the holes in my narrative. Any duplication of thought. Any extra words. I like to stay simple.
Gabriel Garcia Marquez always put a book (written on paper – can you imagine) in the bottom drawer to settle for at least a month before he began his final edit. I love reading his work!
Weather
if we have nothing else to talk about we can ALWAYS talk about the weather!
I am a farmer and the weather is what I look at first EVERY morning even when I am traveling I check the weather on the farm.
And I love hearing about your weather in the comments!
An image is great! SnapSeed lets you put a comment on an image. And today the weather is going to be REALLY NICE!
Thank you so much!!
So, (if you are a blog writer) how do you organise your page? And if you are a blog reader, I am one of those too) what do you love to see when you are reading a blog. Do you like the headings? I find that they help me a lot.
(If you cannot comment and Many People cannot at the moment – just send me an email – I gotcha!)
Writing todays blog page is literally the highlight of each day for me. I am feeling so much better with the world now that I am back to writing once a day!
Then I LOVE to chat with you all in the Lounge of Comments.
Take Care and Talk soon in the Lounge of Comments!
Celi
41 Comments on “How I Layout the Images in my Blog Post”
Leave a Reply
JOIN OUR NEWSLETTER:
DO A LITTLE SHOPPING:
Thank You So Much For Your Kind Help with Maintaining This Blog
thekitchensgarden 
Some good tips. I hadn’t really thought much about Alt Text.
Neither did I until recently!! Live and learn I suppose! And your recipes are lovely!
Oh, thank you so much!
Your images are amazing! I love the last one with the dog especially. I seldom read blogs that don’t have pictures. I too let my post sit for a bit before the final edit and hitting the publish button.
It is hard for me to walk away from the post and come back and still I find spelling mistakes AFTER I have hit publish! All the plans of mice and men! I am also image based. My reading is mostly novels (in the evening) – I seldom settle in to read in the day time to tell the truth, so blogs with a little text and a lot of photos suit me! Honestly it is the people I am visiting! Have a great day, Darlene!
Your comment about always checking the weather first thing in the morning hit home with me. Having grown up on a farm, I thought that was what everyone did. My husband thinks it strange that I always do that first thing in the morning.
You are not strange. I grew up in a fishing family. My Dad built fishing boats. If ANYONE made even ONE sound when the weather was on (the radio) we were hissed at.
Since mine is usually recipes or food in restaurants, the pictures normally come in order. They all go through Photoshop and a lot of the written words appears in my head while I edit the images – it takes a few hours. The photos go onto the page first and then I write, usually with some historical detail or food facts with links to back up the text. I usually read what I’ve writen and edit it 3 or 4 times over several days.
Having a few days to work on a piece (plus the fact that you are clever and passionate and an amazing cook ) is why your blog posts are so rich in information and that glorious sense of where you are and how you found the food and the tastes and the friends that have gathered. I love your posts. They are like little novels in their ability to take me somewhere else for a while.
Thank you, though sometimes I’d like to be able to do the spontaneous daily farmy 😉
Since I’m not a blogger, this was fascinating to me. I’ve always loved your blogs & photos…and yes, checking the weather happens even before I sit up in bed…I appreciate even more how much you put into these blogs, they feel like notes from an old and treasured friend…which you are.
I feel this too! I am writing to you as I write. Like these are actual letters to you – keeping you up to date on the goings on and hopefully being a little informative too. It really is my favorite time of day.
Excellent post! Have a super good day!
You too Kathe!! Do you have sun? We have glorious sun!
No just rain rain rain! But that’s ok as our rivers and creeks have lots of water and the mountains have lots of snow! I have a hunch that our summer is going to be hot and dry! Have a happy day!
A good read today. Thank you for taking us into your process. A lot of work!
It is – but I have been doing it for so many years it is like second nature now. And I do love it. You all are my Kitchens Garden family! I know that sounds corny but it is true.
Angel view. Love that concept. Me: write; proof read but don’t tweak; add alt text always have done; create image; schedule. Everything I post is a draft so that I can tweak/rejig/revise it and submit it later as unpublished.
Do you have any advice on treating a prolapsed disk? Any farmie tricks?
In your back? Or on the tractor!?
Do you have a standing desk?
Yes, my back, and yes I do have a standing (up and down) desk, but at the moment I can’t stand or walk or sit. I was thinking riding on a tractor might be a hazard to ones back, and that you’d know some farmie remedy.
Oh. No. How awful – backs are very difficult. I only know about heat and cold and the discs that tractors pull!
I am so sorry. That must be horribly painful. Is this a chronic problem?
The last time this happened was about 18-months ago. I’m lucky that I have Peder to help me through the first few days of this.
Sounds awful.
I like your method of loading the photos first. I’ve always done the opposite and have done the writing first. But, before I start writing I have my photos taken and in the library, ready to load. I think about where I am going to insert them, but don’t do so until the end. I might try it your way and see how that works for me. I’m a writer more than a photographer so I’ve always come from it that way — although you are absolutely right that people go to the photos first (and sometimes exclusively). I’ve only recently started using headers/subtitles and I do like how they break things up into smaller, easily identified, chunks. Gardening/plants lends itself to this, I think. Some people want the story, some want the plant info, and some want the photos. I’m trying to make it interesting/relevant to all of them. I can’t wait to see your new site!
I’m still figuring it out, really! I love to use (and read) a lot of words but trying to balance that inclination against staying interesting. So I put the pictures in to the post, write what I want to say in the spaces between them, then see how it looks. If there are massive text deserts between photos I’ll try to add another one, or I’ll edit the words down a smidge.
That sounds a lot like what I do!! I must pop over to your blog today! See what’s happening!
You’re welcome any time.
Since I usually only have one photo per blog post, the process of refining the images is much simpler for me! I like how you walk away from the post, eat breakfast and then come back to it. I do this often with my design work and almost always will find something new that I hadn’t noticed while I was working on the original design. Giving our work some space to settle and then re-visiting is a really great thing to remember to do on the blog as well, thank you for that reminder. I love your images and your writing. The last image of your pup is stunning.
TonTon is so old. I have to force him to walk each evening – he would rather just sleep his life away but an evening walk is important to his digestion!!
Have a lovely day!
I always check the weather first thing too. It makes it easier to know what to wear and if it’s worth going anywhere. I can remember my mother stick her hand out the door and then go have her coffee. My father finally asked her what that was all about and she said she was “feeling” the weather. She did that all the years she worked and he’d laugh gently every morning. I did try it but realized that you end up feeling the warm air coming out the door more than the outside temperature.
It’s been a long time since I posted anything, but it was usually write whatever in my word processing program, check and edit then copy, paste and post, not many photos, with a free account you can’t have very many and where i was living really didn’t have anything worth taking photos of (brick walls, streets, paved parking areas with parked cars).
Love the photo of TonTon. Enjoy the lovely weather we’re supposed to have this week.
Your mother! I can feel what she felt sometimes. If I open the door and take a step out! You immediately feel the change.
Warm today!
It is a rather lovely shot of Ton right?
I love your system, you are my idol
I usually go through my pictures for the day … find the ones I like best … AND ones that tell a story. THEN I begin to think about what to write. Mostly I’ve been writing diary fashion. Which I’m finding is starting to bore me – and most certainly my readers (ie family). Especially now as family has our own conversations going on all day in WhatsApp. I also am reticent to share family pictures on my blog. So mostly use it for the shots I take around our little hobby farm. I’ve been quite split lately on how I’m feeling about my MeadowView blog. I’ve called it quits three times now. But I find what “I” enjoy most is twofold. I like the reflection and the chance to write a ‘letter’. I tend to think about my aunts and uncles and far flung friends who I know read the emails the blog sends their way. I also like that I can look back and check out the weather and the challenges in the same time period but years back. I like that I can search out stories about the critters that have lived with us but are now gone. I don’t tend to get many conversations going on in the comments section. And truthfully … I don’t think I’m looking for that. Ha! My comment here shows the circular thinking my brain is caught in over my choice to blog … or try another platform. There are so many choices these days!
Most interesting! Who knew that all this thought went into a blog post.
I’m resting between bouts of outside work. Really warm today 70 just now and I am in a t-shirt for the first time since probably last October. It would feel wonderful if I wasn’t so tired. Dividing a Siberian iris this morning——–much too much time had passed and the clump was massive and dead in the middle. Managed to lever it out with a shovel and a pickaxe but did get some help lifting it out of the bed (over plants) and onto the grass where I could attack it with a saw (battery powered with a long blade that sticks out horizontally) to divide it. 7 good sized pieces, two going back into the area where the monster came out, two into a new bed since last year and 3 in another area enlarging an existing bed. Tired puppy here! Still have to replace the two remaining pieces in the monster hole and fill in around them, but that should be relatively easy except for dragging the dirt to the hole uphill from the street. Well, at least I know I will get a good nights sleep tonight.
I keep things really simple on my blog: all words, just blocks of text. Some time ago it got really hard to import images on WordPress, so I just stopped using images. If you like to read, as opposed to looking at pictures, my blog should suit you fine. If I write well enough you should see in your mind things you can’t “see” on the page.
So happy to see you back again! I knew if I just waited patiently you would return. Have a wonderful week…weather is looking lovely! My Hostas are sprouting so that means spring is here! I put my new bird bath out yeaterday and 2 sparrows were seen “checking it out” this morning….*smiling now
Love your insight, photos, thoughts always.
And you have prompted me to do Alt text now as well as captions.
Hmm. My process is a bit organic… At the moment I tend to post monthly and if inspiration hasn’t arrived as the month progresses I scout through my camera roll to see if it’s there. Then I look for a quote or two. Usually at 3am, while I’m in the shower, playing dog tennis in the churchyard, or cooking dinner the words start to form. Often takes a few drafts and of course I find typos after I’ve hit Publish!
My posts are usually about science and astronomy. I don’t post often. I will have a few images selected to be part of a story I want to write. I think about ways to deliver the story using those images as the core. Once it is time to write a draft, the images get uploaded and inserted in their order. Sometimes a gallery is best for 3 or 4 images fitting a topic. The post usually takes a day once I start composing. Next day I reread and edit then publish.
Your process is so interesting, and so different from what I do. Your photos also serve a very different purpose to mine. I take the photos first, with my phone, but all the work after that is done on my MacBook. I don’t use the WP phone app at all, and I still work in the Classic format, since that seems to offer more flexibility if I want to mess about with my layout. I import the photos into iPhotos, do some incredibly basic cropping and editing, and then save them as much smaller versions to load back into WP. When that’s done, I write my post, giving thought to where I’m going to place my images, and at what size. Once I have a good working draft, I import the images one at a time, so I can see how the text looks run around them. I’ll edit text to make it look better; I cannot abide a widow or dangling text (too much copywriting and editing in my past…), but of course WP messes with that too, depending on how you’re viewing the post. I’ll preview it several times after changes. And then I hit publish or schedule it to go out at a certain time and date. And that’s it. Nothing ever sits for hours or days waiting to be finalised unless waiting is a necessary part of the process (as in progress shots during cooking, for example). Perhaps I should be more leisurely, or considered, or polished…. But I prefer to write as I speak, and show without filters or perfection. It seems to work for me.
I set mine up differently … I write firstly and then drop in the photos. But you Celi are so much more organised than I 😊, that’s for sure! Love the idea of the wide shot to finish! And that’s a beauty of yours! I’m going to try your layout .. I need to get cracking, I haven’t posted in ages!
Yes ! I would love to see how your garden is now in the autumn!