Build Your Own Photo Stock

Add value for your readers with personal images

Telling it like it is (My own image)

I’m sure we’ve all felt a little pang of contentment when we discovered an image on UnSplash or Pixabay that is just perfect for the work we are about to publish. It’s a nice feeling, but also a fairly rare one. For it can be difficult sometimes to find an image that really encapsulates the gist of the story, and vagueness is sometimes a necessity.

But your own images are by far the best fit for your stories. They show the reader exactly what is going on in the text, rather than a mere representation. Of course, it is not always practical, or even possible to produce a perfect accompanying image, but building up a stock of photos relating to your life, past and present, can give your work the image it deserves.

Fancy Dress

I can relate a good example of this. I recently posted a story about a mishap I’d had as a child, while collecting my prize following a fancy dress competition at a holiday camp. I’d written the piece around a photo I have of the contestants in procession, and there’s me in the middle, surrounded by, among others, a witch, a jockey and a Roman emperor.

That photo was perfect for the story, obviously, but I’d struggle to find something on a free photo stock site that would capture that…