Where To Find Beautiful And Affordable Photos For Your Travel Blog

"Hi Sab, what camera do you use, your pictures look so beautiful." - I get this question all the time. While the majority of the photos on this blog are taken by me, I occasionally seek help and look for professional images if I feel like my photos just don't make the cut. 

While there are lucky travelers who can support every post with their own photos, most bloggers have to look for images online if they want to make their content look attractive and professional..

Blogs, especially travel blogs require a lot of appealing visual content to attract visitors. Not everyone is a born photographer, and taking great photos depends a lot on the weather situation. What happens if you have only a couple of hours at the Machu Picchu, and the sky is all grey or even worse, it's raining non-stop? 

The right photos will make your story alive - nobody would read blogs if there weren't great pictures accompanying the story. 

So the short version is: You need good photos!

Don't be ashamed if you think your photos aren't good enough. There is nothing wrong with using images from professional photographers, as long as they look natural, and you're not claiming them as yours.

I mean, what’s the point of writing about awesome destinations and breathtaking views, if you can’t show them to your readers?

Where To Find Professional Images For Your Blog?

Let's start.... This is not only about travel photos, sometimes you may need mood pictures, something that goes along with an emotional post. So where can you find stunning photos that will look great along your writing? 

Free Images

There are a couple of free stock websites such as Pixabay, Unsplash and Pexels. It's definitely a great option, but if you search for something specific or you need a photo of a less popular place, the results might be quite limited.

Also keep in mind that free photos will not make your blog very unique, many bloggers will use them, too.

What about free images from Google? 

A big no-no. Don't just grab a photo from Google images and put in on your blog! There is a high risk of violating copyrights and you might end up getting sued. This blogger had to pay $7500 for taking an image from Google. If you still want to use images from Google, make sure to track the photographer and double check if his/her work is available under a Creative Commons licence. If not, don't do it, it's very risky.

Paid Photo Stock Websites

There are literally hundreds of stock websites that sell images online. I checked plenty of them, but most were quite pricey. Then I found Depositphotos and their images starts from $1 each, for that price you will have your peace of mind about copyrights. They're very affordable for bloggers, and they have a huge library of excellent photos, incl. fantastic travel and mood pictures.

Can you use the photos on Social Media?
Yes you can. If you buy images from Depositphotos, you can use them multiple times, for example you can also use them on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, etc.

My referral traffic from Pinterest doubled when I started to design more professional pins. This pin of mine got over 8k repins. It was created with images from Depositphotos.

I lived in Berlin for many years, but heck, I don't have such a great photo of the TV Tower. So why not taking an image from a photo stock website? This image had cost me only $1 on Depositphotos.com.

How To Choose The Right Stock Photos?

Make sure the photos look natural, avoid cliches such as smiling people, posing, unnatural light, photos of travel bags and palm trees. Pick authentic photos with natural light, people in movement, showing details like food or architecture. 

But what if you need a series of photos from the same place? Just look through profiles of specific stock contributors and you will find them.

If you're not sure what kind of photos would work with your blog, get some ideas. Pay attention to the latest trends in travel photography: drones, emotions, astrophotography.

I hope you found this post helpful. If you know of some other good resources about finding professional images for blogs, please leave them in the comments.

The images used in this blog post are from Depositphotos.

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