I mentioned in an earlier post (New featured images – Headers, website posts, and computers) that I was upgrading my setup on my website for graphics, and I’ve already covered posts related to astronomy, my website and computers, and governance (governance, international development, civil service, a conference and my HR Guide). For my website posts, I used to frequently use an image of a frog typing:
I decided during this update that I wanted to re-purpose that image to just be about writing, so I found other images for my website/blogging options.
But even with that re-purposing, and saving it for writing, I’m left with a second question. Do I use it for MY writing, i.e., my fiction? Or do it use it when I’m writing about the craft of writing? Or both?
I confess up until recently, a lot of categories related to my writing have tended to blend together. For example, while I have 52 posts that are in the “writing” category, only five of them are ONLY in the writing category; the other 47 are cross-posted with publishing, family, even weight-loss. Which is a bit of a question mark for me…if I decide to write about a topic on my blog, isn’t it ALL writing?
When it comes to family, I have written eulogies for my father and mother, and a wedding speech for my own wedding. Back in university, I did a skit nite for stand-up style comedy, and my weekend update sketch is on my site. Those are quite different from most of my posts, and I would say are samples of my “writing”. They cross-post, sure, but they are not posts — they are stand-alone writing projects. I’m also working on a novel that I started back in November … it clearly is NOT a “post”. So I have filed it with my writing category. And for me, I think that is the main defining criteria. When I’m writing something as a project, even though I’m posting it, it is “writing”. Anything else is, well, not “writing”.
Yet in that category, I also have a bunch of posts about the technical side of writing. Mostly articles I’ve read, or reviews of classes / books about writing. And when I think of those, it is almost like post-writing, near “editing”, or pre-writing, generic techniques. None of those phrases lend themselves to an obvious image. Editing perhaps could have a red pen marking up text, but that’s hard to show in a small graphic. I found an image of an editor sitting on a throne, or a pile of manuscripts, but those are a particular type of tone. I found one of a pencil over a marked up page, but the look wasn’t appealing, and the dimensions were wrong. I considered one of a typewriter (old school), one of a kid writing at a desk (wrong tone, wrong dimensions), and one of a pencil on blue sheet of paper (nice colours, nothing communicative).
After eliminating those, I’m down to three options. The first is a piece of text with a magnifying glass and a pencil hovering above it. It has an “editing” / “technique” vibe to it, I guess, but the image itself doesn’t resonate with me. The second is an orange piece of paper (visually appealing), with a burgundy ballpoint pen to the side. I like it, it’s decent. And the third one is a red square that looks almost like a button. With a red pencil above it writing on a piece of paper within the square. It isn’t as communicative as the orange paper with a pen, but it “pops” as a featured image. Plus I feel like the red signifies “editing” somehow. Either will work, but I’m going with the red one.
There is one other category with a similar bent to it, and for lack of a better term for the category, I labelled it “publishing”. If the writing technique comes first, and my writing comes second, then the business of getting those words into the world comes next. I could try to do something more with sales and bookstores, but that presupposes a stage that is separate from publishing. If I went the ebook world, those are likely more tightly tied together, particularly if my main sales venue were to be Amazon. As with governance, I created my own symbol. A four-quadrant circle and stuck different “avenues” or “models” of publishing in the quadrants.
With the decision to wrap these all together in the “writing” category, I’ve even decided to delete the publishing category all together. In the end, it comes down to “writing technique”, “my writing”, and the “business of writing”.
As part of an update to my website, I am revamping all my featured images (New featured images – Astronomy). Having already tackled a small one (astronomy) and a large one (website and computers), I am turning my attention to a different challenge — governance. I actually have multiple categories that fall into a “governance” theme, although in many ways, “government” might be a better term for some.
I have an actual category specifically called governance, and I tend to write about a variety of things related to running a government. Elections, public administration, audits. I have more of a technical bent to my topics, and if I was completely candid, it seems like public administration would be the more likely heading. Except from time to time I go above that and intersect with policy and politics. The running of a government at a level above. Not often, but occasionally, and usually related to how the two realms — politics and public administration — intersect. At one point, I wanted a new “image” to represent all that, and given the ethereal nature of the concepts, I made up a combined image representing different parts of a governance package — politics, legislation, judicial, and the people. It’s not a huge category for me, only 30 posts out of about 1400 deal with governance issues, but it may grow once I retire.
I also used to work at CIDA dealing with international development issues. I don’t write about it very often, only 27 posts in total, and 17 of those are about one specific book where I wrote about each chapter as I went. I do like to follow what’s happening in broad trends, though, since I spent 10 years of my career dealing with the files, yet even when I do write, I tend to have a “public administration” slant to my writing, rather than development in general. I didn’t have a great idea for my international development “image”, but managed to find one that was about food security, including both growing your own food and production of meals afterwards. It’s a bit cheesy, but it’ll do.
A third area I write about regularly is the “civil service” itself. And to be honest, I haven’t had a good image to reflect that area. It’s not a lot of posts, still only about 27, but I’ve tended to bop between one of two images. First, I’ve used the general governance image shown above, but that doesn’t really reflect what we do. I have also often used the bottom right-hand corner of that governance, the one of “people” to reflect the civil service (the fourth pillar of the governance stream). Which is fine. Except that I have also used that one a LOT for something else — my posts about HR in the government. In particular, when I’m writing items for my HR guide, I’ve tended to use that image as the theme. However, to be honest, I don’t really like it for my HR guide. I need a new one for that, so I can use it here now. And, as noted, there’s symmetry with the larger combined governance image.
Which leaves me with two very specific areas to deal with. One is a “one-off” conference that I helped organize way back in 2002. The reports and docs are on my site (13 pages), and I use the logo we had for the conference. You can find it at PS Transitions FP.
The other is my HR guide. I have struggled with this guide for a long time, in varying forms. Mostly I have used my large tree frog image to reflect my branding for it.
But a few years ago, before I ran into some publishing snags with the Conflict of Interest people, I went ahead and had the full cover page designed for the guide.
Okay, okay, it’s a little large for a featured image for a post. 🙂 So, I’ve played with cropping a bit, and I have this.
I ain’t gonna lie…I really like that one. Okay, good. Governance images are set!
In a previous post (New featured images – Astronomy), I mentioned that I’m updating all of my featured images on my website by category. For “computers”, I have just over 100 posts in that category, although that is a bit misleading. I have tended to use it as a bit of a catch-all category.
For example, the main topic in computers is not really about computers at all — it’s about my website. But to be honest, having separate categories about my website (content and mechanics), how I do things and the tools I use (WordPress, plugins, themes), the tools I use at home (desktop apps, graphic editors), and even how I organize myself (photo backups, etc.), didn’t really seem to make a lot of sense to me. It is a VERY wide category, admittedly, but they do seem to lump together. And until recently, I was “forcing” myself to have “one category, one image” for my theming. With this update, I’m giving myself more flexibility.
Yet even though they are lumped, I feel the same as I do with astronomy. I would like to “nuance” the images I use a bit. Plus, I have a MUCH bigger problem. The main graphic I use now for the category is one of a frog typing. It looks like this:
And since my site is PolyWogg.ca, and my nickname is PolyWogg, and polliwogs are baby frogs, I love the idea of a frog using a computer. It is a perfect graphic for me. Except I want to use it for my writing category, not my “computer” category. I have to confess, I like it so much, I have occasionally used it for both. Like THAT’S not confusing to anyone, including me. If it was slightly better resolution and quality, I’d be tempted to make it my overall logo.
Speaking of which, some people suggest that if you are writing about your “website”, you should use your logo or a modified version of your header as your featured image (a bit of a meta thing, intellectually — a blog on your blog about your blog). That would give me a bunch of choices, including my original frog image that is as close as I come to having a real logo, but I view that more as my personal branding logo, not just a website logo.
It isn’t about computers, it’s about me. And so I’m saving that for my truly “personal” posts. Therefore, by process of elimination, I should use a smaller version of my header. If only I could decide on WHICH header I was using!
Possible headers
Over the past 15+ years, I have had approximately ten headers. The first was a modified form of the big frog logo. My friend Liam designed my first website, and he integrated the image into my core splash page and again into my combination header/menu options across the top.
My second and third options were provided by the Weaver theme and sub-themes that I was using. I liked the idea of having a nicely tied-in image (colour-wise) across the top of my site. But neither lasted long. They looked nice, sure, but there was nothing about those images that resonated with me. I played with having my frog again (option 4), except using it as a logo to the left rather than a banner, and it worked for a while.
My fifth option was a picture I took in Gaspesie of a waterfall. I loved the way the water was hitting the ground, and so I went with this image for a short while. I’m proud of the photo, it resonates with me because I took the picture, but it doesn’t really “say” anything. It’s just a cool photo.
My sixth option was a counter-punch to that one. It was taken in southern Nova Scotia, at a B&B we stayed in for a night. I love the reds in the trees, it has water which resonates with me from my youth, and it has bullrushes (oddly, while “bull rushes” is the official name, the Kawartha region seems to have used the term “bowrushes”, which is what I heard growing up), perfectly suitable for me as a frog. What’s not to love? The colours are a bit strong. And again, I was there only once. Does it look okay? Sure. But it’s not like the location means anything to me. We were just passing through. More resonance than the waterfall image, sure, but not enough to make it my header image long-term.
Partly in response to the previous image (notice a trend?), I wanted something that would have more links to me, my site, my “theme”, etc. Most people would just go to Shutterstock, find a suitable photo, or the best photo even, fit it within the site, tweak colours, etc., and BAM! One header image. And I suppose if I was running a commercial site, I’d probably do the same thing. Except it’s not a commercial site. It’s MY site. Everything that goes on the site comes from me. Every post, every page. With the recent exception of two guest blogs from my wife, I have created all 1400 posts. So I want the site to reflect that “personal” touch, and it starts with the header.
So after the previous images using my own photos, I realized I really liked that aspect. A photo that I would take, unique to me, would head the site. I wanted to maintain the PolyWogg motif, something not so dark as the reds in the Nova Scotia picture, maybe more swamplike for the tadpole idea. And suddenly I knew where that existed. Some place with some personal resonance. The Bruce Pit. My family and I go walking there every spring and fall, and I frequently take photos near the pond. I confess that while my main interest in those walks is getting a good photo of a red-winged blackbird (more on that later), I like the pond.
So early one spring, we went for a quick hike. I tried some shots like the Nova Scotia one — farther back, vista / landscape colours — but I wasn’t feeling it. I headed closer to the water. I got up close and personal with some lilypads, and I found some pink water lilies to go with them. I thought about trying to get a shot of an actual frog in the water, but that seemed a step too far in the motif to me. I tried a bunch of shots, different angles, different PoV, different depths, chose a few when I got home, and played a bit with cropping. I’d love to say I hit it fast, and fell in love with a single photo. I didn’t. I found one that worked well, with some cropping, and so I used that for quite a while too. My seventh header.
I had upgraded my camera to a DSLR and was getting better results with my photos, and I took one of a sunset at my inlaws’ cottage on Balsam Lake. Nice, good lake photo, has some merit. A little less “froggy” but I liked it enough to add it to the rotation as my eight header. I tried it for a couple of months, but it didn’t stick.
Then my mother died. That doesn’t sound like something that would trigger a change in my website’s header, but it did, incidentally at least. After her funeral, I went for a drive. Just wanted to be alone. And I drove out to the lake where I grew up. Sure, we lived in Peterborough, but from 24th of May to Thanksgiving, we were always out at Chemong Lake. We had a sweet deal on a low-cost campground site, great location, on the water. It was awesome. And of course, right in front of the trailer was a quiet secluded bay with a swamp at one end. A lot like the Nova Scotia pond pic. With bullfrogs, red-winged blackbirds, bullrushes, water. Yeah, that’s why I like all that stuff. It defined much of who I am as a person. It’s also part of my nickname — I got it from my family (mostly my sister Sharon). Paul – Paulie – PolyWogg, not a stretch.
And so it wasn’t surprising to anyone that I went for a drive and that’s where I ended up. Yet I wasn’t quite ready to go directly there. Instead, I drove over near the Curve Lake reserve. I have never ever driven over there before, but I guess I wanted to see how much of the area I could see from that shore (it’s across the lake from our campground area). And the lake was weirdly calm. Not a ripple. Something you NEVER see during a late afternoon. In 20 years out at the lake, I never saw it that calm except first thing in the morning, or perhaps late at night. But late afternoon? Never. I snapped a photo.
And while I like the photo, and it does mean something to me, let’s be honest. It was never a serious contender for a long-term header. It lasted about a week as my ninth header.
I drove over to the campground area, but of course, I should have mentioned that it is long-gone, replaced by a small sub-division of expensive lake homes. But the coastline doesn’t change. The bay is still there. The swamp is gone, the bay’s been dredged out, but oddly enough, some of the trees are still there. Even a hill that was behind our campsite is still mostly there, I thought they would have flattened that considerably. But near the site is a road’s end boat launch that used to double as our swimming hole. The county used to drop sand there every spring, so you had sand out about 30 feet or so, about 20 feet wide. I spent a significant part of my childhood at that exact spot.
You can’t see the campsite area until you’re in the water, mostly because there is a huge tree on the edge of the property that hangs over the water. It’s still there, getting bigger every year, and it was like seeing an old neighbour to wave “hello” to in the old ‘hood. You can see it over at https://PolyWogg.ca.
Sunset, lake, emotional resonance out the wazoo. Yeah, it was my tenth choice as a header and it lasted for quite some time. I even thought that it might become my “forever” header. But over time, the grief faded, and the resonance lessened a tad. And while I love the image, I feel it is too dark for the site. Not dark emotionally, not sombre, just visually. And so, I have reverted. Back to my seventh header with the lily pads.
Feature image for “the website”
So, after all those discussions of header choices, it is really just context to say, which of those do I use on a smaller scale to represent my “website”. If I whittle them down, there are really only four choices, and the first three fall by the wayside pretty fast:
The tree frog — nope, using that for my “personal” image;
Quiet Chemong Lake (Header 10) — nope, I’ve moved on from that, and it isn’t a great photo for cropping to 150x150px anyway;
My website icon — while this shows in the tab above as the small symbol for a URL page, it doesn’t look that great when you increase the size to 150×150, unless I was going more for Ninja Turtle with someone stepping on their stomach.
No, none of those really work. Which means I’m left with a cropped version of the current header of lily pads and water lilies, with two sub-versions … one is pulled back a bit, one is cropped to the pink water lilies.
While I like the content of the first one with the pads, the pink in the second one is more visually impactful. The second one it is!
Other “computer” images
After that, the rest is relatively straight-forward. Most of the images are new additions, rather than grouping everything under the “frog typing” image… I have added ones for hardware (simple PC), problems (man sad at computer), testing and learning (boy concentrating), smooth sailing (man at ergo desk and computer), and video games (one of the PacMan ghosts, multi-coloured).
And that’s a wrap! I have my new images figured out for the “computers” category. Two categories down, twenty-four more to go. At least a bunch of the other ones are relatively easy.
I have almost 1400 posts and pages, and with a redesign that I’ve recently been working on, i.e., changing many things behind the scenes in layout and workflow, I need to go back and fix a bunch of featured images for sizes. So at the same time, since I’ll be using the Featured Images in a slightly different way along with other graphics in my site, I’ll take advantage of the update to also consider new images.
For astronomy posts, most of which up until now have been about astronomy and telescopes and imaging, oh my, I’ve tended to use a whimsical graphic for all of it.
It has a transparent background, PNG format, and I like the light nature of it. It reflects my approach to astronomy, generally informal, non-scientific, heavy focus on observing over imaging or logging. In short? Fun.
But my astronomy posts are not all about “fun”. Some of them are a bit more serious about the hobby, and how to record observations, etc. More of the “what did I see” than “what did I experience” type post. And so while it is still coded in the website as an astronomy category, it strikes me as a bit different. To that end, I found this image which shows a logbook:
Also PNG format with a transparent background, it is still a bit light. I’ll easily use it for my observations / logs.
But as time marches on, I also find myself getting a bit into light imaging. I have all the imaging tools I need to keep me busy for a very long time — an adapter to attach a point-and-shoot camera, the adapters to attach my DSLR, and even a NexImage 5 webcam. All perfectly fine tools for my type of scope (a Schmidt-Cassegrain tube on an alt-az mount), even though the scope and mount are not ideal for astrophotography. Instead, I’m more likely to use my smartphone with my scope, and I have a couple of adapters to use. But that too then gives me a slightly different blog post, one with images of actual targets. As such, I’ve uploaded a third image.
While still a graphic rather than a photo, I like the idea that it shows different types of targets — stars, planets, the moon, comets, and deep space. So I’ll likely use that one for my imaging posts.
Which then leaves me with a question. When I do my official PolyWogg Guide to Astronomy, which of the three do I use? I could use:
the informal whimsical one showing the boy enjoying the stars;
the more formal one that includes a logbook; or,
the one that emphasizes the targets.
I’m pretty sure I’ll go with the whimsical one, as that is more the tone I’m going for — newbies who are looking at getting into astronomy and who are willing to learn from someone who is just a little ahead of them on the knowledge curve. But “pretty sure” and “certain” are a gulf apart, and I welcome any views anyone has to shift the needle.
Of course, from time to time, I might want other images too. So I have a NextGen album with lots of other images in it from various clipart collections that I can use. Stay tuned!
Many people search on Google and steal any images they find willy-nilly without ever considering the copyright on the original photos. Mostly people who think everything on the net is public domain. But if you’re running a proper blog, and creating your own content, you know that’s not true. But that leaves you with three choices for photos and graphics:
Make your own (on your own desktop or using apps and websites);
Buy it from some pay-per-photo sites; or,
Find free sites.
Lots of sites advertise “free” photos but many are the internet’s version of a drug dealer…they’ll offer you a free sample of a couple of photos or graphics to give you a taste, and once you’re hooked, charge you through the nose for the next batch. And the one after that. And suggest you upgrade to a subscription model which seems incredibly cheap when you’re first setting up your blog when you need dozens of photos, but if you don’t use tons of photos in your site later, it’s a bit of a cash cow for them.
However, earlier this week, someone posted the question on the WP Beginner group on FaceBook, asking where to find images. And the responses poured in rapidly. Some are good, some were silly. Here are the ones I found worthwhile.
I should flag that while many of the other suggested sites had decent photos, many had licenses that were restrictive. For example, many require attribution to say “Image by Jane Photographer”. Which is fair. But if I’m using it for a featured image on my blog, which might be attached to multiple pages or posts, how do you include that? Some people put it in the ALT TEXT, but that isn’t visible and doesn’t meet the requirements of the license. Others just add it to the footer, or create a credits page. All of which are doable, but not something I am ready to add to my updating regime. No, I want free for personal or commercial use (my site isn’t commercial, but some jurisdictions might treat it as such), no attribution required. Often you can find sites that require either attribution or a paid membership, but for a random photo here and there? Not really worth it to me. I already have my own photos as well as extensive clipart collections I’ve bought over the years. If I have to pay again, I can probably find an alternate image.
Photo sites
The most popular one for photos is called Unsplash. I’ve blogged about it before, and at the time, my reaction was:
A site called Unsplash has free images for use, and many of them are even available for commercial use if need be. People, landscape, buildings…lots of choices. One of the things I often “test” when I’m looking at a site is whether or not they have photos of frogs and what kinds. Simple or full-on tree frogs. It’s what I want for PolyWogg from time to time, so it’s a “real” test. Unsplash has a bunch […] which isn’t bad, and while none of them are OMG AWESOME, they’re certainly usable for a blog post if I want something. For those doing an article about a city, you’re likely to find well-known landmarks easily.
That was written a little over a year ago, and so I played with it a bit more today. I’m quite impressed with the sheer volume. And the updated license is pretty unequivocal:
All photos published on Unsplash can be used for free. You can use them for commercial and noncommercial purposes. You do not need to ask permission from or provide credit to the photographer or Unsplash, although it is appreciated when possible.
Another popular suggestion is Pexels.com. It too has an open license, although if you want to use the images on commercial products, you have to modify it somehow (no straight inclusion). However, they also have video options to include, not that I can think of when I would ever want that function. Stock footage, I guess. Pixabayis also popular, and includes a few graphics here and there (* note my revision below). Not many, and the randomness seems almost accidental. Their license is similar to Pexels…if you want to print it on something commercial, you have to adapt it first. Another backup option suggested was Foter. Decent, not inspiring.
Graphics, vectors and clipart
But honestly, outside of some meme creation where I might use photos in the background, my main need for my site is not photos but graphics or clipart (the latest “phrasing” is to call them all “vectors”). For featured images in my blog, I usually prefer graphics, even whimsical ones, to actual photos, so I went looking for good sites.
So I too asked on WP Beginner. Oddly enough, Pixabay came up again as a suggestion. I had noted above that when I searched, there were some graphics with it, but it seemed random/accidental. I really only saw photos. However, when I saw Pixabay come up again as a suggestion but for graphics, I went looking again. Sure enough, there is a “vectors” area. The default search says it will search all of the areas at once, but I didn’t find those options earlier, so I must have somehow had a filter on. I found a really great graphic that might be a better option than another 5 or 6 that I already had as options. Nice!
I also found Public Domain Vectors which has a great collection. Lots of choice, lots of options. Most likely my goto option with Pixabay.
