Pictures can transform a piece of writing – or really bring home a point. This recent article I wrote for Outlook Magazine is a good case in point.

The article is about the Chamoli flood that happened on Feb 7, 2021. Amongst the points it makes is this: the state of Uttarakhand is a very earthquake prone area, and so construction there should be limited.

You can read the article by downloading the PDF below. If you have an outlook subscription, You can read the full article here.

This is not the original article I submitted. This was what finally appeared. The original article I had submitted was titled “Chamoli : Lessons not learnt from 2013.” Why they changed the headline is the topic for another post.

Most of the text in my writing and the article is identical. However, they have used four images and dropped the only image I had shared. The article uses photos of the mountains and the disaster site, but those are predictable and somewhat clichéd.

But they didn’t use the image I had submitted. The reason could have been copyright issues (I had taken it from credible sources, but on the internet), or the file size (the image was pretty small and maybe it wasn’t high-res enough to print.)

This was the picture:

Do you think the article lost a lot by not having this image? Did you feel like a major punch was taken out of the article by stating the information but removing this map?

Images play a critical role in writing for the online world, especially in informational articles and blog posts. A strong featured image can make or break a blog post and is even more relevant if you depend on social media to put it out there. The featured image is what shows up on social media platforms like Facebook & LinkedIn when it is shared. Graphic representation of certain points really brings an idea or a concept home to a reader much more powerfully than a set of words might.

So when you’re choosing to write your next blog post or argue a point in an article, be certain to find visuals to support that argument, whether that be charts, tables, or photos.

(To learn more about writing blog posts and articles, check out our Blog/content writing workshop. )

There are many excellent sources to get royalty free pictures for your blog or article. The few top sources for free pictures or images are :

1. Pexels

Pexels is a free service where you can search for images or videos. Many high quality free photos exist, and you can download them free in high-res after you create an account. It is nice to give the credit to the photographer – that is the least one can do.

2. Pixabay

Pixabay has upped the game because in addition to Pictures and videos it also offers Illustrations, vectors, music, sound effects and GIFs.

3. Unsplash
This site offers a large range of Photos and illustrations, but often has much more enticing images on offer as part of the paid library that iStock has on display on it.

Please remember that often the same image can appear on all three. As a standard practice we do recommend giving the credit to the concerned photographer.