Are Photo Blogs a Strong Strategy for Photographers in 2026
Recently I was asked why I write photography blogs. The reality is the way people view content online has changed dramatically, largely because of the amount of AI generated content that is now available. As a result, there’s been a noticeable shift toward preferring content created by a human, readers want authenticity, and storytelling has become king in helping images and ideas connect on a deeper level.
A good example is how Instagram is changing, and that on December 31st, 2025, Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram, posted on Threads saying “that professional photography is cheap to produce and boring to consume and that camera companies are betting on the wrong aesthetic. He goes on to say that savvy creators need to make explicitly unproduced and unflattering images to prove they're human”. In other words we should be producing content for Instagram that is unpolished such as blurry photos and shaky videos, this is so the algorithm doesn’t flag the content as AI and helps show that the content was created by a real human. This goes completely against what I have learned in photography, and as a result I’m currently posting less frequently on Instagram given the present environment.
I have been writing blogs since 2024, and over the last six months I have been working to publish a new blog post each week. Sometimes it can be difficult to produce a blog post once a week, but I try my best and stick to a consistent schedule. Sometimes you also have a creative block that slows you down. One example is a blog post I attempted to write twice about the podcasts I listen to and couldn't quite finish the blog. After the second attempt I woke at 1:00 a.m in the morning with the title and the key content of a new blog, I quickly wrote the idea down and went back to sleep. The following day I published the new blog post, incorporating some of the original ideas and new reflections about the podcasts I enjoy.
Writing is a great way to express your thoughts and ideas to a wider audience, and over time I have learned which blog posts resonate and which fall flat. Gear reviews, in particular, tend to be quite popular, these posts are routinely searched for and discovered on Google every day, including the reviews I’ve published and as far back as 2024. I also really enjoy capturing photos either locally in Marlborough or in other areas of New Zealand, then writing a blog around those photos to create a cohesive story.
As I’m not an event photographer who regularly covers local occasions like Christmas parades, A & P shows, or other community events in Marlborough. Any blog posts created around these type of events, rarely perform well online. Perhaps they are simply too specific or too niche for the audience to engage with. These days I decide whether to bring my camera to such events, and if I do, I accept that the only realistic place to share the photos is on social media, which tends to provide only short term internet validation. Otherwise I’ll attend the event to enjoy it, without the pressure of taking photos, and taking the occasional iPhone photo to remember the day.
Writing blogs has become a great addition to my photography, and I get a lot of enjoyment out of creating each blog post. You hear so much online that blogging is dead, but in 2026 I find blogging to be well worth the time and effort to create thoughtful posts, and it’s certainly an excellent time to start if you haven’t already.