Blog views and other obsessions – Free Photo Library on WordPress

~ Book Club Mom
Source: brainsonfire.com

Have you noticed something different about your WordPress Home Page? My Home popped up on my blog this week, with a reconfigured format. I haven’t tried everything, but what caught my eye is that now WordPress offers a Free Photo Library of 40,000 stock photos, provided by Pexels.

I’ve been using Pixabay for a few years to find good copyright free photos, but now there’s an option built right into WordPress.

Another good thing I noticed is that you can also upload photos right from Google Photos. I like that! I’m not sure if that’s new, but I’d never seen that before.

And here’s how to access the photo library.

  • Go to your My Home screen, open the Site options and select Media.
  • Click the down arrow on the top left banner dropdown to see WordPress Library, Google Photos library and Free Photo library. Select Free Photo.
  • Type suggestion in Search bar, select an appropriate photo and select Copy to media library.

Your image is ready for you to insert into your next blog post. Photo credits are included in the uploads.

Curious to see what kinds of free images are available, I did a few searches and here are some.

Photo by Suzy Hazelwood on Pexels.com

They are generic like all the stock images out there but they are free and I can see myself using these for certain posts.

Photo by Aleksey Kuprikov on Pexels.com

How about you? Will you use this new feature?

Photo by Andrew Neel on Pexels.com

Thanks for visiting – come back soon!

39 thoughts on “Blog views and other obsessions – Free Photo Library on WordPress”

    1. You know me, Jill. I like to keep up with the technology. I think I will use these images sometimes, but not always. Thanks for reading – I hope you had a good writing day!

    1. Oh yes, I think original photos are better. I have to use a lot of stock photography for work, and this selection looks similar. I will probably look for things there if a need comes up, but I also prefer to have my own pictures when possible. Thanks for visiting, John!

  3. Good to know! It seems WordPress is following the lead of Medium.com (where I do a lot of my writing these days), which has the same kind of association with Unsplash. I appreciate that it makes it easy for me not only to find cool images but to appropriately recognize their creators.

    1. Hi Jan – yes I use a lot of stock images for my job and two of the programs I use have photo libraries embedded in them (Constant Contact and Library Aware). It makes things a lot easier. That said, I often have to jump over to Pixabay to find things. I haven’t heard of Medium.com. How does that work? And thanks for reading and commenting. I’m making my way through everyone’s blog posts, as I am always a little behind with my visits! Hope you are doing well on the west coast.

  4. Great info! Thanks for sharing! (Sorry if this is a duplicate comment…I think my first one disappeared??)

    1. I read in a recent comment that the free photo library isn’t new – but it’s new to me. First time I noticed! Thanks for stopping by 🙂

    1. Hi Derrick – I prefer original pictures, and your garden and outing posts are always interesting because they show your experiences, which is the whole appeal of your blog. I can see how the stock images might come in handy for me at times. Thanks for reading!

  7. I’ve been using the free WordPress photo library for a few years. It has lots to offer, but I still find Pixabay a lot better because they offer a lot more images. I usually end up mixing and matching from the two sites, although prefer to use my own where I can.

    1. Hi Hugh – I only just noticed the WordPress free images, but I also use Pixabay a lot, especially for my library job. But you’re right, the personal/original photos give the blog a more authentic look. Thanks for reading and commenting.

      1. What I do liike about the free WordPress library is that credits for images are added straight away. No having to cut and paste credits like you have to do with Pixabay. I guess both have their pros and cons though, Barbara. It’s nice to have a choice.

    1. Hi Lynette – yes, I learned from another comment that the free images have been around for a while. I had not noticed it – I think the new Home page made it pop out for me. I agree though, that original photos (not stock images) are always preferred. But sometimes it helps to have something to make a point. Thanks for reading and commenting. How long have you been blogging?

  9. I’ve see n the free WP photo library after I moved to WP last summer. I used it once about three months ago and liked that it added the photo credit automatically. I post my own photos most of the time.

    1. Hi Natalie – yes I guess it’s not something new – just something I noticed recently. I also like that the photo credit is added automatically – it’s a nice feature. I do prefer original photos in blog posts, though. Thanks for stopping by!

    2. Hi Marian – yes I think I would be an occasional user. I think original photos make the blog more authentic, but every now and then you need something. Thanks for the visit!

  12. I like the idea that the image is right there and so easy to use immediately! Although I too have used Pixaby I’m always open to new sources. My only hesitation is that I’ve tried using Pexel a few times and their images are not exactly the quality of Pixaby … but that might just be my personal preference. Many thanks for sharing this new WP feature … it would have sat there undiscovered forever!😀

    1. Hi Annika – I’m actually not sure now if this is a new feature, but it’s certainly new to me! I’ve never used Pexel before. I would say that I think the Pixabay selection is much larger. It is nice, though that it’s built into WordPress and that the photo credits appear when you upload them. Still, not too hard to add Pixabay to the credits…Thanks for stopping by to discuss!

  13. Hi, Barbara. I’ve used the free photo library a couple of times, but mostly I use my own photos, as you know. Funny how I wasn’t aware of the feature to use Google photos, though. 🙂

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