You can buy or download free photos of everything…almost. If you are a speaker and use photos during your talk it is easy to search for ‘just the right photo’ for your PowerPoint slide. It makes sense…or does it. Actually, I don’t think so.

I’d rather use a photo that I have taken over a stock photo every time. Here’s an example.

There are thousands of photos of Pugs online. If I were speaking about Pugs, I would only use one like this. Why? I can talk about this one on a very personal level. Camille posed for this photo. She lived with my family. You may notice that the photo isn’t perfect. Her tail is partially covered by the greenery. A “professional” photographer would have Photoshopped it out. Would a perfect photo that I couldn’t talk about personally be better than Camille. Never!

Whenever possible, use your own photo…so you can make it personal.