Whether we admit it or not, I think it's fair to say that appearance draws us to things. This is applicable to all areas of life and blogs are no exception. I bet if someone asked who your favourite blogs are, they'll be the ones that have a clear layout and great photos (as well as well written content but that's secondary to appearance, initially.)
You see bloggers talking about how to take better photos and improve the overall blog appearance but truth is, we don't all have these big fancy cameras, a couple of light boxes and a huge white room with tonnes of natural daylight to be able to achieve this.
My blog photos aren't great, I know this. BUT I recently discovered a little trick which is especially useful at this time of the year when we get about 40 minutes of actual daylight...