You can pour over google analytics and other site analysis tools and what they will tell you is that vivid pictures and video with something engaging in the first 3 seconds will stop them and take a closer look at what you are presenting. Think back to recent searches YOU did. It wasn’t the text at sentence 3 that got you to look more, it was a vivid photo or a video with a great cinematic effect and a catchphrase in the first few seconds.
The days of taking a photo with your camera are over. You won’t capture the angle a professional’s eye will get, you don’t know how to enhance the photos just right to get them to look 10 times better than your camera could and these days your competitors have figured it out. Professional photography gets more view, more likes, more shares, more time on page and a host of other things important to get the majority of viewers.