Whether or not your usage is commercial, you have no right to use any image without express permission from the creator or a licensing fee being paid. I have no right to use anyone's blog! Blog writers have no right to use my images without my permission or a licensing fee being paid. Period! So, to answer your question - no you should not be using the images! If you like an image enough, pay the licensing fee to use it! I already found one user on here who made over $1,000 off his "tiny hub" using my image illegally as clickbait!

And what do you mean about limiting your creativity? That puzzled me. You can still be very creative and use an image you have found by paying the license fee! You have that option if you really like the work!

The ONLY time that image use is OK without permission is if you are writing a blog ABOUT THE IMAGE WITH A CRITIQUE OF THE IMAGE! Any other usage is unauthorized. Also, attribution does not pay the bills and put food on the table for working professionals! My hairdresser or plumber can't survive on "exposure" for their work and neither can I! I have thousands of images available for licensing on the web, so if you like my image that you find on someone else's website (probably legitimately paid for) please take the time to get a license for your own usage like the original website did!

It may be a pain for you to find the right image for your blog, but why do you have the right to use someone else's work? I don't have the right to copy and use your blog, do I?

As a stock photographer, sometimes it was a pain for me to create the image too. Sometimes I had to pay models, buy props, drive or fly great distances etc. - not to mention the overheads of equipment, software and continuing education.

Until a few years ago, I also had the added expense of rent for a studio. I did not invest in my business with the idea that I would give away my work for free! Who in their right minds would operate business that way?

My overheads are like those of any business. Unauthorized usage of my work cuts deeply into my profits. My images are not free! I'm not sure what kind of work you are in, but I assume you don't work for free either. I rely on my income from stock licensing.

Luckily for ALL CONTENT PROVIDERS though - that includes blog writers too - the US Congress is about to vote on a Bill that is going to make it very easy for all content creators to go after unauthorized use in a Small Claims Court set up just for us! Anyone using images on Steemit without having permission is going to be a fair target when this Bill passes! And because those images can easily be found on a Google search for years to come, I would not advise anyone on Steemit to use images swiped from the web! Steemit is a US based company subject to US copyright laws!

You did ask for opinion, so you got it! LOL! It is a subject dear to my heart!