If photos are to be the top of every post, I'd try hard to make the photo the width of that column. The few that aren't, it throws off the layout.

The title of the article and the links are black, as is the content. Maybe change to a dark grey or underline or both or a different color - something to differentiate a link from body copy.

Something about the font makes it hard for me to read - either to small or the color, but it's causing me not to want to read the content.

The actual blog post - I would either try to center it on the page horizontally or make it full width or place related articles on the right. Something to fill in the white space a bit.

I get not wanting to look like the other 50 million blogs out there, but your content should differentiate you from them, not necessarily layout IMO. Your content is what will make people come back and read. Going back to the font - if it's hard to read, people won't.