Lots of traffic but very low Adsense CTR and earnings?

Little backstory here. (If you don't want it just skim down.) I started a blog a couple of months ago and have in the past month or two have really gotten a huge uptake in traffic. I have been holding steady at about 8k pageviews a day but have had a many as 25k in a day. After I saw I was finally getting a decent amount of traffic I started to monetize it.

I knew about adsense but had never tried it before. I got approved and put the ads in different sizes and in several different placing according to the places suggested by the heatmap. But the thing is my CTR is pitiful (and subsequently my earnings ). I know I can't say it on here because of their TOS, but lets just say I have never seen a whole number. Also while due to the number of traffic I am able to make 2 to 4 bucks a day I would like to make more.

I really have no clue what to do I have changed placement, tried different sizes, and even toggled text/image ads. None of these things I have tried seem to do anything to help. What am I doing wrong? Should I try other money methods? What? Thanks for the help guys I appreciate it.

P.S. I do a lot of photo heavy post and I don't want to screw any of them up in the process. Thanks.