How can I speed up the rendering of an image on my page?

I am creating a site where the user can post their advertisement and the user can upload a photo... I am posting the four latest ads pics in the top of my site... so everytime I navigate through my site those latest 4 ads pics will be displayed but the problem is it renders too long.. makes my site slowdown...

how can I optimize it? I need advice guys..

and btw, I'm saving those images in my database as blob.. and selecting the 4 latest ads in my database.

<?php if($latest_upload_count > 0){ ?>
<div class = "collapse navbar-collapse">
    <div class = "container">
        <div class = "row">
        <?php while($get_lastest_pics = mysql_fetch_assoc($get_5_latest_ads_query_string_execute)){ ?>
            <div class = "col-xs-3">
                <img img src="data:image/jpeg;base64,<?php echo base64_encode($get_lastest_pics['img']); ?>"  style = "height: 180px; width: 270px;"  class="img-responsive img-thumbnail" alt="Cinque Terre" >     
            </div>
        <?php } ?>

        </div>
    </div>
    <br />
</div>

<?php } ?>

I tried omitting that and my site runs faster...