Correct usage of HTML5 `figure` and `aside`

Question

I have a chunk of a page that looks semantically this:

Heading A

Textual information related to heading A.
Blah blah blah blah blah.

[image gallery related to heading A]

I can think of a couple of ways to mark this up:

Method 1:

<section>
    <h1>Heading A</h1>

    <p>Textual information related to heading A.<br />
    <p>Blah blah blah blah blah.</p>

    <figure>
        <img />
        <figcaption>Image 1</figcaption>
        <img />
        <figcaption>Image 2</figcaption>
    </figure>
</section>

Method 2:

<section>
    <h1>Heading A</h1>

    <p>Textual information related to heading A.<br />
    <p>Blah blah blah blah blah.</p>

    <figure>
        <img />
        <figcaption>Image 1</figcaption>
    <figure>
    </figure>
        <img />
        <figcaption>Image 2</figcaption>
    </figure>
</section>

Method 3:

<section>
    <h1>Heading A</h1>

    <p>Textual information related to heading A.<br />
    <p>Blah blah blah blah blah.</p>
    <aside>  <!--Method 3b: use section here-->
        <figure>
            <img />
            <figcaption>Image 1</figcaption>
        <figure>
        </figure>
            <img />
            <figcaption>Image 2</figcaption>
        </figure>
    </aside>  <!--Method 3b: use section here-->
</section>

Method 4:

<section>
    <h1>Heading A</h1>

    <p>Textual information related to heading A.<br />
    <p>Blah blah blah blah blah.</p>
</section>
<aside>
    <figure>
        <img />
        <figcaption>Image 1</figcaption>
    <figure>
    </figure>
        <img />
        <figcaption>Image 2</figcaption>
    </figure>
</aside>

Which is the semantically correct way of doing it?

Answer 1

It's unlikely that you're going to get complete agreement on a 'one true way' to mark this up, but I would choose method 2. My reasoning is:

• A figure element cannot have multiple figcaption children, so method 1 is invalid
• A figure is already a type of aside, so no need to wrap them: "The figure element represents a unit of content ... that can be moved away from the main flow of the document without affecting the document’s meaning." (W3C HTML5 spec, figure element)
• Unless the two figures are themselves related somehow, other than both being related to the section they're in, no need to group them further than they are already