Favorite Website for Free Pictures

[Kristie Bradford]

I was working on upcoming posts for my blog tonight and decided that I wanted to add a stock photo or a fun cartoon picture to one of the blogs. It has been a while since I went looking for pictures that are out there to use - free.

I started out at Google Images. After looking at pages of pictures, I noticed that they now have the following stated under the pictures: "Image may be scaled down and subject to copyright." Like I said, it has been awhile since I searched for pictures so this may have been on there for awhile but I just saw it. Not wanting to worry about copyright, I kept going thinking that I would find one that did not say this. Of course, I did not.

Deciding on a generic picture I clicked on one and saw that it has istockphoto written across it. I checked out istockphoto.com and noticed that you have to pay for the pictures. While I understand that this is a business for someone, I was looking for a picture that was free.

Continuing on my search for a fun, free picture I then did a Google search for free, royalty-free pictures. Of course it brought up many websites to check out. After looking at many websites and not finding one that I wanted, I decided that this was crazy and why not ask others where they like to go for this type of pictures.

Do you add pictures to your blog posts? If so, where do you go for the pictures you use?

[Jeff Bowe]

From a pure content creator's standpoint (us author's and photographers both create pure content that they own), just be respectful and follow their requests. It really burns when you find something that you created illegitimately "borrowed". In school, its called plagiarism, and in life, its called stealing. Now, if you find a place for free pics, I'd like to know. I'm about to redo website #1 and even though I paid for the pics for round 1, I doubt I will reuse them.

[Amy Stark]

wow... I just learned something Kristie, thank you. =) Look familiar?

[Amy Stark]

[Amy Stark]

Kristie Bradford --The originator's name, underlined with a link to the website would be fine, but often there will be instructions on how to cite the work.

http://kristieskreations.files.wordpress.com/2008/11/isacord-thread.jpg?w=153&h=111

[Kristie Bradford]

What is the correct way to give the author credit? Can it simply be: - quoted from Kristie's Kreations Website - ?

[Amy Stark]

Hmmm Not sure I understand what you mean.

[Kristie Bradford]

Thank you Amy! I will check these two things out! Can I just say (quoted from Kristie's Kreations Website) with the link?

[Amy Stark]

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page Fabulous resource.
Great question, Kristie. You can also do a search for "public domain images" in a Google search.
Look for Public Domain things or Creative Commons licensure. Just make sure to include the link and give the author credit.