LeonardSipes.Com
Paying for photography for your website is much simpler and cost-effective than searching endless sources for free stuff. Having said that, please see resources for free material below.
There are a couple of tasks that took an unbelievable amount of time when I was creating my sites and when I helped others create theirs. One was finding photographs and clipart.
“Why pay for photographs when you can get them for free,” I asked myself.
What I did was waste a tremendous amount of time in my search for free art (which I still use on this site). Finding the right photograph to fit the mood of what you’re trying to convey is hard work “and” you may decide to change artwork as times and sensitivities change.
For those who still want to go through the free process, see:
- A site that lists sources of free access to photography. Its http://wavianarts.blogspot.com/2011/03/free-images-online-list-of-links.html.
- There’s also the possibility of going to Google Images (http://www.google.com/imghp ) and looking for material in the public domain that ends in dot.gov (although that’s not a foolproof method for legal material).
What I do now
I’m a proud owner of an account with IStockphoto (http://www.istockphoto.com/ ) and I didn’t receive a dime from them to say this. They have reasonably priced artwork and photography and video clips that are easy to find. I get great looking artwork that makes my site sing. People are always complementing me on the photography I use on .
Last night I needed additional photos for the site. I was in and out of iStockphoto in 15 minutes and had them up and running on my site in another fifteen.
In the past, I would have spent hours trying to accomplish the same goals. Ugh, what a waste of time!
There are lots of paid sites (search for “stock photography”) out there and it took me time to warm up to iStockphoto’s use of “credits” instead of dollars (as life isn’t difficult enough) but their customer service is wonderfully friendly and their stuff is fairly inexpensive, especially if you purchase the “small” sizes appropriate for website use (about three dollars per photo is my limit).
Feel free to go free, but I’ll be waiting for you at the finish line with a beer in my hand after a two hour nap.
Best, Len.
