Free Stock Photography! Really?

Lilac's and Peruvian Lilies
by Sharee Basinger

You see the term Stock Photography and you immediately think, it's not free. I mean why should it be? They're only High Resolution, High Quality Photos captured by Professional Photographers using Expensive Cameras, right?

As it turns out, there are thousands of stock photography images available in the public domain. These photos can be used freely for personal and commercial use without any attribution to author or creator.

PublicDomainPictures offers thousands of high quality Royalty Free Public Domain Images for commercial and personal use. I have used this site consistently for years now. For easy navigation you can search their database or browse through categories like Food, Nature and Landscapes. Users can also upload their own images to the database. Image statistics like size, description and camera information are also provided. License details are available for each image.

Since my Free Fyer Templates are redistributed online, I verify the license for each image before I download and place a link giving credit to the author and website which is mandatory. If you're looking for a great site with awesome photos for your personal projects, business flyers, and more then you should take a closer look.

I recently discovered Pixabay which hosts thousands of High Quality Public Domain Images. Besides photos, they offer free Clip Art. You can find some really nice images. View my blog post for more great resources on Copyright Free Vector Clip Art.

Flowers Meadow Yellow
Summer Blutenmeer Bloom
by PixelAnarchy

You have the option of downloading or uploading photos or clipart. Sign up for free access to images. If you choose not to be a member then you'll have to submit a Captcha for every image you'd like to download. If you're not familiar with the term, a Captcha is that annoying text code that you have to type in to verify you are not a computer. So to avoid this hassle become a member.

No categories but lots of beautiful images to choose from and there is a Search feature. If you use Pixabay images on a website, linking back to them is not required, although it is always nice to give credit where it is due.

Public Domain Images has over 20,000 High Quality Royalty Free Photos for both personal and commercial use. I actually did my first 1st Flyer Tutorial on Digital Photography years ago with photos from this site. 

Aerial Photography of
National Reserve Lakes 
by Hillebrand Steve, 
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service

They have over 20 main categories that are further divided into subcategories. I especially love the images from the Nature Landscapes category. You can also do keyword searches in the image database. 

Statistics are provided for each image and a link back is not required for image use on websites, however it would be nice to credit the image source and or creator. 

These sites keep me busy and are a great resource for teachers, students, and businesses alike. Do you know of any other sites that host public domain images that you would strongly recommend?