Stock Photos for Your Photo Book

Stock photos are professional photographs of common places, landmarks, nature, events or people that are bought and sold on a royalty-free basis and can be used and reused for commercial design purposes. You aren't going to use these photos for commercial purposes, but as an added resource for pictures in your personal photo book. These are generic pictures, and are not usually pictures that you would take. What we are doing here is suggesting that you take your own "stock photos" when you have your camera out, and secondly, mentioning some resources to help you find special pictures you are missing.

Shooting Your Own Stock Photos

It is a nice snowy day and you are photographing your children out sledding. Here is a perfect chance to get a few stock photos - you can take a picture of the sled (without your children on it), snowy mittens or gloves, boots lined up in a row, ruts in the snow made by the sled, etc. These pictures are all elements of the sledding day, but not the usual pictures you'd take.

How about going to a soccer game? You could take pictures of a bag of soccer balls, an empty net, the snacks, empty soccer shoes, shin guards, etc. Once again, these are elements of the game, but not the game itself or the people who play it. These pictures can add depth and interest to your photo books.

There are many every day pictures that can be useful. A flag fluttering in the breeze would make a great backdrop for pictures of a veteran. Shoes piled up outside a door, a pile of books, a school bus, mixing bowls, a pile of sheets, a stack of newspapers are elements of your life.

If you are traveling you can take pictures of all sorts of signs. These add "texture" to your photo book as well as a way to identify individual locations.

Taking all these pictures takes a little more time, but can be useful in the long run. Be sure to use a photo management system so you will be able to find these pictures when you want them.

Finding Stock Photos on the Internet

You won't always have all the pictures that you want. Say you are doing a genealogy and you have some relatives who came into the country through Ellis Island. You may want to have a picture of the statue of Liberty, or of Ellis Island and you live in Iowa. You won't be able to get the picture yourself. Using Google Images will result in several pictures of the Statue of Liberty, but they might not have enough pixels to put in a photo book, and you don't have permission to use the pictures. Do a search on "Free Stock Photos" and you will find several sites that will have high quality pictures and the permission to use the pictures. Be careful when reviewing the sites to make sure that the pictures are truly free. Some sites will have a few free downloads, but may actually cost.

Using the photos will add to the story telling ability of your books, and thanks to these wonderful sites you will be able to find the pictures that you wouldn't be able to take yourself.