Extreme stock photography
I love iStockphoto. I’ve even purchased a couple of pictures for use on Skate and Annoy, non skateboarding pictures, mind you. The big picture on the left came up on a Google alert today, and all it said was “Extreme Skateboarding,” so I had to check. A cursory search for other “Extreme Skateboarding” images brought up 44 inages total, a couple of which were also funny. Funny in that they aren’t very, well, you know, Extreme!™ There’s standing guy on the top right, and my favorite, a kid doing a slide of sorts with his hands planted. In thumbnail view it just looks like an eviscerated torso.. Hold on, that’s not right. The torso is missing, so it’s just a couple of legs and an ass on a skateboard. Wait, the photog has labeled it Headless Skateboarder. Gawd, what a great post I just made.
Cheap stock photography, so cheap it’s almost as good as stealing. Problem is seeing the image you used show up in an ad for extreme single serving yogurt snacks.
…and every two bit web site like this one.
Well yeah, but if you’ve got a national account like that you can probably afford a higher priced and more exclusive stock photo.
I use istock photo illustrations all the time for graphic design stuff. You can usually get a good vector art that you can alter to suit your needs, it’s a great resource.
rights managed vs royalty-free
i worked at corbis for a while – some great photos. if you want exclusive rights to a photo you gotta pay out the ass.
Corbis (south Bellevue – Bill Gates owned) has the Bettman archives – good stuff
but i’d pick
Getty Images (in Fremont) because of the National Geographic stuff and way more