You’ve seen it just about everywhere.  You’ve been seeing it for most of your life, and you didn’t even know it.  It’s called Stock Photography.  Over the years, I’ve really become aware of just how much stock imagery is all around us.  There have been times when I’ve bought an image from iStockPhoto.com used it, and then later, seen it used in a magazine ad by one company and a billboard ad my another.

The ideal is to always take your own photos, but, there are many circumstances when it’s not practical.  Weather, scheduling conflicts, sick talent, lack of any real money to hire talent….. can all be limiting factors when trying to take your own photos.  However, there’s tons of professional photographers out there that have taken amazing photos and are more than willing to have you use them.  Sites like iStockPhoto.com have really made stock photographs affordable for bloggers and micro-publishers.

Once again, our friends over at WebDesignBooth.com have compiled a list of 30 Websites to Download Free Stock Photos.  After going over this list, I realized that there are a few of them on there that actually charge for the photos, so don’t freak out if the aren’t ALL free.

Quality and selection vary on these sites.  Be sure you check to make sure that your usage follows their licensing guidelines. Read the full article…