Is your web site stock-e?

I am personally astonished by the ease of availability of stock photography. Whereas single images were at one time only purchasable for thousands of dollars, images are now available for around under ten dollars in various qualities. iStockphoto.com for example is one great service.

Photographers too benefit from the purchase, as they receive royalties from the purchase of their images.

However, many question if these web sites and services are actually shooting photographers in the foot, as they are needed less for commissioned shoots. This is an interesting consideration. At least we know wedding photographers are safe.

When working with clients at work, we often use stock photography as it is easy to purchase and so many images are available for public use. One risk that you take is having a competitor utilize your same imagery, however due to the number of images out there and services that provide them, this almost seems a moot point. Unique, and professional photography very often can make an online presence very special, but for generic images, stock photography is economically advisable and hard to pass up.

So why don’t all web sites get a little stock-e? It will help them save money and be able to visually demonstrate EVERYTHING they need online.