Scintillating scenes, surrealistic sunsets, majestic, mauve mourning doves flying freely over freshly frosted fields and nose-numbing nihilistic, wind-driven snow swirling over Siberian savannahs are only a few of the tens of thousands of photos you’ll see if you visit this beautifully-done free stock photo site.(Sorry about the adjectives, but I’m trying to get a job writing for Groupon. Don’t tell EB, OK?)
For those of you who don’t know, stock photos are photos used by publishers who are too cheap to hire their own photographers – like us for example. Most stock photo sites charge a fee, called a royalty-fee, to publishers who want to use a photo or photos from their stock galleries. But being the cheap, parsimonious types we are, if there is something we can get free and use without paying a fee we feel freed from our near-bankruptcy – and that feels really good. After tittering on the brink for the last few years, struggling against the common enemies of humanity: hunger, thirst, the need for shelter, and good wine, we were momentarily taken aback when we saw this stock photo site offering license-free photos to the masses. Since were as much a part of the masses as anyone else, we were stunned by the seeming generosity of these fine folks.
All good fantasies must come to an end, said William Shakespeare of Pierre, S.D. And she was right (William is a nice name for a girl!). While you can download and use any of the tens of thousands of photos available on this site for your own personal use, you can’t use any of these photos and claim you took them yourself – or use them to make money like we are doing :-). Just kidding. We are not making money from these photos! Honest!
Anyway, most all of the photos on this site are super high-resolution. That means two things:
1. They’re very large and very clear.
2. If you’re on dialup and you want to see the full size images, start loading them and then go out to dinner – by the time you come back they’ll be done.
By now you’re all getting seriously peeved at my obvious attempt to yammer incessantly in my desperation to be hired by Groupon as a writer before EB fires me or cuts my salary again because she can’t afford such superior talent and wit. Hold on to your horses, I’m getting to the point where I’m about to tell you want you’ve been waiting to know.
By the whale – if you look to your left you’ll see TC in purple and EB in green – those are our favorite colors respectively. EB has really nice teeth. Don’t you think?
And did you know if you click on the small images on the left, you can see the full-size images on the Web? You can. Pay close attention to the EB/TC pictures. You’ll see that EB has very nice fur. I’m just sayin’.
What is this site? What’s it called? Show me how to get to it. Come on, quit the babbling and bring forth the link. I hear you! I feel your pain!
Go now and visit the excellent repository of resplendent visual delights. It’s called RGBStock and you can go there by clicking here.
Oh… one more thing: you have to sign-up for an account to access the high-res images. All you need is love. No. All you need is an email address and a password – and we all have those don’t we!
I just wanted to clarify one little point. You CAN use the images commercially, just not on product lines like calendars or tshirts, or to sell or redistribute the images themselves. And many of the photographers and graphic artists are happy to give you permission for those things. Ask them. Here is a link to the terms of use:
http://www.rgbstock.com/termsofuse
Happy browsing!
Right. In other words you can’t make money by selling the images or claiming them as your own. Wait…didn’t we already say that?
LOL I don’t know if I’m missing the point. You can make money out of them by using them in your commercial projects as illustrations, book covers, etc, as long as those projects are within the guidelines. Maybe that’s something that is already understood by the people who use Cloudeight regularly. 🙂
This is probably your greatest free site of all time. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Thanks! Maybe we’ll be like Babe Ruth – in some hall of fame. I can just see the bust of EB and TC enshrined. Yuck!
http://www.rgbstock.com is not only a place to get some free absolutely stunning photos and illustrations for your projects but is also a platform to showcase your portfolio and a learning stage for artists.
No matter if you are a professional photographer or illustrator that likes to share some of his/her work f.i. to schools, wellfare organisations or individuals on a tiny budget or just a newbie artist curious to learn what people like, need and use for their design jobs and develop your skills on the way.
We have a very friendly and enthusiastic community and there is always someone in the forum willing to answer questions or issues.
So anyone is welcome to browse, leave comments, grab quality files, join the forum and leave (with) a smile.
See you at http://www.rgbstock.com. You are welcome!
p.s. the airplane in sunset picture is mine 😉
Want to use a picture for a commercial project not included in the terms of use? Contact the producer/copyright holder of the file for approval. RGBStock.com works.
We hope you liked our article :). We appreciate your comments.
rgbstock.com is an amazing resource for teachers & teaching assistants looking for images to illustrate ideas & concepts being taught partly due to the wide variety of images available…
Thanks – Great site – have taken up painting and have seen some great photos here – the best – Thanks again for this free site.
People are also welcome to use the free royalty free photos and images available on CJO Photo http://www.cjophoto.com/.