Looking for that perfect stock image, for free? EveryStockPhoto might just have it

While I take a lot of pictures, sometimes I need a stock photo for something.  You know that image that is just right.  One small problem about stock photos is often they can be rather pricey and the license terms can be harsh.  Vancouver-based Vibrant Software has just re-launched EveryStockPhoto.com which indexes royalty-free images from sites like Flickr, Wikipedia, etc.  I looked and I didn’t find my pics … yet. Hat tip to Techvibes for breaking this news:

Vancouver-based license-specific photo search engine Everystockphoto.com re-launched today. In the works for six months, the new site uses Ajax extensively and includes a handful of enhanced user features – advanced search, drag and drop collections, improved tagging, rating, flagging, and comments. Everystockphoto.com has also increased the size of their photo index by adding Wikipedia and NASA photos. Source: Every Stock Photo Online

So doing a quick search on my name and found…

Yep, that’s really me as captured by Kris Krug nearly two years ago!

You can spend a lot of time looking at just the front page where cool images cycle through like this:

And when you see a cool image and click on it you get to that picture’s page to be able to get it, like this:

Found here at Image*After

The one bit that you might find annoying is that the images aren’t  on their servers.  Everystockphoto just indexes the pictures.  However the indexing and searching is responsive and pretty powerful.  I would like to be able to search by photographer, but when you find a picture that was found on Flickr you do get links to their other pictures.  When you find a picture you like you do have to go to another site to check out the license terms and download it.  Could be a problem if you have to register for an account, but…hey we want free, right?

Next time you need an image, just these guys a shot … you never know what you might find (maybe even one of my pictures!).