Photos for TPT Products

Photographs.  They add interest to blog posts and make it instantly pinnable.  They make PowerPoint products for TPT more vivid and help illustrate the concept.  However, finding beautiful photographs that are licensed for commercial use can be a quite the challenge.  Copyright is sticky, especially when it comes to photographs, and we can't all pay the big bucks for subscriptions to stock photo websites.  However, there are resources with amazing photos for commercial use at low or no cost to enhance your blog and products! Here is a list of some of my favorite stock photo websites I have come across.  Please remember to always - very thoroughly - read the license and copyright information for each and every photo you use to ensure you are staying legal. I am certainly not a copyright expert!

Unsplash

Unsplash is a collection of free for any use - even commercial - photographs thanks to their liberal "do whatever you want" policy.  10 new photos are released each week and they are all stunning! Most are landscapes and scenery type images, so these would be perfect for making beautiful blog post images or Pinterest pins.  There isn't a search, and you do have to scroll through looking at them one-by-one, so that is a bummer. (The image for this post was made with a recent Unsplash photo!)

   

Gratisography

Here is another amazing photography website in which the photographer allows his images to be used for personal or commercial purposes under a Creative Commons Zero license. These photos are just all around cool - bright, fun, expressive, and sometimes even a little strange.  I think it would be great resource for EL, ELA, or vocabulary PowerPoints.  Easier to scroll through than Unsplash.

  

 

Life of Pix

Another website offering photos with zero copyright restrictions.   37 (blog) pages of beautiful photos, with many of them being seasonal landscapes if you have products that need photos showing the seasons. Also a bit of a nuisance to scroll through, but there is a gallery view mode, although I couldn't get it to work on my computer for some reason.

 

Superfamous

More beautiful photos at Superfamous, which allows personal and commercial use under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license (must provide credit back).  Great photos here, many of nature, plants, and lots of "geology" photos.  I say geology loosely because I don't really know anything about science. So I could be wrong.

 

Photography Sellers on TPT

Clip artists are abound on TeachersPayTeachers, but did you know that many sellers are now selling their original photography for commercial use?  These are affordable and support real teachers. Most of their products come in related bundles, so it's easy to grab a package of insect photos for a product on insects, for example.  Here are some amazing photo sellers I have come across:

  

Photos 4 Teachers  -  Strawberry Shortcake  -  Worth a Thousand Words  -  Photo Shop

Big Stock Photo

Big Stock Photo is your typical subscription stock photo site - but, they offer a free week trial.  You can download five free images a day in this trial, and if you cancel before your week is up, you won't be charged.  I did the trial and got some great images for pins.  If I ever need a large number of stock photos, I would definitely go back to this site.

Reader Suggestions

• The Language Arts Classroom suggests iStockPhoto

Check them out! Any photo websites work for you? And suggestions for other resources? Leave a comment!