Merry Christmas from Meira Design! I hope that in all of your projects and holiday plans you remember to take time to enjoy your family and friends and most of all: to worship Jesus. It’s a magical time of year, filled with traditions and love. Make sure to savor it.

This issue of Money Saving Marketing is highlighting three sources for free stock photography. It can be very expensive to buy professional photography to use in marketing campaigns. Sometimes it is necessary when you have a unique idea, or when you would like a specific model in the picture. But it is not always important or cost effective to spend a lot of money on every photograph. The following three websites can help when you are looking for an easy, free solution.

iStockphoto.com
If you ever look at buying stock photography online, you have probably heard of iStockphoto. This website has an amazing variety of photo, illustration, video, and even audio stock files. For regular photographs on this site, you can pay anywhere from $0.95 to over $100. There is a great way to build up a stock photography library at no cost at all though, using their Free Photo of the Week. To reach this area, you must sign in to iStockphoto first. On the front page is a photograph captioned, “Free Photo of the Week”. Click on it to download it in one of several sizes. There are also 2 weeks of previous Free Photo of the Week images, still free for download.

If you are looking for other types of media, on the sidebar click on Vector illustrations, Video, or Audio. Each of these sections has a free file of the month. Although you are not at liberty to pick whatever you want at the time for free, if you take time to download the files that you might need in the future you can save a lot of money in the long run.

stock.xchng
This site is a large collection of free stock photography and illustrations. Depending on what you are looking for, you could probably find something here. Some of the images are lower quality, which is why they are offered for free instead of being on a paid stock photography site, but you can’t beat the price. Pay attention to the restrictions listed under Availability when using these photos, as some have more restrictions than others for their use.

Flickr
You might wonder about my listing Flickr as a stock photography source. A lot of photographs on Flickr are not available as stock for use in any manner. There is a great way to search for the photographs that are available though, and I will explain how.

1. Type in your search criteria, and go to the results page.
2. Once at the results page, click Advanced Search, beside the search box.
3. At the bottom of the Advanced Search options, there is a Creative Commons section. Click the checkbox for “Only search within Creative Commons-licensed content” and any other options in that area that apply to the project you need the photograph for.
4. Click search and find your free image!

Each of these sites has a lot of content that I hope you find useful in your endeavors! Have a very merry Christmas, and when you need a designer, please remember to call Meira Design.

God bless,
Charlotte Glaze
Owner, Meira Design