A picture paints a thousand words, whether it’s free or not.

Do you have a favourite site for free photos to use with your writing? Or do you use paid photos?

When it comes to my website or in my newsletters, I don’t use many pictures that I haven’t taken myself.

I used to get artwork from Pixabay, but I was warned about the copyright issues there and the growing prevalence of AI-generated art among its offerings. To avoid any potential problems in the future, I’ve stopped using that site.

I tend to create most of my graphx in Canva, for which I have a subscription, using clipart and backgrounds. If I need anything else, I’m happy to buy stock images from Shutterstock, Storyblocks or DepositPhotos.

It can be hard to find suitable stock images for Sci-Fi or Steampunk. Even so, as far as I’m able, I avoid anything that uses AI or has been created by AI. A bit of imagination can help to create meaningful images from what is available.

If I use any artwork on Substack, I go to Unsplash, as the images there are verified as copyright-free.

Wherever you get your images, the most important thing is to keep a trail of provenance.

And that’s about it.

What do you think about this week’s subject?

Let me know by leaving me a comment.

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I’ll be back with another post on Thursday. See you then. Meanwhile, have a great week.

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