Introducing "The S.T.A.N. Plan"

Review of Free Images Sites - PhotoCrops.com

Photo Crops - Free Images Site Review
Free Images for blogs are easy to find. Just search for Free Images, and you'll get a whole list of sites. GREAT looking free images for blogs isn't quite as easy. You can spend hours on it. The purpose of this series is to review some of these sites. While you may be coming here from a single link, this link will give you all the reviews I've done so far. Here are my thoughts about the PhotoCrops, which is where the image above came from. PhotoCrops.com 

Don't Let The Simplicity Fool You

When I first looked at the site, I thought "Ok. These are some pretty good pictures, but the site seems sort of simple."  After my research, my thinking was completely different. These folks are serious artists. And their technical and user experience is up to the tasks. Let me explain.

But First - The Pictures

All pictures that I looked at were great. They are a mixture of pastels, black and white, and full color images. I believe all are offered in High Def, but I couldn't be sure of it. The are organized by the month. They offer five free images a month. I presume that's how they keep the quality of the photos so high. The images are submitted by guests photographers, from what I can gather. And the images are grouped on the front page by those contributors. As far as the image subject, it's a very good mix. There are plenty of landscapes, equipment and what I'd call "artistic interpretation' photos. I believe anyone can contribute. But I think they only take one artist a month. 

There is a submit form on the site. I presume it does exactly what it says. Submit.. photos. Why?

Because CYMK Delivers On The Promise

Their site says 'Free Images'. And I believe they mean it. If you look at their About Us page, you'll see how they got started. It's a story about three muses. As if that's not enough to get your attention, here's another excerpt: "You can copy, modify, distribute and perform the work, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission." There is a link to the Creative Common agreement. And then a few more lines. I'm not an attorney, but it looks pretty simple to me. As far as a link back to PhotoCrops, why wouldn't you? Especially when they have such great photos! 

What Are They Running?

The site is running on BootStrap and they are taking full advantage of the CDN. This results in high speed loads. Very fast on viewing as well as downloads. They have some other sites that you can find them on.  All are done well. Here they are, in no particular order:

  • Dribble - https://dribbble.com/photocrops
  • Twitter - https://twitter.com/photocrops
  • Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/photocrops/
  • Google Plus - https://plus.google.com/+Photocrops
  • LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/neilalonzo
  • Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/photocrops/
  • Pinterest - https://www.pinterest.com/photocrops/

Summary

Like all good sites, I could spend all day looking at stuff. But I'd never be able to get any work done. Which is one of the reasons I'm reviewing these sites. So that I can help you cut down your time looking for good images. Don't miss this one! 


ps... If you'd like to join a group online with a lot of great people, doing work just like I'm doing.. try theCircadians! You just might like us!

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