If you spend enough time shopping around for stock photography you begin to see the same boring stock images. You know the ones, a sterile corporate type writing a generic message in the air with a white marker. Or the solo cup of coffee on a desk alongside a notebook and pen. The point is these images are not only boring but don’t have a grain of creativity. They also scream stock photos.

At Zen Den we are in constant need of sources for creative and interesting images. Sites like Shutter Stock and iStock Photo offer monthly subscriptions for as little as $250 month, which is pretty cheap, but the majority of images are boring and sterile. We have searched the Internet and found some great websites with creative high quality free images. That’s right, free to use on your personal and commercial creative projects.

So where do we go for quality free photos to meet our creative needs? I have listed some of our favorite sites which contain some unique photos that are not only free, yes they do not cost, but also free form the stock photo mediocrity found on the big stock photo websites. I’ve provided examples of the images you can expect to find on each site. As you can see they are a lot more interesting and creative than the images you’ll find on the large stock photo sites charging $10 or more per image.

SPLITSHIRE

1. Splitshire.com – Categorized images by Daniel, an Italian graphic designer. In addition to some stylish photos there are also some free video clips as well.

PIC JUMBO

2. Picjumbo.com – A lot of great images here. We are particularly fond of the technology images.

UNSPLASH

3. Unsplash.com – This site will deliver 10 free, hi-res photos to your inbox every 10 days. All that is required is an email address.

GRATISOGRAPHY

4. Gratisography.com – Free high-resolution pics you can use on personal and commercial projects. New images are added weekly. All images were captured by Ryan McGuire and are free of copyright restrictions.

SUPER FAMOUS

5. Superfamous.com – Dutch interaction designer, Folkert Gorter, has made some of his photography available under the conditions of a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license. This means that you can use the work for your own purposes — including commercial use — as long as credit is provided.

LITTLE VISUALS

6. Littlevisuals.co – Get 7 hi-res images zipped up and delivered to your inbox every 7 days. Use them anyway you want. Just provide an email address.

PIXABAY

7. Pixabay.com – This site allows you to download and share images. You can freely use any image from this website in digital and printed format, for personal and commercial use, without attribution requirement to the original author.

IMCREATOR

8. Imcreator.com – A curated collection of free resources, all for commercial use.