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Ideas for finding great images for your Intro module

Bonnie Diczhazy by Bonnie Diczhazy on Mon, May 23rd, 2011

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Image Credit: http://www.cherrybam.com/photography8.php

Finding an intro image for your lens does not have to be hard. In fact it can be one of the most exciting parts of crafting a lens.

Finding the perfect photo is a little bit of creative nirvana and that photo sets the tone (and first impression) for your lens more then anything else.

So how do you find great intro images? Here are 5 places you can pull from:

1) Your own photo catalog. Do you have a great photo of your cat or an orange peel or a ladybug that looks really amazing? Use it. Just be sure the image is crisp, clean and large enough for the space.

2) Flickr – Flickr offers a huge database of unique and original photography. Try typing in fun search words and see what comes up. You might even find a cool photo of a squid!

3) Vi.sualize.us - Vi.sualize.us is another great source for beautiful images that are both creative and artistic. You can even browse images to get ideas for a lens. Kind of a reverse lens making plan.

4) Instagram – Instagram allows you to take a photo with your iPhone, edit it into a work of art then have it sent to Facebook, Twitter or Flickr (where you can then pull it for use on Squidoo).

5) Creative Commons – Creative Commons gives you a fast and easy way to pull images that are available for public use.

As always be sure to properly credit the source of your photo with a link back to the image and be on the look out for specific instructions for using photos.

You can read more about how to find great intro images here.

Now it’s your turn! Post your own favorite place to find photos in the comment section of this post.

Have a great Monday.

-Bonnie

About Bonnie Diczhazy

Bonnie Diczhazy (bdkz) is a community organizer here on Squidoo. She is Chief RocketSquid and manages the Giant Squid VIP Writers program.

Comments:

http://www.facebook.com/leehansenhoch Lee Hansen

I like to use morguefile.com … and I also contribute to the free library there.

http://www.squidoo.com/lensmasters/bdkz Bonnie Diczhazy

This is a great resource Lee. Thanks for sharing.

http://topbestlisted.blogspot.com/ aivil vin

But mam, what about the licensing part? as the sources you mentioned are not ‘pick-and-put-in-intro’ types ! and any user can take it understood that they are really free to be used for your blog, but as you know this isn’t the case.please clarify this aspect to the reader!
Cheers!

http://www.squidoo.com/lensmasters/bdkz Bonnie Diczhazy

Absolutely credit your source…as I posted above: “As always be sure to properly credit the source of your photo with a
link back to the image and be on the look out for
specific instructions for using photos.”

http://www.ceciliaryan.com Cecilia Ryan

What would be great would be a built-in way to credit the source, though. Trying to do it in the intro module as it stands is very untidy at the moment.

In the interest of sharing, I like http://www.clker.com/ as well. Illustrations can be very handy for abstract topics that it’s hard to find photos for.

I also draw some of my own, but I’m lazy.

http://jimmiescollage.com Jimmie

I agree! The intro module needs a built in place to credit an intro pic.
http://www.squidoo.com/lensmasters/bdkz Bonnie Diczhazy

That would be a great feature. We will definitely make note of this suggestion.

http://www.squidoo.com/what-you-should-know-about-the-occupy-wall-street-movement MiMi

Thank you, Bonnie, for making note of that. Definitely would help neaten things up. :)

http://www.hippiespelunker.com lisamariemary

Oh, that would be really cool! :-)

http://www.squidoo.com/lensmasters/happynutritionist Claudia aka happynutritionist

Thanks for the additional sources…I see a couple I haven’t visited yet.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Veronica-Bright/100001577505122 Veronica Bright

Pixabay is a great place to find pics too! Keem did a lens on it quite a while back.
zzapper zzapper

http://www.morguefile.com is my number one favorite because if you are in a hurry you don’t even need to credit the photo
Anonymous

http://cutcaster.com is great for finding royalty free photos and vectors. They also have a free photo section here. http://cutcaster.com/browse/freeImages/
http://twitter.com/foodloversweb Food Lovers Web

Recently got turned onto http://www.freedigitalphotos.net, and I love using Zazzle too.Rather than post a link within the opening module credit with a link at the end of a lens. You could use a text module or black box, depending on how many links you need to credit.
Norma Budden

I recently started experimenting with Wikimedia Commons. The subject range isn’t as diverse but I’ve come across some good images.
Mickie G

I take my own photos with an iPhone.
I appreciate the links to other sources as well.