Top Free Stock Photo Websites

Don't worry about people stealing your design work. Worry about the day they stop. - Jeffrey Zeldman
I love blogging, its a passion that I have and I work so hard to create beautiful blog posts but unfortunately for me, no matter how beautifully written a blog post is, it will never be perfect with out a stunning picture to go along with it. 
I am not one of those people that can take a stunning photo, I can barely take a picture that isn't blurry, so you must understand my complete and utter jealousy when I first started blogging and would read all these wonderfully written posts with stunning pictures to go along with them. Then one day I noticed that one of the pictures in a post I had loved showed up slightly altered in another bloggers post.
I queried the image with the blogger as I knew all about copyright images and I knew that this blogger would never put her blog in jeopardy by "borrowing" another bloggers image and I thought that maybe there was a secret club where great bloggers exchanged pictures, well you could imagine my surprise when she wrote to me explaining that no there is no secret bloggers picture exchange they had just both used the same free stock image....
Free stock image?????? suddenly my eyes where open.

And now while I try my best to take beautiful pictures to pair with my posts, on the days that I cannot take a picture or my sunset image is blurry and dark I scour my favourite free stock photo websites to jazz my posts up a little.
//FIRST//  Unsplash

Unsplash would have to be my all time favourite free stock photo site, the images are breath taking and they update 10 new photos every 10 days. The images are licensed under the Creative Common's Zero which means that you can use them as you please, copy, modify and distribute them without asking for permission or providing attribution.
//SECOND// Jay Mantri

Jay Mantri is pretty much a stop for stock images as well, these images are mostly powerful landscapes with a high amount of black and white images and 7 new photos are updated every Thursday. The images are licensed under the Creative Common's Zero which means that you can use them as you please, copy, modify and distribute them without asking for permission or providing attribution.
//THIRD// Pixabay

Pixabay is my third point of call, the site is searchable so if I am looking for a specific topic in my image I find pixabay the best (ie looking for a desk image or cup of coffee), however a large percentage of the images do feature people in them which personally I choose not to use. Most of the images are licensed under the Creative Common's Zero which means that you can use them as you please, copy, modify and distribute them without asking for permission or providing attribution. However occasionally you may come across a image that is not licensed this way but they will always list the licensing next to the image underneath the different sizes you can download it in.
//FOURTH// Gratisography

Gratisography is a site I use when I am looking for a image that is a bit different, most of the images have a slight crazed feel to them but are still high quality and very appealing. All pictures are photographed by Ryan Mcguire and new pictures are added weekly. The images are licensed under the Creative Common's Zero which means that you can use them as you please, copy, modify and distribute them without asking for permission or providing attribution but Ryan does appreciate it when attribution is listed.

//FIFTH// Snapwire Snaps

Snapwire Snaps has a wonderful bunch of images, a large percentage of the images do feature people in them which can add extra personality to your post, I normally chose images that do not feature a face because I think they translate better into my posts, 7 new images are uploaded every 7 days.
Most of the images are licensed under the Creative Common's Zero which means that you can use them as you please, copy, modify and distribute them without asking for permission or providing attribution. However occasionally you may come across a image that is not licensed this way but they will always list the licensing underneath the image.
//SIXTH// Foodies Feed

If I am looking for food images then there really is only one place to go, Foodies Feed is full of amazing images taken by Jakub a food and photography enthusiast. Most images are free however some are listed in a premium package that must be purchased. All images are completely copyright free, you can use them as you please, copy, modify and distribute them without asking for permission or providing attribution but Jakob does appreciate it when you mention Foodies Feed.

//SEVENTH// Life of Pix

The life of Pix has a wonderful arrangement of different images, there are divided up in a gallery and listed in themes Beach, Black & White, City, Construction, Desk, Food, Industrial, Nature, Object, Sea and Textures. The site has a great mix of images with and without people. New images are added weekly.

All images are completely copyright free, you can use them as you please, copy, modify and distribute them without asking for permission or providing attribution.

//EIGHTH// Little Visuals

Little Visuals is a smaller stock image website but the images are still breath taking, they post all sorts of different images from close ups to large landscapes. 7 images are updated every 7 days and you can sign up with email to receive all 7 images delivered to your inbox each week.

The images are licensed under the Creative Common's Zero which means that you can use them as you please, copy, modify and distribute them without asking for permission or providing attribution.

Well that is my go to list if I am ever in desperate need of great stock images.

Do you use any of these websites?

Do you have any suggestions to add to my list?

5 Tips for better blogging in 2015

Can you believe that 2015 is already upon us?!?!

January is the perfect time to sit down, plan, organize and create goals for the year. This year The Hunt Life will be focusing on increasing the regularity and creating better content posts. Below is a list of 5 tips that will be used throughout the year to fill this blog goal.

//FIRST// Organisation Plan out a month of blog posts in advance, this way you don't have to rack your brain for post ideas. I use Google Calender, this way I can check what post I need to write about that day using either my laptop, work computer, ipad or iphone.  Have a set topic theme for certain days of the week ie Wednesday DIY or Thursday Recipes. Colour code each theme to make it easier to read, the colour code I use for my themes is simple Blog Tips are Purple, Weekly Stories are Red, DIY's are Blue, Recipes are Green, 5 for Friday posts are Yellow and Think Pink Sunday posts are Pink. Blog link ups are great for weekend posts, you can really promote previous blog posts that you love.

Not showing the colour coding.

//SECOND// Social Media 

Now days Social Media drives our lives and in order to keep upto date with blog followers you must optimize your accounts. Try linking accounts together, every time I upload a picture to Instagram, create a status on Facebook or pin something to Pinterest I automatically tweet the same picture and description to Twitter. Be sure to visit followers social media accounts too, its easy for followers to feel ignored.

//THIRD// Image Titles

There is no point taking a stunning picture, spending a hour photo-shopping the correct lighting only to upload the image to your blog and find out that it cannot be found in Google Image Search. To create a searchable image either change the title of the saved image to a description of the image before uploading (ie an image of blueberries originally titled IMG3574 changed to Blueberries) or you can upload the picture to your post, click on the properties button and type the description in the ALT Text Bar. I would suggest using small and descriptive words.

//FOURTH// Stock Photos

Taking beautiful photo's for a post can be hard some days when you are busy working. A quick search for a image may seem like a good idea but posting any image that you have not taken yourself or do not have approval from the original source is stealing and can lead you into some serious legal trouble. To avoid any unnecessary issues you can use free stock photos provided by kind websites, my favourite would have to be Unsplash it has stunning images that you can use as you like, the below is one of their standard stock images, I will be posting a list of Stock Photo websites later in the month.

//FIFTH// Switch Things Up

Post things that are out of your comfort zone, if you constantly post recipes throw a few beauty tip posts in through out the month. Readers want a little bit of everything so don't feel trapped into your general content, remember its your blog post what you want.

That is my 5 Tips for Better Blogging in 2015, stick around and see how I implement these tips through out the year.

Did you find my tips helpful?

What is your best blogging tip?