I've been writing random stuff on Odyssey for well over a year now, and it's been a really enjoyable experience! I don't know how often my articles get read, nor do I really care too much. It's the ability to have a platform to share and hold me accountable to actually creating written work that I really enjoy.
Now note that I say enjoy creating written work. Something I don't really like is taking photos... well, at least taking photos for a purpose.
An important part of an Odyssey article is the cover photo displayed at the top. Occasionally I'll write something and remember I have a half decent photo saved somewhere that was taken ages ago, but most of the time I turn to the internet (like I do with so many of my problems) in order to find a solution.
But you can't just use any photo — there's this little thing called copyright that could get you in trouble with the wrong photo. You need to make sure whatever photo you intend to use is free from copyright restrictions or licensed under creative commons public domain dedication.
Odyssey makes this known when you post on it, but it's not just an Odyssey issue. You really should try to make sure when you're pulling images to use for school or work that they too are licensed correctly. Just this past month I've had work and school projects requiring photos, and thanks to what I've learned from writing on Odyssey, I knew where to look.
Since this knowledge has been such a help to me, I wanted to share the top sites I use for finding images free from copyright restrictions or listed with public domain dedication.
1. Unsplash.
When being introduced to the world of free to use images, Unsplash was the first one I used and continues to be one of the first I turn to.
2. Pixabay.
I like to use Pixabay when I'm looking for images on my phone as their mobile design is very fluid.
3. Pexels.
Pexels is one of the newer sites I've been using. It may sound random, but they seem to have a lot of good photos of food. I don't know why, but I don't question it.
4. StockSnap.
Even though a ".io" domain is meant to be related to the British Indian Ocean Territory, they are more commonly used by startup companies. But don't let the startup domain discourage you. This site is full of great photos.
5. Negativespace.
Like all the other sites on this list, you can search for what you want, but Negativespace's category section is really well organized. So many of the photos in the Typography section are simply stunning.
6. Freestocks.
Freestocks seems to have a lot of macro shots, especially of the same thing but at different angles. I find this to be really useful when trying to find just the right image to fit the piece I'm trying to make.
7. Shotstash.
So far, Shotstash has been great at finding holiday and seasonal images that don't seem to be as common, which is excellent if you want to stand out from the crowd a bit.
