Guest Post by Leora Wenger of http://www.leoraw.com.
Using stock images for your blog posts? Think again. If your writing is imaginative, unique, creative and inspirational, why shouldn’t the image you choose be so as well?
Sources in Your Every Day World
1) Local Farmer’s Market – photograph vegetables, fruit, flowers. Photograph hands 
helping people. Colors, flags, posters, parking lots – there are a variety of subjects one can choose. You may not want to choose portraits, because you are left with the problem of – does this person want to be featured in my blog post? If you don’t have a farmer’s market nearby, visit a farm or farmstand.
2) Beach. Do you have a body of water near your home? Lake, ocean, stream? 
If you are writing a post about work, maybe you can feature a child’s hands working on a sand castle. Or put some words on a beach umbrella photograph. Take a photo of a boat – maybe it would be inspirational on a post about travel or travel dreams. Streams can symbolize paths in life or inspire meditative, creative thinking.
3) Children’s drawings – if you have children living in your house or you know anyone who does, you will find there are an abundance of art projects that get deposited at home. Maybe one of them would make a good illustration? Have you used parts of children’s art for a post?
Public Domain Sources Online
Some photographs or images are put online and marked as public domain. Others are public domain because of their age.
4) One of my favorite sources of imagery are the old paintings on Wikimedia. 
For example, I wrote a post on child themes, and I used a 19th century mother and daughter painting. I’ve also used this painting of a man with a magnifying glass for several of my posts on SEO.
5) Here’s a new discovery: Karen’s Whimsy is a site that offers public domain images – she does ask that you link back to her site, but she doesn’t require it. If you like that 
old-fashioned style, you can get free samples of illustrations from Dover Publications or purchase one of their many books with public domain illustrations.
If you need help formatting the image, you might want to learn how to float an image to the right or left of text.
Where have you found creative ideas for blog post imagery?
About Leora – Presently, she works for three Rutgers departments, has done work for two public libraries, and continues to work for several small businesses in New Jersey. She is the webmaster for Rutgers Jewish Studies, including putting the Rutgers Jewish Film Festival online. You can visit her blog – http://biz.leoraw.com/ and also become a fan of her business page at – http://facebook.com/
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Thanks for posting my article, Praveen.
In particular, I like the way the drawing by my daughter livens up your blog.
Leora – Glad to have your post on my blog. Thanks for writing.
These are fantastic! I get stuck in a rut and keep going back to the same old places for images all the time. This can help me switch things up a bit.
These are great ideas. I especially like the idea of taking lots of photos at one time and saving them for possible use later.
Great suggestions, Leora! I tend to rely on stock photography sites so I’ll definitely be bookmarking these to add more variety. 🙂
Very nice post Leora. Certainly, Images add more color in our life. My wife and me use to discuss at home..like Photos and fragrance holds immense power to remember your old harmonious days than any other medium. Thanks for sharing. Manickam
[…] After reviewing all these sites, I would say the best source of imagery would be keep your own collection of photos. Or befriend a photographer who can provide exactly what you need for a fee. Buying a collection of stock photos to have available would also be smart for a business owner. For inspiration on taking your own photos, you can read Inspirational Sources of Images. […]
Hi Praveen sir,
I search for google what is the Inspirational Sources of Images for Blog Posts and i see your site and read your article. your Best suggestion is ‘Local Farmer’s Market’thanks for your advisee pls send me more information in my site
thanku