Flickr kills Stock photography

To begin building my brand I wondered: how could I get a high resolution quality photo of some random item.

First I googled and sifted through the mostly OK images. The earth-shattering, beautiful options were all stock photos. ranging in price from $100-$1,000.

Ew.

Then I turned to Stock Photography's night mare: Flikr. Aside from way more choices and better pictures, the people who took them are NICE and all too happy to let you use their photo in your website (I've asked twice three times now....not a large sample size but I don't care!)

Case in point: Jodi_tripp's awesome "I love Flickr" shot used with permission