One more way to avoid overused clipart in your presentations, newsletters, and handouts is by using stock photography. You see stock photos everywhere–particularly in advertising. Look at those smiling, happy people in insurance ads: most likely they came out of a stock photo database under the query “+smiling +happy +people”.
But, since photographers have to eat, stock photos cost money–something teachers have in short supply.
Which takes us to the photographer’s Stock.xchg. This site offers a great selection of free stock photos, searchable by keyword, category, or photographer. After creating a free user account, you can click straight through to the high resolution version of any photo you like. Most can be immediately downloaded and used for free in any non-commercial materials. (If you do plan to sell something using the images, you have to work that out with the photographer.)
Just one more way to clean the clipart out of your PowerPoint presentations.
