Royalty free stock images - Introducing Fotolia

One of the things us web development people always struggle with, especially on smaller, low-budget projects, is where to get stock photogrpahy from. Often places like Getty Images or organising a bespoke shoot are simply too expensive for low budget sites so you either have to source your own images, use the client's, often limited back catalogue or the new(ish) era of social networking - community royalty free sites...

Our old favourite used to be istockphoto but, in years gone by they had quite a limited stock - not any more however as they recently relaunched with video and flash animation - they are definately worth a look!

However we've just come across Fotolia. These guys seem to have taken the whole social networking "file-sharing" idea to a completely new level and allow users to make money from their own images by simply uploading them to the Fotolia catalogue... Great I hear you cry - "I can make some dough"... Well yes and if you are looking for an image for a low budget site this site has a rapidly growing portfolio which, being based on the old community upload is likely to get massive... Huge! In the immenent future.

Check 'em out at http://www.fotolia.com/