As I said in my earlier post about stock photos there are good and bad reasons for an art director/agency to use stock. I always prefer creating custom images for our campaigns, but when you need a photo from a location that’s far away, or there just isn’t a budget for a photo shoot, stock is a great resource. It seems that one of the men who created the affordable stock photo powerhouse istockphoto.com is at it again. Bruce Livingstone, the founder of istockphoto.com who then sold it to Getty images, has created something new: Stocksy.

Apparently Livingston was not pleased with the way Getty had changed their payment practices to the photographers who have their images on the network and decided to make a second go of creating a photographer-friendly stock website (Read more about the situation and history of istockphoto.com here). On their About page, Stocksy claims to have the highest royalty rates in the industry and to be profit sharing with their co-owner artists.

Payment structure aside, after my first few uses I must say Stocksy seems like a winner. In a stock photo world of cheesy, contrived images, Stocksy has a really nice library of photos that are beautiful, and those containing people feel genuine. This is rare; I can’t tell you how many hours I have spent looking through stock sites trying to find not only the right subject but a picture of someone who isn’t so happy it makes me want to choke them. But I digress… take a look at the images, and hopefully you’ll find something that’s in line with the look and feel of your brand.