Do you add images to your blog posts? Images attract the interest of your readers and make your posts more memorable. It is also useful to have images in your presentations.
Finding images that you have permission to use can be tricky. It is illegal to copy and paste pictures from the Internet if they are not in the public domain. I prefer to use my own images. I know I have permission to use them. Occasionally I don't have a good picture to use for a blog post. I subscribe to a clipart site that gives me permission to use photos on EnglishClub.com without providing credit to the photographer. The images from this clipart site are okay, but not great. There is an annual fee to use these photos.
A great place to find excellent FREE photos for your blogs is ELT Pics. This is a flickr collection made by English language teachers for English language teachers. English learners also have permission to use these pictures for educational purposes (not for commercial purposes). The pictures on ELT Pics are in the Creative Commons. You can use the pictures, but you have to credit the photographer and the source. You do this by:
1) adding the name of the photographer (and a link to his/her twitter account, website, or blog if available)
2) adding a link to the original source (ELT Pics gallery)
See an example of an ELT Pic credited in a blog post.
Watch the video to see exactly how to use ELT Pics for your blog posts.(Refresh the page or try the link above if you don't see the video below.) Thank you for respecting the rights of photographers around the world. If you have any questions, please let me know.
Comments
Thank you Dear Tara for informing us. Really , I didn't know that before. But i think that most website that show images to be downloaded for people. They show the embed codes ( HTML ) with the images to be free and easy to download by others. So, can I add images from these websites ???
Very useful, thanks Tara!
Thanks Matthias!
@Grace There are many different types of licenses for photo sharing, but the ELT Pics ones are all under the same license as far as I know. Did you see some that say "all rights reserved"?
@YmnPearl Yes! You can contribute (as long as you are okay to give others permission to use your photos). I should have mentioned that. Most teachers contribute via twitter. Just use the hashtag #ELTpics and share a photo that fits the collection (you can even upload it to MyEC and share the photo via a link to your photo). Each week a new collection is added. Follow @eltpics to see the next image collection.