OctOPUS Blog - What you can do with Public Domain Photos
and Where you can find them

opus album picture of rochester castle If you make Photobooks of topics of interest, people will read and buy them. With Photobooks you can offer download versions - but people really want the hard copy.

Where do you find good photos free - other than those you took yourself?

Making a Photobook can be easier than you think. You can laboriously write a book - all your own work. I wrote “Make a Great Photo Album (or Digital Scrapbook) yourself” about 18 months ago http://www.blogger.com/blog-options-basic.g?blogID=7538139763610159291. It needs updating. “Turn your Wedding Photos into Cherished Memories” is still in the draft stage. It’s been like that for months. And it will stay like that for a few more.

You can do far more by cribbing, modifying and republishing. You can do it legally and honestly with public domain information. Or you can supplement your own work with free sources, especially if you are - as I hope you are - making photobooks.

I have subscribed to Tony Laidig ’s Public Domain Codebook. I cannot reproduce that - it’s copyright - but he give a lot of very valuable ideas and I recommend him.

Public Domain Photos

Let’s face it – If I do anything photobooks will be a major part. So where do you find public domain photos? Not from Flikr.

Rochester castle, public domain Here are some good sources – remember that laws vary – and US sources are more liberal than European ones. In particular the US Government provides a great fund of useful stuff.