Google to the Rescue, Again

Tweet

In order to support my upcoming scholarship book, I created a website. I named it RoadToFreeCollege.com. There I post articles about how students can improve their odds of winning a full ride scholarship, heartwarming stories about students, free posters and lessons for teachers to use and my take on events in the news having to do with education. Of course I want eye catching photos to illustrate the subject of each post. I found dozens of lovely photos of universities at Pixabay, and use them for the articles relating to earning money for college. I use my own photographs, mostly seascapes, gorgeous skies and flowers to make the free motivational posters. But I was having trouble finding decent pictures of high schools, which I wanted to top the lesson plans and news articles. I looked at Pixabay and Morgue File, but their school related photos were mostly of elementary schools. I thought perhaps I could take some pictures at local high schools (without identifying the school or showing any students). No luck. I would have to follow an annoying process of going through the district office personnel. No, thanks. Yesterday I went to Google and found the top 15 websites for open source photographs. Much to my surprise, Google itself has a huge stockpile. They are sharp, professional and perfect for my purpose. Here’s the path: Click on Google Images, Settings, Advanced Search, Not Filtered by License, and then you have a choice. I picked Free to Use Even Commercially. After I clicked there, I saw another Google search window. I typed in the name of a local high school et voila, hundreds of gorgeous pictures. I’ll search for the names of two or three high schools in each state, and find a picture or two that will work for me. I’ll create my own little library of photos this way. Easy Peasy. Did you know Google had open source photos for anyone to use for free?