Sometimes Stock Photos Just Don’t Work…Then What?

I'm a subscriber to several stock photo sharing sites like iStockphoto, Shutterstock, Dreamstime, BigStockPhoto and Crestock. And every so often, I just can't find a good photo for a particular blog header.

This was one of those times. A client was developing a site for the owners of obese dogs. I searched the web for photos of fat dogs and there were some amazing images out there, just not royalty free ones.

Look at this poor dog, I couldn't find out the original source for this image as it is shared on several blogs without attribution, but this is one fat dog.

This poor guy doesn't look like he moves around too well and while he was grossly overweight, I just couldn't figure out how to use it in her blog header.

I was sent this image of an overweight pug but I couldn't figure out how to use it.

I tried several options, but I just couldn't find a typeface to carry the theme. I needed something else.

While looking through more weight loss images, I got the idea of a fat dog on a scale.

I literally spent several hours looking for just the right picture, which was clearly proving to be a very unprofitable use of my time and the only pictures I found with dogs on scales weren't fat dogs at all.

I was at my wits end and even considered refunding the client. I clearly needed to think outside the box.

Anyway, a few years ago, my family and I ventured into breeding German Shepherds. They are by far my favorite breed and I was the proud owner of a beautiful male we called Moses.

One of his offspring was a beautiful giant my daughter couldn't part with she called Wilhelm. Willie has grown to be about three inches taller than his father and probably 20lbs heavier.

He's a really big dog and a good subject being well over 100lbs, in fact, I think he weighs more than my photographer daughters boyfriend, but that's another story.

I asked my daughter, the photographer, to see if she could get Willie to cooperate and get me some pictures of his chest looking down at his feet. That proved to  be quite a task, because he's not called Wilhelm von Schtupithound for nothing.

We tried to get him standing on a scale, but that was impossible. His father would have obeyed, but this guy had too much of his mothers psycho genes flowing through his veins.

Anyway, I managed to get a shot that I could crop and put on a scale, like so.

I know its not perfect, but I thought it was great. And so I put it on a header.

The client was happy and I was totally glad to be finished with this one.

So when you can't find a stock photo, just take your own.

Roy