August 18, 2008

stock talk

So, as you may or may not know, I work as a graphic designer. In this time of wondrous technology, an unfortunate fraction of my time is spent trolling stock photo sites for images to use in advertizements, brochures, whathaveyou. What I have discovered is that for every good image, there are 50 bad ones. And for every 10,000 or so bad ones, there are some for which there is no logical explanation. Sometimes, this is funny, sometimes it is disturbing, and sometimes, you just look and wonder what drugs they are on in whatever country they take these in.

Sometimes, the tags and description are even funnier than the results. For instance, I had no idea that to find a picture of a lime, I should search "green lemon". Something tells me that many of the contributors of this site do not speak english as a first language.

So, this is my first in a series titled "Stock Talk". A review of all things ridiculous and weird in the world of stock photography. Because some images just beg the question: What the hell would someone use this for?

This week’s theme is "Food"

This was found in a search of "orange peel". I can only imagine that it’s phallic conotation was accidental, as there were no tags referring to anything other than orange, diet, and food. Strange.