I speak of the strong men Who shoulder their burdens in the hot day, Who stand in the market place And bargain in loud voices, Showing their stock to the world.

The Anchorage Marketing blog is running a short post and interview with me:
Custom professional photography can make all the difference

Aside from featuring me (a quality I greatly admire in blogs) they also make an important point about the limited utility of stock photography. Knowing when and how to use stock photography is a talent in its own right. So is knowing when not to. When designers and marketers do it poorly their message misses the mark, sometimes badly enough to expose the company to negative publicity and ridicule.

For instance: Kodak Demonstrates Its Awesome Camera Technology With Stock Photo

It's not just the delicious irony of using a stock photo to advertise a camera—the photographic equivalent of lip-syncing—you inevitably dilute your message by sharing the images across a wide spectrum of photo buyers. Tineye.com makes this too easy to discover. Chris Barton asks, "Why would a reputable company do this to themselves." It's not a new problem; the Wall Street Journal was commenting on it way back in 2006.

For those that want to do it right, Paul Boag from Headscape offers some good advice to the would-be stock photo customer: Stop using stock photography clichés.

For those that just want a cheap laugh, Awkward Stock Photos delivers. (iStockPhoto apparently didn't get the joke.)