Do You Know Unsplash?

Are you looking for something cool in stock photography? Are you tired of browsing Flickr, 500px, SmugMug? Do you like browsing great photos on your computer, your mobile devices or even on an Apple TV? Are looking for great photos to augment a specific blog post or add a beautiful website header? I may have something for you today: Unsplash.

Unsplash is a relatively new comer in the field of web photography services. I love so many things about it. First, the design is simple, beautiful and it puts the search for photos at the center stage. Second, it is multi-platforms as you can browse this service content on the web, on a mobile device or even an Apple TV. On the latter, you can just open the Unsplash application and let it run so it transforms your TV as a giant photo frame. Third, Unsplash in a open platform as they are providing APIs so others can create applications and services that consume their content. One example of this is Adobe Spark Post where you can search for free photos for inclusion into your work. For free.

If you search for Unsplash on the App Store for example, you’ll find a few apps available to browse the service content.

You can create your own profile (mine is available here) and upload your best photos. There is something you must know. Pictures you upload there can (and will) be downloaded by anybody, for free. You retain the rights to your work but since this is a service based of sharing pictures for free, you have to consider this. Think of it as a give and take kind of service. Oh and the cherry on the sundae is that there are no ads. Which brings the following question: how do they make their money?

So, try it for yourself you’ll thank me later in the comments.