Avatar question

[Spartana]

In the past I put up a "real" photo of me for my avatar but don't want to do that now and wondered where you guys get your avatar photos. I also used a photo of Tank Girl too - a fictional character I'm probably very much like - which is a scary thought :-) - but know that there are copy right laws prohibiting the use of some images. So how.where do you get avatar photos that are legal to use?

[herbgeek]

I'm not sure mine IS legal, now that you mention it. I just did a google image search on herbs and kept looking until I found one that appealed to me.

[treehugger]

I always use a photo I or someone I know has taken. Right now, my avatar is a picture of me, you just can't really see my face. Usually, it's a picture of one of my dogs.

Kara

[Jilly]

I make mine or use a photo I have taken. You can also search for copyright-free images. Some of the results will be for royalty stuff, but there are tons and tons of free to use images just waiting for you to stumble across the right one.

[Jilly]

Mine right now is a little painting I did for my holiday cards.

[Valley]

I love your painting Jilly!

[Polliwog]

Mine right now is a little painting I did for my holiday cards.

Your painting is just beautiful in its simplicity.

[Tradd]

I just used Google Images to search for my avatar several years ago. I was looking for cloche hat pictures from the 20s (people always said I would look good with one) and came across this one. I love it.

[Blackdog Lin]

My AT&T/Yahoo homepage has somewhere a place for one to make their own personalized avatar: you could pick from face shapes, and hairstyles, clothing, backgrounds etc. I did it years ago (and it really does kinda match what I look like, only 30 years younger), and have just used the same one ever since.

[Gregg]

Can't even remember where mine came from so its probably time to start the search for a new one.

[Spartana]

I love your avatar Gregg - especially in election year! I tried to take a photo from an online site and it didn't work. Will put up another "real" photo once I get home on my own computer were all my photos are stored. I always thought it would be cool if I was walking down the street and heard someone from this site call out "Spartana?" because they recognized my photo.

One thing that is bizarre, and I mentioned this in another thread on Facebook as a warning to others who post photos online or have them posted there by others, is seeing photos of yourself when you google groups of images on websites online. I googled some various things (including Spartana) and saw some photos of myself. Creepy, scary and well...somewhat intrusive. But then that's the internet!