Royalty Free Department of Defense Military Stock Photography

All of the images on this site come from the United States' Goverment archives. As such, they are not protected by copyright.

Once obtained, these images may be used for many purposes; this said, a variety of restrictions exist. The Department of Defense places some restrictions on any photography dealing with military subjects for advertising, marketing and related services. Click here for a list of some restictions, however, this list is not necessarily comprehensive, and if you have questions or concerns about your intended use, please ensure that you perform adequate research.

Other stock photography vendors, including many of the largest ones, are offering these same public domain images in ways which suggest, imply or specifically state that they are original works by private photographers and are protected by copyright.

These same agencies require acceptance of a "terms and conditions" statement that suggests or states that the stock photography agency has control and/or owns the copyright of these images. These same agencies are also typically charging rights-managed pricing (in many cases in the thousands of dollars) for the exact same images found on our site.

Why do we charge for the images if they are public domain? These images have been carefully selected by our professional photographers from hundreds of thousands of available images from a variety of sources; they have been cataloged, made available for digital download, made keyword searchable and accessible for the general public in a way that is easy and simple to acquire.

The image charge of less than $100 is quite a bargain from our perspective, especially as compared to the seemingly disingenuous approach of some of our competition. You certainly may be able to find the image you want from other sources online or offline - and if you have the available time and inclination to do so, we encourage you to do so.

For images that are designed specifically for advertising, including images with model-releases, please visit our primary site, www.militaryphoto.com. The images on our primary site are rights-managed, and prices are based on standard industry rates, licensed for specifically defined uses.