The cover for the Pirate Tales book was created totally from scratch. Meaning I took the photo of the skull with an eyepatch and then edited it. I think it worked out pretty well. I used an Ott light placed down a little below the level of the skull and shining upward, mainly to get it out of the way of the camera so I wouldn’t have to spend time editing out the lamp. You can see the light is stronger on the chin . . . This gave the photo a more three dimensional look. I got lucky and it worked out.
Regarding The Red Kimono book (the Sci-Fi stories), I did use a photo of a woman in a kimono. The kimono was a beautiful green, but I had to change it to red to fit the book.
It is tough to find photos that don’t cost a fortune. I tried Shutterstock for a previous book cover and it was crazy. Not only was I going to have to pay money, but I also got the third degree as far as how many books I thought I might sell, etc. Like I was going to know ahead of time. They also wanted a very detailed description of what the book was about and what not. Absurd. That book was just a general collection of early stories. So I just said forget it and went with something else.
So it was such a pleasure that I was able to use the photo of the woman in the kimono that I found on a kimono store website. Kim+Ono was extremely generous, and allowed me to use the photo for free as long as I simply gave them credit. Wow! I had already done a mock-up and had the cover exactly as I wanted it to look. I was terrified that once I contacted them they might turn me down, or be too expensive. After spending hours looking at the photo, I couldn’t imagine another photo. I did look on Shutterstock and Pixabay and a few other sites. Nothing. So, Thank You Kim+Ono for being so gracious and generous!