Stock photography futurismJUL 15 2008

The sales of stock photographs can tell you a surprising amount about what's going on in the world but they can't predict the future.

"We had a bad day when Dolly was cloned," says Denise Waggoner, vice president of creative research at Getty. "We hadn't been studying biotechnology, and suddenly everyone wanted a shot of 25 sheep on a seamless white background. So now we try to keep our toes dipped in the water in lots of different fields, so we can be ready."