Wales is a rich and varied nation with a vital and varied heritage - so what's going to happen when you search for generic images using the terms Wales and Welsh?
Should probably have thought of a different word for varied there. Ironic.
Free stock image sites are a great way of finding a picture to illustrate your work - you tap in a word and they find dozens of pictures showing, maybe, something useful.
When it comes to a great nation, what you end up with is a snapshot of what the world thinks of when they think of you.
The images are roughly ranked either based on upvotes, or on the number of downloads and uses - so let's dive in.
What happens when you type Wales or Welsh into a free stock image search?
Well, the first thing that happens is this...
The entirety of Welshness summed up in one image, according to this photographer. Some daffodils, a dragon, a Welsh keyring a spoon holder and two fridge magnets. OK, moving on.
What IS that? I suppose they are Welsh cakes, just not 'Welsh cakes'.
Is that a latte in a jar? With the word Joy on it? But dragons and daffodils, right?
OK, making some progress. Maybe. She's wearing the traditional Welsh outfit. Just like everyone wears in Wales all the time, right? No hat though.
Ah, there's the hat.
Aaaand there's the Welsh cakes.
Alright, getting into it. There's a lot of scenery, a lot of amazing scenery. No, really great scenery.
Beaches
Castles
A lot of pictures of castles
Waterfalls
Mountains
Yup, lots of mountains.
Architecture
The smell of Wales. What is the smell of Wales. Now I'm really curious what people think Wales smells like.
There are plenty of animals to be found when you stick Wales into the search bar.
Obviously
Oooooobviously
Corgis. No seriously, there are a lot of Corgi pictures on there. You literally have to wade through the corgi pictures to see anything else.
Many, many corgis.
And independence - maybe that's the smell of Wales?
Like this guy.
And this sign proudly telling English people to jog on.
So that's it. Wales is (according to the free image searches) castles, mountains and corgis. A lot of corgis. And great, great landscapes...
