It’s up to you.
... use the same stock photo, same pose as your competitor? ... in the same issue of your trade publication? ...or the perfect (and unique) illustration of your business offering?
By the way, if you really want to know who else is using your stock photo use Google! See the little camera icon on the front of Google’s search?
Click that little camera and it opens the window below.
DRAG YOUR STOCK PHOTO THERE.
Shazzam…page after page of results! Granted, the first few pages will be the stock company that sold the photo, but keep looking and you’ll at least find out if any other websites are currently using that image.
Now you can see that the West End Colonoscopy Center, Panama Secure Investments, Our Lady of Perpetual Responsibility and Wherever Street Evangelical all have the same group of happy impossibly good looking models schilling for their organization! How unique.