The funny thing about stock photos is that they've become the norm for many sites. I've used them on some of my old sites from 5 years ago and am actually using pics of myself on one of my sites now.
I usually get the "is that really you?!?!" email or comment and then I'm told that cuteness doesn't sell if you're a guy.
Oh yea? Tell that to my paypal account several $x,xxx dollars later
I think stock photography is fine as a design element up to a certain point. When you truly want to stand out, utilizing some other outside the box photography is really necessary.