Here's a good example of what is possible with Creative Commons: A picture taken by one person, and edited by another.
Peter Charbonnier took this photo of a Chevy Corvette at a car show in Seattle's Lake City neighborhood. It captured the distinctive details of the mid-60s Sting Ray: Curved back, external gas cap, and a hint of tail light. The angle was perfect.
I've been experimenting lately with Pixlr-O-Matic on my cameraphone, and found recently that they also have an online photo editor with cool filters like their mobile app. So I ran Peter's original picture through the "Metal" and "Dirty" filters in Pixlr-O-Matic, which gave the shot some urban low-fit character. I like the results.
But they would not have been this good without Peter's great picture to start with. It just shows that collaboration through Creative Commons can also provide a unique vision!