First of all, get your photos to me quick.  Too often, I receive photos on Wednesday or Thursday or later in the week and the slideshow is up on the web on Monday or early Tuesday for a Saturday ride.  If I'm taking the photos, you can bet I pretty much have my slideshow organized by Sunday evening for a Saturday ride.  Get them to me FAST via email as attachments.  Once the train leaves the station, it's too late.  I can't promise all your photos will be used; I try to use the best of what I have that depicts the event and our members who attended.

Take your photos in the horizontal format.  Vertical photos are displayed in a horizontal format in the slide show and that may not show your subject matter to the best advantage.  Generally, I discard vertical format photos.

Don't send blurry out-of-focus photos.  I just delete them.  If your camera imprints the date on the photo, turn off that feature.  Did you know that all digital camera records what is called meta data for each photo that includes camera model, camera settings and the date?  Be sure to set the date and time on your camera but turn off the feature that imprints the date on the photo.  The manual tells you how.

You will need to reduce the size of the photos in order to email them.  Reduce them to 800x532 pixels -- not 640x480.  800 is the new slideshow size going forward.  I recommend Google's Picasa 3 to reduce your photos.  It is a free download from Google, is easy to use and is very powerful.  If you are using Picasa 3, use the setting that gives you the smallest file size with some loss of quality.  Computer monitors only display 72 dpi so the photo will still look good on the computer screen.  If you are using Adobe Photoshop Elements, use file quality setting 4.  These settings will produce a relatively small file size that is important for websites.  If you're not sure how to do any of this, just send me your photos or drop off a CD and I will take it from there, but do it fast!!!!

Don't do any cropping or any enhancements to your photos.  Tweaking photos generally doesn't work as well on a reduced size and reduced quality photo.  For my own photos, I tweak them at full size right out of the camera and then do my size and quality reductions and then do a 'save as' under a different file name.  Everyone does it differently, but I always save my original photos in native format un-retouched and save enhanced photos under different names and in different folders. I generally do very little if any tweaking of photos for the slideshows unless they are really dark or the color is funky.  They are on the screen only for only 2 or 3 seconds.

You can use any file name you want; it isn't important to the slideshow.  My slideshow program has a 'slide sorter' feature and I can move photos around into any order and it is not dependent on file names. 

Important Stuff

Here are a few comments on taking photos.  The #1 thing (in my opinion) that most people do wrong when taking photos of people is to center their faces in the center of the viewfinder.  The top of heads should be at the top of the frame.  The 2nd thing (with people photos, anyway) is most photos are taken too far away; use the zoom or move in closer or both.  The 3rd thing is taking candid shots is to warn the people you are going to take a photo.  Give them a chance to swallow and smile -- really, one of the most unattractive thing we do is eat; it just isn't pretty and please don't take photos of people doing that! 

Also, let people know you are going to take a photo -- try to pose them or get them into a semi circle.  You wouldn't believe the number of photos I get that have 4 backs to me and one person facing the camera.  I don't use those.

USE FLASH if you're taking shots indoors.  There is nothing cool or artistic about digital photos taken inside at night under artificial light if you haven't changed the white balance of your camera.  Don't know what white balance is?   Then use flash.   Even if you change the white balance setting of your camera, indoor light is generally so low, even if you up the ISO setting, your photos will usually be blurry and out of focus because your lens will be wide open and/or the shutter speed too slow.  If I have a choice, I won't use these photos.

Also, when using flash, make sure the red eye feature of your camera is turn on!  That setting really works and eliminates 90% or more of the 'devil red eyes'.

Try to take compose your shots to include several people.  Generally, I don't use pics of just one person -- not always, but most of the time.  The slideshows aren't portraits galleries. 

The hardest photo to get is the action photo of us on motorcycles and I just get too few of them.  Most of our photos are of us eating or at BMMC receptions or at lunches and very few of us riding motorcycles. I love it when someone sends me a photo taken from the back of a motorcycle or motorcycles going by.  It takes some planning, but I sure would like to see more 'action shots'.  Even if these are a bit blurry, I'll probably use them.  Most cameras have a 'sports setting' on one the the dials on top that gives the camera shutter priority (faster shutter speed) which is needed to freeze a moving subject or background.  Use it in these situations and your photos will be crisper.

Another minor comment on taking photos:  Be sure to hold the camera correctly.  Most cameras have a 'natural grip' on the right hand side and the photo button is on the right hand side and the main support for holding the camera is your right hand.  Your left hand can be used to steady the camera but make sure your hand or fingers are not in front of the body of the camera where the focus sensors and flash lives.  If you use your left hand to operate a zoom lens, get it out of the way before shooting the picture.  If you have your left hand out there covering the focus sensor, you'll get blurry and incorrectly exposed shots or if your hand is partially blocking the flash, you will get really weird shadows on your photos when using flash.  It happens, I've seen it.  Keep your hands away from the front of the camera!

Correct exposure--today's camera are almost foolproof.  They set focus and exposure automatically and most of the time, it is great.  But, there are times when the camera focus/exposure system (and you) can be fooled and the resulting photo will be disappointing.

The hardest shots are when there is a strong backlight such as your subjects are sitting next to a window with bright light coming through. Most camera light meters will be strongly effected by the strong backlight and the result is your subjects may be severely underexposed (dark).  You can (1) force your camera to flash (called fill-flash) to get enough light on your subjects, or (2) find a spot on your subject that is away from the strong light, press to the first stop on your camera button to lock the focus and exposure (don't move closer or farther way when you do this) and then go back to your subject and recompose you picture while still holding down the button to lock in the focus and exposure and then press through to take the photo.  Hopefully, you will have increased your chances for obtaining a better exposure that is not so biased by the strong backlighting.  Look at your photo after taking it and readjust as necessary.  Fill flash is great and will really improve your photos when there is a strong backlight.  Read your camera manual on how to activate the flash for fill flash.  You'll be glad you learned how to do it and when to do it.

I believe that most, if not all, of non-SLR cameras do not show you where the focus of the camera is for each shot.  So, if you have a camera where you composing your photo by looking at the LCD screen on the back or looking through a viewfinder, you have no adjustment to make.   Just go for it.  However, if you have a SLR camera (or a camera that does show you the focus point) there is a display that indicates where the camera is focused.  Just make sure it is focused on your subject and not on a background object. A SLR camera will display the exact focus point you if you know what the symbols in the viewfinder are telling you.  It's discouraging to have to discard a great shot because your subject in the foreground is out of focus and the tree in the background is crisply in focus.  It can be prevented and learning about and knowing your camera is very helpful.

Take 3 shots of your group of friends.  I guarantee if you only take one shot, someone will have their eyes closed or are suppressing a sneeze or some other not so flattering pose and if you have "over 40 eyes" like I do, it is hard to tell if eyes are closed  by looking at the small screen on the back of the camera.  You're not burning film so shoot away and you'll maximize your chances of 'keeper' photos.

Send me your photos --- please!  We all love to see ourselves in the 'movies' and the more photos we have, the better.  Thanks everyone!

Ray