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AW Photo/Video 101
by Matt Muir, AW StreaMaster
last updated 10/1/2007

This is a set of instructions for raw rookies who’re trying to upload photos for the first time into the AW Photo/Video Archive. If the instructions are unclear–if I’ve left anything out, or you’ve encountered other problems–please email me. We want this to be an easy and useful tool for all paddlers!

For the following set of instructions, I apologize for its wordiness! The process is really very intuitively easy, but there are a couple of pitfalls, and I like to get everyone on the same page. If reading it causes your eyes to glaze over, please just goto the AW website, try to upload a couple of pictures, and see what happens! (You won’t break anything.)

Here’s how you can upload photos to the AW website:
First, you must register with the site. Make sure your browser has cookies enabled.
I believe it will ask you for some standard info, like an email address, name, username, and password. I believe it’ll then send an email to the address you’ve provided. When you respond to that email, you’re registered! Please remember your username and password. (You know: the standard website registration protocol.)

Next, login to the AW website and goto the AW Photo/Video Archive.

Now, in the lower edge of the left-hand frame, you’ll see a clickable “Add Photo/Video.” Click on that. (If the clickable button doesn’t show up for you, just shortcut by clicking on the link above.)

You can then upload as many photos as you wish!

Some brief guidelines:

  1. The site will accept any format of photo, but as with most online photography, .jpg and .gif work best. .bmp is a forMatt that often produces oversized photos of poor quality; it’s not recommended.
  2. Size matters! In most cases, it’s best to limit your images to a maximum of 800 pixels (not inches) in the larger dimension.


Please note that the relevant dimension is in “pixels”, and not inches. Use photo-editing software (look for free downloads on the web) to keep from turning your high-rez digital picture into a 2048-pixel behemoth online. Why? Because digital images are measured in “resolution” (dots per inch or dpi) as well as image size (inches or pixels). For graphics to be properly displayed and to keep download files sizes small, make sure to first :
a) check and set the image resolution to 72 dpi
b) size and crop your image to 800 pixels x 800 pixels max.
Many digital cameras don’t come with software that makes it easy to resize photos. You can download a free program for resizing photos by going to Easy Thumbnails.

  1. Since your images will be related to a river make sure to input the specific river section or “reach” ID number in order to have the photos show up as a link on a river reach description and to be available for searching by river name or state in the AW database. For instance, the URL of the Great Falls description is http://www.americanwhitewater.org/rivers/id/741/. The AW Reach ID is that last number in there: 741. (Or, just click on “lookup.” That will help you find the Reach ID Number for the stream you’re looking at. (Thanks to Eric Bessette for writing up the kewell “lookup” function!)
  2. When you click on the Submit button to upload a photo, don’t be alarmed if nothing happens immediately. Especially if you’re on a modem or uploading a big file, it’ll take time to respond. Please don’t click on Submit again, because that will result in the same picture uploading twice.
  3. If you make a mistake (double uploads, uploading a too-big or too-small file), simply goto My Photos, find the offending file, and click on Edit. You can then replace it with a different file. No harm, no foul. You can also change any of the fields in the description, such as replacing “Weenie Rapid” with “Gnarly Falls.”
  4. One more thing: if you want to group a bunch of files together, you can! For instance, we in the Keel-haulers Canoe Club have added “KHCC” to the “author” field. (F’rinstance, if the photographer was John Kobak, we write “John Kobak, KHCC.”) Then, interested surfers can search on “KHCC,” and get the whole dirty dossier on the Keel-haulers Canoe Club. You can then link to it from your website, email the URL to your buds...be creative, and you’ll get great results.

FAQ Questions
I just uploaded the same picture twice (or I uploaded a picture, and it’s tooo big). Can you delete it?
I can’t delete it, butt I can replace it. You can, too! Simply goto that picture in your My Photos page, click on Edit next to the photo description, and use the “Browse File” field to select another picture that you’d like to see in the AW site. Change the text fields where appropriate, and click on Update at the bottom of the window.