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Putting up other people's pictures is an exercise fraught with possibilities of hurt feelings. I'm still mad at Trains Magazine for not picking the only submission I ever sent them as the picture of the year. To post good photos on the web, the photographer has to take technically good photos; infuse a bit of art in the process; shoot digital or know how to scan; and finally be able to handle a photo in a program like Photoshop to correct the problems. If you don't get most of those things right, the outcome is not very pleasing.

This page features the work of a number of photographers who - IN MY OPINION - consistently produce good stuff. Take a look at these photos and compare your work with what you see ( 239 8259 8231 210 8208 8202 8254 250) If you come pretty close, send them to me and If I agree, your picture appears. If you are going to be offended if I don't put it up, please don't send it.

If you are still with me, here are the guidelines: ACTION photos of SD 75s. The final product should be 1024 X 682 pixels or a close approximation (I can handle down to 800 X 600, but bigger is better). I use 300 dpi in the final product, Don Bowen uses 72 and I can't see the difference so that gives you a range. If you send pictures that are ready to post, they need to be 150k or less. The color needs to be somewhere close to real life and the picture has to be SHARP. That means that you have to read the number boards on the lead locomotive. Other stuff needs to be as sharp as it can be. Save the file as a JPG only once. Work with the picture in a format like TIF. Watch out for compression artifacts. Those are those strange patterns that appear from repeated JPG saves or from trying to get too much out of a photo that just does not have enough data.

Depending on how much time I have at the moment, I am happy to work with you if you think you are close, but can't quite get there. Drop me an e-mail

REMEMBER, THIS IS A HOBBY - IT IS SUPPOSED TO BE FUN.

I spend a fair amount of time on the road, so don't worry if I don't get back to you for a week or so. I will answer all e-mails concerning contributions.