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!

The process is 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 go to 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:

register with the site.
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.)

Login to the AW website

Go to the Library Menu/ Photo/Video, or Accounts Menu/ Manage My Photos

Upload Multiple Photos When you have several photos from a river trip choose this multiple photo option rather than the “Upload Photo” button.

Provide background information:

  1. River Section (drop down Menu) Links photos with a river.
  2. Date photos were taken (drop down calendar) Documents river usage and flows.
  3. Name of photographer
  4. A title for the group of photos
  5. A sentence or two of description
  6. River level and gauge info

Click “Add Photo” button at bottom of page to upload the photos one at a time. A “browse” button will allow you to find each photo on your computer. You must add information specific to each photo, but the general information, such as river section will be automatically added. Add a brief description for each individual photo. This makes them much more interesting and helpful for others. Make sure to save the report. You can always add more photos to a report that has been saved. So if you only added one or two photos from a trip today, you could add more next week.

You can 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.
  2. AW can handle any size photo now, so you can upload jpeg photo files straight from your camera without fooling with them. However, for most average quality snap shots, page size (600 x 800 pixels or 800 x 1000 pixels) is plenty, saving space and upload time. If you have particularly nice photos, please upload them at full size so they can be used in the magazine, displays, calendar and such.


Please note that the relevant dimension is in “pixels”, and not inches. Use photo-editing software to crop, rotate or resize photos before uploading. Most cameras come with decent editing software now, but you can download many free programs for resizing photos such as 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 go to 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.