PHOTO SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

 



One question that I am asked a lot is if anyone can submit a photo or if you have to be a firefighter. I do not care if you are a firefighter, buff, or garbage collector. If you took a photo or photos that others might be interested in seeing, then by all means submit it. With that, there are some guidelines that must be noted.

Vehicles and Stations: 3/4 angles for posed vehicle shots are preferred, but not required. Those are best especially if you want to see your photo featured on the spotlight page. For the archives, I will accept any angle and with the space I have, will post a variety of shots for one particular vehicle as long as two shots are not identical. It takes a great deal of time to update the site, so please take a look and see if your photo is different than what is alredy available. And please let me know if your photo is an addition so I don't accidently code the photo to overwrite an image already online. I write the code myself and don't see the photos when I'm making updates or saving photos to add to the archives. I will use as many photos as I can, but I do reserve the right to not use anything that is submitted.

Police Vehicles: I will accept any police vehicle for the Police page, but specialy vehicles are preferred. It takes a lot of time just doing the regular stuff, but I do want to recognize our friends in law enforcement as well.

Fire Scenes: I will post fire scene photos to the weekly page as well as the archive. However, when submitting these photos, please send the date of the fire and location of the incident. You were there, so you should know unless it's a photo you took years ago and don't remember. I will post multiple photos of an incidents, but may limit ones that are fairly similar to each other (like two photographers taking the same shot or two shots taken in rapid succession).

MVA's and other incidents: Please send in the location of the accident and the date it took place when sending in the photos.

Candids: Candids are great, but for some reason I get a lot of these with no information. If you can, please include the names of people in the photo and where it was taken (IE after a fire, at a training drill, ect). If you don't know the names, that's ok, but please include where and when it was taken.

Other: If it doesn't fit in the above category, ask. I like variety on the weekly page and enjoy posting different types of photos. In recent times I've also opened up new archives including trains and Coast Guard units.

When submitting photos there are a few things that are a must. Please sign your full name to the email, even if you've contacted me before. I get tons of emails every week and I don't always remember everyone's last name or who is connected to what email address. Credits are a must on the photos. I know that some photographers would rather not use their names for various reasons. As long as you took the photo, we can ajust the credit for you. I can use your initials, say it's courtesy of the department, or I can say it's a "Firenews Photo". I will not use handles like "Battleship Bill" or "DowntownTruck53".

If you didn't take the photo the actual photographer's name MUST be included with the email. And, you MUST have his/her permission to use the photo. And please tell me this when you send in the photo, not 3 days after I do the update. It wastes a lot of time having to go back and correct things when the info should have been included in the first place. I understand it's not intentional, but help me out and try and remember all the info when you submit the photo.

You may submit a photo that is not yours if:
A) You own the rights to the photo. Or, in the case of candids, you are in the photo. My view is that if you are in the photo, you should be able to share it as long as no money is being made. If you are in the photo, please still include the photographer's name if you can.
B) A department official may grant permission to use a fire department photo. This means the chief or his designee such as the deputy, PR officer, or webmaster. The guy that just got hired last week doesn't count unless the chief told him to send it to me.
C) Photos that are over 25 years old that you own and are part of your collection may be submitted so long as you say they are part of your collection and don't lead me to believe you took the photo. You can not say a photo of a brand new Pierce that was delivered ten minutes ago is part of your collection. If you know who took the photo, please include that information as well.

Photos are posted at a resolution of 800X600. Please keep that in mind when you submit photos via email. I keep the original photos in case I need to go back and make a correction, but for the site everything is resized to that 800X600. If you send in a small image, it won't look good when it's resized, thus I will not accept images smaller than 640X480. Large originals are ok, just watch the file sizes as many email servers have a 10MB per email limit. Photos can be submitted to me via email at WEBSITE EMAIL. I answer all email submissions/inquiries, so if you don't get a reply within 48 hours then I most likely never received your email. If you are on Facebook, you may also post photos to the Facebook Group if you want to. CLICK HERE.

Some people still submit prints since they don't own scanners. I will be happy to scan the photos for you, but since time is limited, please keep your package of photos to no more than 25 prints per mailing. If you'd like them back, please put a note with your return address inside the envelope. And, even if you don't want your prints back, let me know who the photographer is. I've had a few instances where someone mailed the photos for a friend, but didn't let me know that. I wasted an hour formatting these photos only to have to do it all over again. Snail Mail submissions can be sent to:
John Galla
Stoneham Fire Department
25 Central Street
Stoneham, MA 02180
Please let me know by email if you are going to send prints so I will be on the look out for them.

No one owns the photo rights to solely submit photos for any particular agency. I will post multiple photos for any given vehicle or station so long as they are not identical. Some people think because they are the department photographer or resident fire buff that no one in the world can take a picture of "their" apparatus. Well, that's just not the way the world works. This site is for fun and is for people to enjoy and for many photographers to display their work. If there is an extenuating circumstance and a chief or agency adminstrator wishes to discuss it, then I will listen. But, keep in mind this is a privately owned site and I am under no obligation to solely use anyone's photos.

This is my site and I call the shots regarding what photos I use. I reserve the right to accept or reject any photo submitted. Just because you submit a photo, doesn't necessarily mean I'm going to use it. With that said, I try and make every effort to give every photographer a chance to have their work displayed. I have to set limitations, but this site is for everyone and I make the best effort to acknowledge anyone that wants to contribute.

As always, thank you to the countless photographers that submit photos. You make the site what it is. Keep taking photos and keep sending them in.




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