Introduction to the list
Gatwick AvPhotos is a mailing list, originally hosted by Topica now transferred to GoogleGroups, set up as a sister-list to the Gatwick Spotters' list, and managed by the same team. It exists for members to share jpg images of aircraft seen at Gatwick Airport, ancient and modern. This area of my website AvPhotosOnline is dedicated to the photos posted by our members and displays our photos to the whole wide world.

Contributors wanted
Anyone can join the list, but the idea is that members post images. If all you want to do is see our photos, it's easier to just visit this website. There is nothing to stop you downloading the images to keep for personal use.

Photos wanted
If you have a collection of prints, negatives or slides or you know the whereabouts of Gatwick photos taken by an enthusiast who has given up the hobby or finally boarded for the great airport in the sky, please get in touch and we'll see what we can work out.

Copyright
In all cases images cannot be republished without the copyright holder's express permission. Most images displayed come with the copyright-holder's e-mail address so there is absolutely no excuse for not asking them. And you may end up with a much better quality image from them for your trouble - there's a restrictive size limit as to what we can post on the list and the website uses a standard shape and size for speed of loading and consistent display. If no e-mail address is shown contact me.

List Rules
The Rules are there to protect the list, its members, its owners and its hosting service. They are not needless bureaucracy.

1. Offensive material: the list-owners reserve the right to immediately unsubscribe without warning and ban for life any member who posts offensive material (eg pornograpy, racist comments, insulting remarks about other members or their photographs). Such members will be advised why they have been unsubscribed. Their behaviour will also be reported to owners of other aviation-related lists. This applies also to members who e-mail other members privately in this fashion. To put it simply, if you don't treat others with due respect, you're out.

2. Inappropriate material: we all make mistakes. Posting a photo or message intended for another list, omitting the attachment or forgetting to follow the submission guidelines will normally be forgiven subject to Rule 1. If it happens regularly the member will be warned. I've even had to warn myself for forgetting the attachments! If it gets to the point where other members are being irritated or inconvenienced the member will be unsubscribed.

3. Who can join? Anyone with e-mail! But please don't bother unless you intend to post images or for some reason cannot access this website any more. Your e-mail program and security settings must of course allow jpg attachments.

4. Copyright and re-publication: no photograph posted to members or on view in the gallery is to be published in any form without the express consent of the individual copyright holder. In posting a photograph to the list the copyright holder consents to the image being retained for personal use by list members and website users. Members must not post photos on which they do not hold copyright without the consent of any known copyright holder whose name must be clearly stated. If the copyright holder is unknown, and the photo appears to have no commercial connection, the image will be credited to the sender's "collection". Members who deliberately break this rule will be unsubscribed and banned for life, and may face legal action from the copyright holder. Sorry, but some people sell their photos commercially - copyright is important to them.

5. Viruses: any member posting a virus will be unsubscribed as soon as this is detected in order to protect other members. If the owners conclude that the virus was posted deliberately, or that the member cannot be trusted to take reasonable care, subscription will not be renewed. Otherwise the member will be re-subscribed on sending the list-owners a virus-free e-mail which satisfies them that reasonable precautions are being taken.

6. Galleries: the list-owners reserve the right to adjust the size, attributes and cropping of photographs in order to achieve consistency, and to add explanatory text. Consent to post in the gallery will be assumed unless copyright-holders advise otherwise. Filenames will be changed if necessary for consistency and to avoid duplicate names. Images have generally been displayed at 640x427 pixels, which suits various screen resolutions nicely, but we are changing everything in the future and it is best to submit 1024x683 photos which will become the standard size. Note that the web-pages currently use Dynamic HTML data-binding which does not work on browsers below the level of Internet Explorer 4, or non-Microsoft browsers. The new website should work for everything. JavaScript and Java applets are used so you may find that high security settings will prevent them from working fully.

7. Messages: members may freely post messages without an attached image to other individual members (subject to Rule 1). General messages may also be posted to the list if the message is thought to be of interest to the majority of list members. "Flaming" a member will not be tolerated. We recommend that members post a warning if a large number of images are to be posted at once, though this is becoming less and less necessary as more people convert to broadband. (See guidelines) The Gatwick Spotters' list is the appropriate place for messages about aircraft movements, spotting locations and so on.

8. Advertising: members' advertising in regular posted e-mails is limited to sign-offs containing an URL or business name and/or an URL, business name or logo superimposed on the attached image. If anyone wants to post a "for sale" notice, send it to me first. I would need to add something to make sure that I'm not liable for any problems arising from the transaction.

9. Moderation: the list-owners reserve the right to fully moderate the list if members consistently fail to follow the guidelines below. This means that all posts will be monitored before distribution and those deemed unsuitable will be withheld from distribution unless the problem is corrected.

10. Security and trespassing: the owners of this list do not condone any failure to immediately comply with airport security notices, restricted access notices, instructions given by police or authorised security staff, or any attempt to damage airport property (for example, trimming trees or enlarging holes in chain-link fences). The same applies to trespassing on or damage to private property in the vicinity of the airport, and instructions given by the property owners or their representatives.

Guidelines
Members who consistently fail to follow the guidelines below will be unsubscribed if a warning fails to correct the problem. The guidelines exist to maintain the consistency and quality of postings, to keep online times reasonable and to help the list-owners maintain the list and provide search facilities. There are some useful tips too.

* photos are to be sent as a single attachment to an e-mail. No multiple attachments, please.

* multiple postings: if you are sending more than 5 photos in a batch of e-mails, it's a good idea to send an e-mail to the list well in advance as a warning to members, saying at what time you expect to be posting them and how many. The subject line prefix "MT5" should be used - this will be familiar to LHR-Photos members.

* photos should be in jpg format.

* Older guidelines have been scrapped in the light of the fact that most now have broadband, the website storage is (I'm told) now unlimited and the website is advancing into the feature rich, if complicated, world of PHP and MySQL. So the image size in pixels should now be 1024x683. When you save it, fix the jpg compression so it comes to less than 250K. That is plenty, many good photos of this size on our site are only 90K or so. The size in bytes is partly a function of the complexity of the image: lots of blue sky enables greater compression. Clear digital images compress better than scans of negatives or prints where the grain is actually a byte-consuming feature you could well do without! Processing your image is easily done with most freeware, shareware or commercial image processing software - even the "lite" versions that come with scanners. But don't rely on the scanning software itself - generally it doesn't show enough detail to make accurate adjustments and often the colours are nothing like the scan that comes out the other end. If you can't get a scan to come out right, by all means send me a big version and I'll have a go. I'm happy to accept CDs full of photos and post them on after processing, or even a loan of the original negatives, slides or (if really necessary) prints.

* The filename should be the registration of the aircraft (in capital letters, showing the hyphen if present), an underline character and then your initials. If you post more than one photo of the same aircraft add "1", "2" etc after the initials - for example G-ABCD_mah3. This system should ensure that we do not end up with files of the same name (which would of course mean that the original file would be lost), and that all files in the archive are immediately identifiable as to subject and poster. If you share initials with another member, come to some arrangement with them. See below if registration is unknown. If you don't follow this guideline your file will be renamed for the website anyway - it has to fit into the system, or the coding won't work.

* the subject header of the e-mail should be the aircraft registration alone, or start with the aircraft registration, to enable consistent sorting in e-mail programs. Where the registration is not known, give the airline and type (eg "AA B767") or in case of bizjets etc, just the type. See below.

* the e-mail text should contain the registration, type, construction number and operator of the aircraft, the date and place (normally Gatwick) the shot was taken and the name of the copyright holder. It may also contain relevant photographic, weather or aircraft notes. Where the details are not known to you, try asking on the Gatwick mailing list, particularly about the registration. Unless a shot is particularly atmospheric - more art than a record - there is little point in posting it if the registration is unknown and other photos are available of identified aircraft in the same markings. The website shows full details of the aircraft - which means that if you don't provide them your friendly webmaster has to spend precious time looking them up. Photo date is fairly important - it's possible to sort the entire database of photos online but undated photos won't sort by date - but not essential.

* photos of aircraft not taken at Gatwick will be permitted so long as the aircraft has visited Gatwick - this is better than none at all. Landing and take-off photos in which the background sky is not identifiably Gatwick are allowed by default! The important thing is that the aircraft should be of interest to Gatwick spotters/photographers.

* Since GoogleGroups mercifully does not add any advertising or graphics to group messages HTML format is allowed, but please don't make it too fancy.

* if you must superimpose your name and/or URL on the photo, please at least do it in a tasteful colour and font and position it so it does not spoil the image. Many people (including me) consider that this practice makes an image useless and will do their best to paint over the addition anyway. If you are concerned about copyright, an invisible watermark will do the job more efficiently. Your name, e-mail address and website (if any) will normally automatically be displayed beside the image when viewed on the website, so that anyone wishing to re-publish your photo or maybe ask nicely for a higher quality version or even print can simply click to contact you. We have no policy about commercial photo sales through the list, there aren't enough of us to bother! What happens between list members and their correspondents is a private matter and we can't be held responsible for any dodgy deals. If you don't want your e-mail address shown, please say so.

* quality. This can be tricky. Good excuses for a poor photo do not improve the photo, and members will be irritated if they waste time downloading images they find unacceptably poor. On the other hand, a fuzzy image of a rare aircraft may be better than none at all, and may provoke someone into posting a better one. That's my excuse, anyway. Most people do not start with professional-quality equipment, film and developing processes have improved no end over the years and it is almost inevitable that older photos which seemed fine then do not appear up to scratch now. Take a look at an Observer's Book of Aircraft from the early sixties! Slides can fade even if kept in the dark. So allowance will be made for age and rarity. We assume that members who take poor photos with modern equipment will not want to show them off!

* electronic adjustment. The printing process often corrects faults with negatives, leaving you unaware of them. You'll need to work a bit with your photo-editing package. You should do the same if you are scanning from a negative, in particular please use the rotate facility of your editing software to ensure that the photo is straight. Buildings generally give the best guide for a vertical line. Slides and prints may need this doing too. If you don't other members may well conclude that you are lazy and/or inebriated most of the time. Amazing improvements can be obtained to colour balance, contrast and sharpness with quite minor adjustments, but take care, it's easy to go over the top. You should also crop the image to exclude unnecessary background - but bear in mind that in older photos the stuff in the background will bring back many happy memories. Cropping also helps to reduce the file-size. The best ratio of width to height is the natural one which the 35mm format, standard prints and your monitor's screen reflect, that is approx 3:2. The likes of William Turner knew a thing or two. It has to do with the fact that most of us have one eye on each side of our nose and limited peripheral vision. Please don't crop images to a panoramic view. If they started life as Advantix panoramic negatives, consider sticking to standard format next time. If the worst comes to the worst with a poor colour image which won't behave, try converting it to greyscale. Check your editing package to see if it can reduce evidence of scratches on negatives without making the image go fuzzy. The perfectionist will paint out the scratches pixel by pixel (but won't get around to posting very many images). And of course, it helps to dust slides and negatives with a pressurised air blower before scanning unless you really enjoy painting over all the little specks.

* remember, we all have different standards of eyesight acuity and colour perception, as well as monitors which may not be adjusted properly. Some can afford much better equipment than others. Some even know how to use it! An image you might think is perfect in your editing package may well come out darker or lighter when interpreted by a different image viewer (in particular MS Internet Explorer). What you see is not necessarily what the author thought was posted. All we ask is that you do your best and don't criticise others who have done their best. In most cases of what looks like a badly-adjusted image, the essential image information is in the file so the viewer can adjust it to her/his own taste. And if someone asks how you get such good results, please don't keep your secret hidden!

* security and trespassing: it's worth repeating. Please do not trespass on airport premises. Please comply with security restrictions and comply with instructions given by police and security officials, however unreasonable they seem at the time (you can politely complain, but do so after complying). Please do not damage property, in particular fences and trees. Keep to public footpaths if on private premises around the airport. Just don't annoy or inconvenience anybody else. Keep your hobby in proportion, the world will not end if you don't get the shot you want. Irresponsible behaviour only makes life more difficult for the rest of us.

Subscription and contact information.
To subscribe there are handy links below. But you should also go to GoogleGroups and create a free personal account if you do not already have one. You can opt not to receive any promotional material and you won't be committed to anything. Your account will enable you to open, close and manage your subscriptions to Google lists (including ours), change e-mail addresses, read messages and view attachments online and to switch off e-mail for holidays etc. The account can be accessed from anywhere in the world with an internet connection. You will need to do this to reset your account if GoogleGroups has switched you off because e-mails are bouncing back from the address you registered. You will also be able to read messages posted before you subscribed, but be aware that there are no messages prior to 19 July 2005 when the list was transferred from Topica (which did not retain the attachments anyway, so there was no point in attempting to transfer them).

Click subscribe to send a blank e-mail from the address at which you wish to receive posts, to Gatwick-AvPhotos-subscribe@GoogleGroups.com, or use this mini-form to subscribe at the GoogleGroups website:

	Subscribe to Gatwick AvPhotos
	Email:
	Browse Archives at groups.google.co.uk

Click unsubscribe to unsubscribe or send a blank e-mail from the address at which you receive your posts, to Gatwick-AvPhotos-unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.

To post a message to the list, send email to: mailto:Gatwick-AvPhotos@googlegroups.com. Non-members will be "bounced" by GoogleGroups.

To read messages and view attached photos online, please visit: http://groups.google.co.uk/group/Gatwick-AvPhotos. You will need to log in.

To see all the images available since the group started in 2002, and take advantage of other facilities use the Gatwick AvPhotos website at AvPhotosOnline.

Michael Hooker, michael.hooker@virgin.net
Vince Ellner, BizJetNut@aol.com
Dave Broome, oneleven111@yahoo.co.uk

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