Wanted: Volunteer Photographers for Bike To Work Day

We’re looking for some camera carrying folks to help us take pictures on Bike To Work Day (May 15th). Here’s the deal: WABA needs a better stock photo library. Particularly, we need more images that showcase the range of people who bike in our region and show off the best of our region’s bicycling infrastructure. A great photo is a powerful advocacy tool, and we’re hoping you can help us strengthen our toolbox. Plus, it will be fun! So here’s our ask:

1. Spend half an hour or an hour on the morning or evening of Bike To Work Day in a designated location with your DSLR (or rangefinder or mirrorless, or other nifty camera).
2. Take a bunch of pictures.
3. Send them to us.
4. That’s pretty much it. When you sign up, we’ll send along some suggestions about what makes photos particularly useful for WABA, but you know better than we do how you and your camera work together, so follow your muse.

Process your photos if you want, but don’t feel obligated. We can do that. We’d rather do the watermarking ourselves so it fits in with the rest of our branding (see below for our commitment to crediting you for your work). If you’re selecting photos before sending them (again, don’t feel obligated, we’re happy to do the sorting), remember that for WABA’s purposes, a good genuine smile is more important than perfect focus, exposure or composition. Send us the photos in whatever form is easiest. Dropbox, Google Drive, thumb drive.

sign up

WABA’s End of This Deal We understand that you are not only volunteering your time and skills, but your intellectual property. When we use your photos, we commit to credit you for your work in the following ways:

1. On social media: a watermark photo credit usually in the lower right of the image. In this context, the watermark ensures that as an image is shared, your name will stay attached to it.
2. In email & on our website: we will include credit (with a link if you like) in the photo caption.
3. In print: Credit under photo or in a watermark
4. In metadata: We’ll make sure to retain your credit in the metadata in all versions of the image.

You can sign up to participate here. If you have questions, please email colinbrowne@waba.org or call 202-518-0524 x201.