Sending photos and video from the field

Your sending church shows your work in a virtual missionary gallery. Visitors walk up to your kiosk, see your photos, hear your latest letter and pray for you. Everything they see comes from you, and a phone is all you need.

First: privacy and safety

• Serving somewhere sensitive? Tell your church before you send anything. Your kiosk can show a nickname and a region only, with no photos of you.
• Location data is removed from every photo and video when it's uploaded. Even so, keep out of the frame anything that pinpoints where you live or meet: street signs, house numbers, licence plates, building names and well-known landmarks.
• Ask people before you photograph them. Where local custom or law asks it, don't show children's faces.
• If you're not sure about a photo, leave it out or mention it to your church. They review everything before it's published.

Photos

What to take

• Aim for 10 to 30 photos with each newsletter.
• Take a mix: people at work, the place itself, everyday life (food, the market, the road to church), and one recent family photo.
• Show the people you serve alongside, not only your own family, as long as they're happy to be in it.

How to take them

1. Use your phone's main camera (1×). The ultra-wide lens bends faces at the edges.
2. Hold the phone sideways (landscape). The gallery shows photos wide.
3. Shoot in daylight or bright shade, with the sun behind you or to one side.
4. Tap the screen on the most important face or object to focus. Then hold still.

How to send them

• Send the original files. WhatsApp, Messenger and text messages shrink photos and make them look blurry in the gallery.
• Good options: email them with "Actual size" chosen, or share a Google Drive, iCloud or Dropbox link.
• One line per photo helps, saying who or what it shows. The AI drafts captions from your photos and newsletter, and your church checks them.

Short videos

1. Keep it between 30 seconds and 3 minutes. Several short clips are better than one long one.
2. Hold the phone sideways. Use 1080p at 30 frames a second; 4K isn't needed.
3. Hold it with both hands and your elbows tucked in, or lean against a wall. Move slowly when you turn.
4. To talk to the camera, find a quiet spot and face the light. Hold the phone at eye level, about an arm's length away. Start with a greeting and say where you are, as far as it's safe to.

• Easiest way to send: upload to YouTube as Unlisted and send your church the link. Only people with the link can see it.
• Or share the file with a Google Drive or Dropbox link. Your church uploads it, and the AI adds captions and a short summary so visitors can read along.

A 360° view of where you serve

A 360° photo captures everything around you in every direction. Visitors open it from your kiosk and look around as if they were standing there. Good places are your street, the church or clinic where you serve, a market, or the view from your village.

With a 360° camera (best results)

1. Put the camera on a selfie stick or small stand, at eye level, about 5 feet (1.5 m) up.
2. Use the camera app's timer or remote. Step out of view, or crouch directly under the camera.
3. Take two or three shots so there's a choice.
4. Export it as a 360° photo: a JPG twice as wide as it is tall. Don't send "tiny planet" or flattened, reframed versions.

With a phone

• Google Pixel phones have a Photo Sphere mode in the camera. On other phones, use a panorama app that saves full 360° spheres.
• Stand in one spot and turn slowly, rotating the phone around itself rather than swinging it around your body.
• Phone spheres can show seams where the pictures join. A 360° camera gives cleaner results.

What the gallery accepts