The BEST way to send photos is to use a $2000 topline digital camera, and email your photos with your emailed article. This is the third millennium and it's a digital world. However, maybe you're still using an ordinary 35mm SLR camera, and like you, many of my students worry about sending off photographs in the mail. They might get lost or damaged, or an editor might not return them or he/she might lose them on a busy desk! THESE MISTAKES HAPPEN. The best rule is to always EXPECT your photos to get lost, and then you will always work out the right precautions to take. If you're really worried, send them by Receipted Post so someone has to sign for them. Second, pack them between cardboard sheets. Third, send a stamped, self-addressed return envelope. But if you don't want to send originals before selling, make an enlarged color photostat copy ($2 a photostat at somewhere like a post office or a business goods shop). Trannies (transparencies or slides) can be computer scanned and even enlarged into a paper copy like a color photostat. From these copies of your photos your editor can make a preliminary judgment on the quality and content of your photos. After your editor agrees to buy you can send the originals. Never send your precious negatives (though there are no negatives with slides). Put a number and a caption on the photos, or attached with stickytape. Put ALL the same captions together on one sheet of paper. NUMBER your photos and number your captions so there's no mistake, and so your editor can quickly shuffle through them and know what he's looking at. This is all about making it as EASY as possible for your editor. Don't cause him or her to struggle with packaging, opening envelopes, untying string, unpeeling stickytape and so on, or trying to make sense of a photo. Whatever you do, don't make the mistake of sending a whole roll of pictures . . . you must do the first choosing of the best. Don't send more than one copy (your BEST one) of the one topic.