Tips For the AFS Photo Collage

I spent a portion of the afternoon today completing my AFS photo collage after panicking slightly because I couldn't think of any pictures that had been taken of me, my family and I, or my friends and I in the past three years except for the picture of me hitting a tennis ball that was on the front cover of the sports section of the York Daily Record where I had a rather...unique facial expression. Definitely not the impression I want to give my potential host family.

Tips

• My first instinct, when looking for pictures, was to look through the pictures on my camera. As an amateur photography, my camera was full of shots, but mostly of landscapes. The only shots of people were artistic shots of my sister that weren't particularly useful for the collage. LOOK ON YOUR PHONE and the phones of your family members for pictures. This is where I hit the jackpot - if you're out with your family or friends and say "Hey, cool sign, let's get a picture with it", you're more likely to use your phone than your camera anyways. 
• Keep in mind, when choosing pictures, that pictures on smartphones or that are accessible with smartphones are super easy to send to a PC, and much easier than having to load the SD card onto the computer.
• Keep a balance of subjects in your pictures. I don't know how much merit this actually has, but I've heard that host parents would possibly be wary of someone who has too many pictures of themselves alone, too many pictures of themselves with their families (because you don't want to seem TOO attached), or too many pictures with friends (because you want to look interested in family). I really don't know how much weight photo choice has with potential foreign host families, but I included a good variety of photos anyways: three solo pictures, three with family members, and two with friends. 
• Include a good solo picture of yourself: something a host family can get an idea of what you usually look like from (not just from when you're far away from the camera or laughing your head off at a friend's joke). This might seem like common knowledge to most people, but for those homeschooled/cyberschooled people who don't have school pictures, this is important to remember. 
• Don't include too many pictures with friends. After all, a host family is curious about you and probably a bit curious about your family: honestly, they probably don't care very much about what your friends look like, as they'll likely never speak with most of your friends. However, include at least one picture with friends, just to show that you have them. 
• If you're applying as a freshman or young sophomore, don't include pictures with any friends who look too young. I considered (and actually uploaded before deleting) submitting a picture of me and a few friends who are my age/a year younger, but I rejected the picture because my friends looked really young in the picture, more like middle schoolers than high schoolers (even though most of them were high schoolers at the time). 
• Include a memorable picture of you, something host families can refer to ("I liked the girl with the picture with the snake") and remember. Don't include anything TOO terribly wacky, but include something unique. For example, I included a picture of me from Chinese camp where my face is covered in traditional Chinese opera makeup.