Bikini season' has terrified women for generations. But today's women have an even scarier phenomenon to worry about: Bikini photo season. Because while swimsuit season only lasts a couple of months, that photo of you chowing down on a hotdog in your bikini at your friend's barbecue lives forever.
So here are some tips for amazing bikini snapshots.

1. You already know that all women should be SKINNY, so always be certain to pose in such a way that you look as SKINNY as possible! As soon as your frenemy's hand starts to head for that hip pocket where the iPhone lives, assume the position. Angle your body away from the camera. Taking into account the lens depth and focal length, assume the precise three-dimensional curvilinear attitude that will best throw into relief your bust and your hip-waist ratio — while cheating your limbs to appear, like, realllllly long. STAND ON TIPPY-TOES. OR: never take your heels off (even in the water — just think of your wedge espadrilles as weirdly heavy flippers!). Keep a professional makeup artist and hair stylist on retainer, so that they can jump into the shot for touch-ups between frames. Do something with your hands, for God's sake, woman! If you're ever caught unprepared, dive behind your group of friends and just pop your head up, meerkat-style, intermittently. SMILE.

2. When all else fails, go to a mall print lab and have a life-sized, freestanding cardboard cut-out of yourself wearing a bikini made. Or: have a life-sized, freestanding cardboard cut-out of Kim Kardashian wearing a bikini made. Cut the head off this cut-out, and when the situation demands it, simply step behind your cardboard double and position your head in one of a thousand natural-looking poses. Don't say "cheese"; that's for losers. Say "prune." That's what the Olsen twins do.

3. Take a tip from the stars: demand photo approval! Draw up a standard image-rights contract for all of your friends; distribute the contracts via email, Facebook, and Twitter, and make one available for download on your personal or business Web site. (It helps if you demand the return of signed, notarized copies in triplicate via Registered Mail. This is for your records.) The contract should stipulate that any and all photographs, .JPEGs, TwitPics, Instagrams, #Latergrams, Facebook snapshots, sketches, watercolors, beachside artist caricatures, and other likenesses of you MUST be submitted to you and/or your exclusive agent(s) for approval no less than four (4) business days prior to the intended date of publication (WITH all draft caption information, so you can fact-check that "Poolside cocktails with the girls CHEERS!!" Facebook comment/screen content for references to your alcoholism). Be sure to stipulate NO #nofilter shots. Include a list of at least three (3) approved vendors for all necessary Photoshop and post-production work (the Vogue China team should totes be on there!) as well as your Photoshop standards (c.f. the Ralph Lauren company) to speed delivery and enhance outcomes for all concerned. Post unflattering pictures of all so-called "friends" who display any reluctance about signing on the dotted line.