Don't embed the pictures in your DB. Link them. Otherwise, you're going to make an obtuse and obscenely large DB (especially with 1000s of photos). If you need to distribute this, then distribute the DB along with a folder that contains the pictures and have them installed in the same directory, like this:
C:\YourDB\YourDB.mdb
C:\YourDB\YourPics\pics.jpg (one for each picture)
Then you link each image as in ImageControlName.Location = "C:\YourDB\YourPics\<pic_name_variable>.jpg
Converting a JPG to BMP is going to greatly increase, not decrease its size. Embedding a ton of photos is never a good idea.
