How can I get photos from a flash drive onto my ipad

You can either copy them to your computer and sync them via your computer's iTunes: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4236

Of you can get a camera connection kit and use that e.g. kit for iPad 1 to 3 and for iPad's with lightning connector (SD card reader).

But a lot of flash drives require too much power to work with the kit, and the photos need to be in a particular format in order to be recognised : you need to create a DCIM directory off the root of the flashdrive (or SD card) with the photos underneath it, and the photo filenames need to be exactly 8 characters long (no spaces) plus the file extension i.e. in a similar format as if a camera had created/written them

You can use a USB flash drive & the camera connection kit.

Plug the USB flash drive (works the same with an SD card) into your computer & create a new folder titled DCIM. Then put your movie/photo files into the folder. The files must have a filename with exactly 8 characters long (no spaces) plus the file extension (i.e., my-movie.mov; DSCN0164.jpg).

Now plug the flash drive into the iPad using the camera connection kit. Open the Photos app, the movie/photo files should appear & you can import. (You can not export using the camera connection kit.)

Using The iPad Camera Connection Kit

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4101

iPad: Using iPad Camera Connector with unsupported USB devices

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4106

Secrets of the iPad Camera Connection Kit

http://howto.cnet.com/8301-11310_39-57401068-285/secrets-of-the-ipad-camera-conn ection-kit/

 Cheers, Tom 😉