Creating a Photo Montage

You replied("If it didn't crop, then it must have added a black pillarbox to the left and right of the image...or stretched your image to fill.").  I  do not notice any pillarbox or stretching.

Ok, so the file you exported from Handbrake was 1920x1080? If it didn't crop, then it must have added a black pillarbox to the left and right of the image...or stretched yor image to fill.

You should change your export resolution to 1920x1080, rather than 1920x1440 as it is now. use the 'Source Scaling' dropdown on the top left to change how to handle the resolution change.

I tried adjusting the Levels.  Some of the photos had too much cropping.  Encoding with HandBrake(1920 x 1080) did not crop the photos.

You'll need to check the playback compatibility specs of the blu-ray player. Check what resolution/frame-rate/H.264 level/Profile it can accept.

Your video is 1920x1440 - which is taller than HD. It might be that your player will only accept 1920x1080...and handbrake might be cropping/padding your video to this resolution. If it's not that, try lowering the 'Level' in the encoding settings. Your level will be 5.0+ in order to accomodate that resolution, your player might accept 4.x so you'll need to reduce your resolution to 1920x1080 or less.