My grandfather, grandmother and aunt are buried at Rose Hills Memorial Park in Whittier California. I always enjoy going there. They are buried right under a large tree at the top of a hill so sitting is very peaceful,the wind comes up the hill and is very cool. The highlight of the trip there is of course the rose gardens, they are so beautiful. I really enjoy going there, the best time to go is in april when everything is in bloom. I have also visted the beautiful Mausoleum of Christian Heritage at Forest Lawn Memorial in Covina Hills, which if you are familiar with this area of southern california it is not to far from Rose Hills. They also have some of the world's greatest religious art and the Mausoleum of Christian Heritage to view mosaic recreations of the greatest scenes from Michelangelo's immortal Sistine Chapel ceiling paintings and beautifully crafted stained glass windows. The front of the mausoleum has a beautiful mosaic it is the world's largest religious mosaic, the Life of Christ Mosaic, so visiting cemeteries is not a morbid thing at all, I think. Carrie

I love old B&W's--thanks for sharing these! Photographing old documents the way you did with the marriage license is a good way to preserve them. Boy, cars sure have changed! :-)

If the composition isn't there, no camera will make up for it. First you need the 'eye'. You can develop it through trial and error or through instruction, but the camera won't do it for you. However, once you know how to take a good picture, a good camera opens up more possibilities for creativity and control. Still, I agree that it's 90% the photographer. Maybe 95%. If you want to help your friends become better photographers, give them assignments! My DH and I use very different cameras and we've had fun challenging each other with subject matter or with a particular technique. Who can take the best picture of the dogs, what happens if we shoot everything on the tungsten setting today, intesting subjects for a still life, coolest portrait, weirdest light - and my favorite so far: who can make a neighbor look most like a rock star! We're both still struggling with the last one but it's been pretty funny!

Your best bet is to take those negatives into a darkroom, the R2400 is your second best bet. If you don't have darkroom equipment, people are just about giving it away these days. I bought three enlarging lenses in the last four months. Each lens new would have cost over $250.00 and I didn't pay more than $20.00 for any one of them. My reason for the darkroom suggestion is this: Photography has always been somewhat paradoxical in its position in the art world. A silver print (B&W) made in the darkroom and properly processed has the longest life expectancy of any known art media -- a stainless steel sculpture might compete. At the same time color photographs hold the position on the opposite end of that scale. It wasn't until the 1970s that color photographs were even tolerated in art museums (Sarkowski bought some Eggleston prints for MOMA). The right inkjet materials are an improvement over old chemical based color, but in comparison to darkroom silver prints inkjet prints are still ephemeral. A B&W print from the R2400 is still made with inks that will fade. Darkroom not a reasonable option, then the R2400 makes really superb B&W prints. I use that printer. I have a friend who just bought the newest Canon (also designed to do B&W) and she is raving about it, so based on her recommendation I'd endorse that option as well. P.S. it is possible to beat a decent B&W print from a "color designed" printer. There are three ways to go. One: Give up on expecting neutral B&W and add a color tint to the image; make a brown and white print and use the color inks. Be happy. Two: Get a custom profile for the printer and software that will allow you to edit that profile (not necessarily cheap) and then painstakingly adjust the profile (could require expert help). Three: There are companies (see link below) that make special inks. Lyson's quad black inks make really nice B&W prints. The problem is you have to take the color inks out of the printer and it becomes a B&W only printer. That could be an option however -- buy a used printer like an Epson 1280 and dedicate it to B&W only. This would cost less than the new R2400. Joe Here is a link that might be useful: Lyson quad blacks