As our designated family historian & a genealogist, I've amassed about 70 pictures of 8 generations that are the foundation of our family's history. The oldest has a birth year of 1833. Some are hand enamelled in beautiful colors (Russia). It took many years to gather those pictures including letters to the US War Department. They sent me an 8"x10" picture of great-grandpa in his Civil War uniform that they had in their files along with all his regiment info. He fought with Grant at Shiloh, Vicksburg, Ft. Donelson, and a couple others eventually having his horse shot out from under him (happened often). Bad times for our country. I've gathered pictures from people I've never met living in Siberia, Germany, Scotland, Sweden, and all over the US. Those wonderful people who either knew or knew of my ancestors took the time to write a short note of any info they had about that person's life. It took us several years due to the expense but we've had them all archivally matted & framed. I attached notes on the person's life to the back of each picture. Also on the back I've noted which kid gets that original picture when I die. In the meantime, they hang on our "Rogue's Gallery" wall here in Mystic. Every time the kids and grands are here a few minutes are spent looking at the pictures & teaching the latest generation names & connections. We are a motley group. :) I've got a complicated system for filing thousands of photos, vital record documents, maps, letters, Rutgers University Library research, my own research from study & trips, cemetery excursions, etc. I've written & published (in 1992) an over 800 page book on Mom's genealogy & my photos are filed by reference numbers tied to that book. It was a physical impossibility to give each kid one of everything. So, I made each a large scrapbook from copies of items that seemed best suited to each. I gave them their scrapbooks on their wedding days. Of course, they also each have a copy of the book that contains hundreds of pictures. They each have a copy of my file system for after I'm gone & they have to decide what to do with the book's documentation. I have 37 of those humongeous Rubbermaid tubs stuffed with pictures, immigrations info, citizenship stuff, vital records, etc. The tubs are color coded for each surname. Photos of during the kids' childhood years...I took the easy way out. I presented them each a tub & said, "Have fun! Keep what you wish & you decide what to do with the rest." :) My second genealogy book, "Thunder on the Steppes" has come back from the second edit & I'm waiting for one last 4'x6' genealogical chart from Dr. Pleve in Saratov & then it's ready for publishing. I've been waiting on that darn chart for 10+ years. His wife prepares them in beautiful Russian caligraphy. I've received 6 and this last chart wraps up a huge project. /tricia (who really doesn't want to see more pictures!)

I think I finally found a winner. I am going to be posting shots from the other cameras too. The Nikon coolpix S8200 does great zoom shots and can get good closeups of flowers and that wasn't even on the macro setting. I posted some pictures here. Great detail on the sweet alyssum and that was a zoom taken from a standing position. The gazebo close up one was taken from the deck at the top of the property. The gazebo is almost at the bottom. You can see the difference between using the zoom and taking it wide open. Also see the property denuded of trees. DH has been cutting down all the Monterey Cypress but that is another story. Clare Here is a link that might be useful: Camera comparison

Mine takes a little sd card,it's like the one that comes with the camera. I hook my camera to my computer using a usb cable. I then make a folder with just the pics i'm going to want to use in my frame. You can use any pictures you have on your computer. I bought a Targus card reader writer. sd/sdhc/mmc ( those are all the diffent cards) at Walmart for just a few dollars. It hooks up to your computer by an usb. Put your little card into this and plug it into usb port. Open you folder with your pics and choose to copy them to the reader. When finished take the little disc out and insert it into the opening thats on the picture frame. Turn on frame and it will read all the pictures. There are all kinds of setting to how your picturres display. If you only want the pictures thats on your camera disc and not any others you can take the disc from the camera and put it right into the frame. Then you have to buy another disc ( sd card) for your camera. I have one folder of pictures of my daughters growing up and now with families of there own and use just those pictures for one of my frames. It's really very easy, i've probably made it sound harder but it's not.

Snidely, perhaps I did not clarify my thoughts well enough. I submit that exorbitant pricing, for an inferior product, is a form of immorality. The demand for the type of entertainment created by the film industry is a very shallow form of hero worship. It is manufactured and driven by purposefully-perpetrated cultural cues from a powerful Public Relations empire. An entire era of humans shammed into commercialized hype. It is the power of peer pressure used to enrich a few - to the unconscionable cost of many. If the industry produced entertainment at a reasonable cost, then consumption of the product could be considered a fair exchange. However, aside from the type of mass marketing I described above, and the natural mechanisms relating to assimilation to the group most often felt by overly-trusting and unsophisticated youth who are too immature to have well-developed capacities for good decision making, entertainment offered by 'movies' also includes the expectations of courtship. The entertainment industry panders to, and plays on, the weaknesses of human nature. Urges meant for the up-building acculturation of a the most vulnerable are funneled into financial profit for the most unscrupulous. You appear to be a very fitting example of this unscrupulousness. Above, you recommended that I financially profit off of activities that I condemn. Sorry, but no thank you sir.