Thanks. I'm going to try that. I still can't a good picture of The Prince or some of my red roses.

Nathan Thank you for comment on 'then & now' thread. I know that many are able to grow succulents much better & faster. That's why I read every post, and post some of mine-to compare & learn. I kept them in cold room for 'practical' reason - have a new place, but didn't move in yet, just 90% of my plants. So in order not to have to pay astronomical $$$ to heat 2 houses, I had to keep temps down. I did have the supplemental lighting set up for few hrs/day. I am sure it could have been more, but again-had to watch $$$ too. Temps were set @49F, and plants did very well. Besides succulents, I have there f. Benjamina, 4 pots of figs (kept those in bsmt. in order to keep dormant - now they are leafing out), boston ferns, 6 olives, 7 angels trumpets (Brugmansia) and few other. I do have some casualties: 3 of my euphorbias are gone, and Meyer lemon. I think (not sure) that they were just too cold, or maybe should been watered even less in col temps. I know that soil is good, very well draining. But I noticed that many plants actually look great, some better than when I had them in warmer house - definitely less water (I tend to water too much) was great for them. I watered approx. every second 'visit' & that would be approx. 3weeks. Few grew very leggy, but that's to be expected if not enough sun. So those will get their 'heads chopped off' as soon as it get warm. Yay, more plants. BTW, I have at least 20 pots of jades, all of them grown from cuttings or fallen leaves. Few of them are very unruly and there is going to be lots more cuttings. Even if there were occasional shrivelled leaves (just few), I am sure it was still better than rotted roots. Photo of few in Nov. 2013 (have to update!) Rina ...sheesh, that's long read....sorry! This post was edited by rina_ on Wed, Mar 19, 14 at 13:35

One of the best digital camera sites around is dpreview.com. You can spend forever reading their reviews and forums. The canons are indeed highly regarded, but there are also many nikon and sony fans as well. Personally I'm a canon guy, but I wouldn't go so far as to say that they're hands-down the best in all areas. There are digital cameras available in all price and quality ranges. It really depends on what you want to spend. I love the elphs like lowspark has, but you do pay extra for the small form factor. Canon has a range that's cheaper but larger, with similar quality in terms of lens and imaging. You should generally plan on buying a separate memory card as the ones that come with the camera are pretty lame. Figure on getting a 512MB or 1GB card. The higher the resolution of the camera the better, in general, however there are some technical issues as resolution gets above 5 megapixel. So a camera with 7 megapixel isn't necessarily always better than a 5 megapixel camera. I'd generally look for a camera with 5 megapixel or higher, and a 3x or better lens in the range of 35-135 or thereabouts. Image stabilization is very nice to have; canon has optical IS, which is generally considered better than electronic IS. Also important is speed in several areas. How long does the camera take to turn on? How quickly does it take the image once you push the shutter button? How quickly can you take multiple photos in sequence? How quickly does it focus? Those are things you can get a feel for by playing with the cameras in a local store. In general, you can't go wrong with canon, sony, or nikon.

Emmie you might like to have a look at this book by Dave Huss. I have this one in my collection of digital photography books. I think you would be very happy with it as he takes you through the fundamentals in a manner which is easy to read and understand. I see he also has another book that looks like it would be suitable, although I'm not familiar with it. I'll put that link here at the bottom. There are many good books for beginners available and if you do a Google search, you'll also find websites with tutorials for using a digital camera. Good Luck. Sharon Here is a link that might be useful: Teach Yourself Visually