If i understood correctly ASL does not help a lot either? I do know some ASL if it is helpful, and I am in Oregon,but that is a mighty big place. Narrow it down a little, where?

Buckeye, my son's wife teaches ASL in Georgia and that's where I live too. By the way the best way to learn photography is to take pictures as often as you can. Post pictures here on this forum and try to give all the information you can about your camera settings. Then people can give you ideas of what settings may need changing. Good luck!

I think my ancestors came from England and then settled in Illinois and thence to Iowa. The name Hammitt is not a common household name. To my knowledge none were horse thieves, bank robbers and such. My grandfather was a county treasurer but he would not have made it out of the court house, if caught diverting funds to his favor. My Great Grandfather Tony, was a civil war vet. He lived to be 90 as did my Grandfather Charley and my Father Max. Tony would probably haved lived longer had he not been tossed off a hayrack while in a 4th of July parade, that ran over the curb. He claimed that he made a bet in his younger days, that he could swim across the Missouri river and he made it 3/4 of the way and had to swim back. I am beginning to realize that I am creeping up on these old guys. I bet they are all playing pinocle and having a great time. Here is a 4 generation photo from my mother's brownie box. I am the little guy in 1934 sitting on Tony's lap.

No, I certainly didn't mean ALL kids ! I just follow the latest trends and look at MOST of the kids in my family and MOST of the kids around me and on line. In an age when the kids today can take a photo on their $500.00 phone and INSTANTLY post it on Face Book, interest in a hard copy of a photo puts yours AND my whole family in a minority ! My family is different...almost my entire family, myself included, has worked at Kodak Park and actually had a hand in making the film that most families have used throughout their lives ! We always had cameras...still do ! It's just that MOST younger people embrace any kind of new technology, and lets face it, film, and going down to the corner store to have it developed, IS more or less a thing of the past ! My 54 year old younger sister thinks I'm crazy carrying around my film camera, taking shot after shot, then having to wait for developing ! Oh well.....

As one of 4 kids, our family photos were "split up" and nobody was satisfied how it was done. I collected all of 'em up, scanned or whatever and put the collection back together and on cd. With 3 sons of my own, I've scanned in all of the early pics and provided each multiple copies of cd's so each has it all. The paper versions will go to the one who is most trustworthy of the 3.

I told this story once before on here but this is a good place to share it again. One day in Tucson, in a thrift store, I found 9 - 400 foot reels of 16mm film, the life story of a family from Connecticut that dated back to 1928. "Pa" had retired there, passed away and his estate wound up in that store. I, an old movie projectionist when younger, just happened to have my jeweler's loupe in my pocket and inspected the film. I saw that it was involving a family with a boy, a girl, and their dog. I bought the film and found that the boxes that it was sent for development to Kodak were there also so I had names and addresses to work with. I bought a projector and viewed the film. There were vacations at the beach, mom's graduation from prestigious women's college, Smith College in upstate NY. There was footage of a pre-Presidential campaign speech by Franklin Roosevelt, footage of the first Macy's Day Parade, footage of what looked like the Hindenburg blimp flying over NY City, and other stuff.

I decided to locate the people if possible and put that film back in their hands. In the event I couldn't locate the family, in the interim, I contacted Macy's about the film and they were missing that "first parade" and wanted it for their archives. The Roosevelt museum wanted the footage, etc. I agreed to make them copies but only after I had given up on locating the family which had moved to PA, MO, NY, and other places over the years with father's job which was a college professor. Not being able to focus on the girl due to name change via marriage, I concentrated on the boy. I put out feelers in genealogy forums, did direct mail, etc., and somewhere between 5 and 6 years out it paid off. I found the boy, now a lawyer in NJ and his sister, a school administrator in upstate NY and put the film in their hands, a very gratifying achievement, I must say. We need to watch out for each other and maybe go out of our way a little when we see a need to do so. Some folks won't care, others will be eternally grateful.