Fiddled with it, lined it up, laid it on my desk with the front element down, gave it a kill or cure hard whack with the flat of my hand and the front element popped back into place. Images are sharp and the auto focus and diaphragm seem to be working fine.

Nope. Just lens caps front and back.

I dropped my Canon 50mm f1.8 prime lens on the floor and the front element popped out. It looks like it should just snap back into place but it won't. Nothing seems to be broken or bent.
Probably not worth sending for repairs. Is it DIY fixable?

Some of us enjoy steam locomotives but nobody would argue they are better than diesels. Likewise photography. I used to develop sheet film, 120 and 35mm, making sure my D76 had not oxidized and that my hypo was still strong enough. Getting it at 68 F was always tricky. And of course mixing the stuff was always a pain. There was a constant battle with dust. After a session in the darkroom I had to rinse and clean out all my beakers and trays and dry the prints. I often had to make several test strips and two or three prints before I got what I wanted and chances were, despite every effort to control dust, the final print would have to be "spotted." A colour print (remember Cibachrome?) was a boring 20 minute job of rolling a processing tube back and forth. It was also expensive at about 2 bucks each for an 8x10.
Now I do the same and more in a fraction of the time under full light with a few clicks of the mouse.
Then there were things like airport x-rays, hot weather, jammed film casettes, carrying spare rolls and having to rewind and reload.
Been there, done that. Digital b&w isn't quite up to some of those wonderful old film and paper emulsions --- always loved Portiga Rapid paper --- and images from a 4x5 Speed Graphic were astonishingly sharp. But there are so many huge advantages to digital that I'd never go back.

I went to China a couple of years ago and took both my standard lens and my telephoto. (Canon Rebel SLR) I didn't use the telephoto once and I came back with some great shots. I found the odd time I needed tighter composition, I could crop the image in post processing. There is enough definition that I had no problem making good 8x11 inch prints.
On a more recent trip to the UK and France, that same Canon camera packed it in. I bought myself a Samsung point and shoot (which I had been thinking about buying anyhow) so I would not be without a camera. It is not as easy to use as the SLR but I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the images and again I came back with some excellent shots.

A few adages...
Practice makes perfect...
There is no picture so good that it can't be improved.
Study images in picture books and at exhibitions. Analyse what makes a great picture...the right moment...the right light...the right angle...the right expression.
The good thing about being an amateur is that the only person you must please is yourself. I have some pictures that I love and most others hate. If I'm satisfied, that's all I care about (although we all like compliments.) That does not excuse sloppy work. But the idea is to please yourself while always asking what you might have done differently.
A couple of basics... Almost any picture can be improved if you put a human figure in it... cropping tighter always seems to make a better shot...shots taken early or late in the day are almost always better than those at midday...fog, mist, rain or clouds can turn an ordinary scene into a magic one.
Don't fall into the trap of thinking a better camera or lens or the latest new gadget will make your pictures better. Great photos have been made with box cameras. They are tools, not toys!
Most important of all... HAVE FUN!

There is a great little French restaurant in Queenstown. The proprietors are a French couple who sailed there and liked it so much they decided to stay. The food, atmosphere and owners are wonderful.
I stayed at the Hermitage. First rate! Our room had a balcony with a million dollar view of Mount Cook.

I'm not really sure just what I did but by fiddling around I got PS7 to load properly and it works fine. Originally I got a message that said it was incompatible. This is old software but it was free (don't ask!) and it does just about everything I want other than handle RAW. If I have a thousand bucks to spend on my hobby, I'd rather put it in a lens than the latest PS.
I'm still thinking of getting Elements 11. What can it do for me that PS7 doesn't.

Here are a couple of my shots from NZ. There are many more on my site on Flickr.

There are great picture possibilities everywhere, from the antique trams in Christchurch to the spectacular scenery in Milford Sound. Queenstown is well worth visiting and if you go be sure to go to the top of the mountain and to take the antique steamship. There also are great shots with the Maori art. Auckland is also a very photogenic city. It's a wonderful place with delightful people. I kept telling the Kiwis to keep quiet about what they have down there and keep it a secret. Have a great trip!

I have Windows 7 on both my desktop and my laptop. My Photoshop 7 and Photoshop Elements 1.01 install and work on the laptop but not on the desktop. The Toshiba laptop is about a year and a half old. The ASUS desktop is about 3 months old. (I know that's ancient software and I probably will update to Elements 11. But for the time being I'm puzzled.)

Great shot. First reaction is to see more of the wings and feet or, conversely, to crop it tighter. But my gut feeling is don't do anything. It works the way it is!

I find them very bland. One gimmick I have used successfully with similar shots has been to throw a pebble into the water and shoot while the ripples are on the surface.
Also these appear to have been shot near midday on a nice day. They might be much better early or late in the day or even on a bad day with rain or fog.

Here is one of the doctored FDR shots and the "diet" shot of the opera singer

I recently shot a local opera festival. One of the performers was the classic operatic "fat lady." Not obese but pretty plump. In Photoshop, by elongating the image, I took 30 pounds off her. My wife says I should not have. I said the lady would be flattered. (I don't know if she ever saw the picture.) I routinely remove wrinkles, pimples, dark shadows under eyes and stray hairs. At what point do you cross the line? This stuff went on long before Photoshop. There is a classic shot of FDR at the back of a train which made him appear to be standing on healthy legs. I guess you have to draw the line between improving and distorting, between putting a positive spin on something and totally misrepresenting it.