I chose a Toshiba Thrive as it seemed to be most compatible with my photography interests. The Thrive is slightly thicker and a bit heavier than some of the others, but this is offset by the availibility of a full size SD slot, a full size USB port, a mini-USB port and an HDMI port. The SD card slot and USB port allows me to easily transfer files from my SD card to a USB Flash Drive and/or view the photos on the card on the 10.1 inch screen. I can then clear the card for further use in my camera. My purchase of the Toshiba was also influenced by my satisfaction with the screen display on my Toshiba Laptop.

A friend just sent me this link that will lead you to 35 wonderful photos of the Grand Canyon taken by different photographers:

http://www.lovethesepics.com/2011/03/grand-canyon-proof-that-nature-rocks-35-pics/

Excellent exposure on those indoor shots and wonderful detail and sharpness. You definitely know your way around your camera and lens!

If re-sizing of photos is a an important feature for you, I would recommend Irfanview which is a free download. It also has many other photo editing abilities, but it is the program I go to for re-sizing photos. I find Picasa to be the easiest program to learn and use for most of my routine photo editing. It is also a free download. Neither of these programs are memory hogs and should work well on your laptop.

Nice shots, Jimbo!

A casual "Burnout Competition" at a car show in the Catskills in 2001. Safety was not a major consideration, but everyone escaped alive!

I shouldn't think you need any more than 4GB of RAM to handle post processing in PSE. Greater amounts of RAM are generally required only when using programs for Computer Assisted Design (CAD) work or if you're an avid "gamer" hooked on the newer generation of computer games with high tech 3D graphics. As others have mentioned, before purchasing any additional RAM for an existing computer, you need to find out the maximum amount that your present computer can handle. A good website to visit to find out what type of memory and how much your computer can handle is www.crucial.com.

That 2nd shot shows some really nice detail. I'm interested in what equipment you used and the camera settings.

Depending on what email program you are using Hotmail or Outlook offer Skydrive as a means to send large files as does Gmail with Google Drive. These programs have you upload the files to the Cloud and your email to the intended recipient will include a link to the address on the Cloud where the files can be viewed and/or downloaded. As others have recommended, Dropbox is another good alternative that operates in much the same manner. Hope this helps.

My vote is for the B&W version as it allows one to focus on the emotion without being distracted by the many contrasting colors.

Great action shots!!!

As others have stated, Picasa only stores photos in that program until you choose to save a copy to your hard drive. Once you have saved the photos to Pictures or some other location on your hard drive you can then send them to a flash drive and finally load them from the flash drive to your desktop computer. Hope this clears things up for you.

If the weight of the camera seems to be a problem with the tripod you are using, try suspending a weight from the tripod. If I am using a backpack I simply hang this under the tripod to make it more stable. Otherwise I carry a small plastic bag in my pocket and place a few rocks in it and suspend it under the tripod. This works for me!

One option you might consider if you upgrade to a LCD or LED monitor is to purchase a Spyder tool that will calibrate your computer output to your monitor screen and printer. A friend has done this and found that it has greatly improved the quality of his prints. For best results he has found it necessary to periodically recalibrate his system about once a month.

Great shots! What equipment did you use?