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Kathy, you asked about Photoshop CS3 vs. Elements, what I use, what is best, etc. In a nutshell, CS3 is the top of the line software for processing/manipulating your images. However, it is expensive, and Elements is a very powerful alternative that costs a lot less. It will do most of what you need for adjusting your pictures. I don't know the specifics of their differences, but I do know that many advanced amateurs still use it with great success. Hope that helps!

Robin, you asked about traveling light/safe. Good question! Every time I travel I think about it. I want to travel light, so I use three lenses, generally - a fixed wide or a zoom wide angle (16-35mm), a wide-to-short telephoto (24-105mm), and a 70-200mm or maybe my 100-400mm depending upon where I'm traveling. I'll take a teleconverter, a close-up diopter, a flash, memory cards, batteries and charger, polarizing filters, graduated ND filters, remote release, microfiber cloth, small blower bulb, rain protector. Whether a backpack or shoulder type-bag that I walk around with, I try to keep it non-descript. When I'm walking around, I keep the shoulder bag strapped across my chest. I also work with vests, or a waist belt with pouches - those are harder to take off a person! I walk with a sense of purpose, and I don't carrry everything with me all the time. In areas where I'm more worried about theft, the camera is around my neck but also in my hand and I just pay attention to my surroundings and personal space. I try to avoid walking through the middle of crowds, too and don't venture down streets that seem questionable or walk around much at night except in very public areas. In general I try to use my sixth sense about what's going on around me and how things feel.

Can't recall who, someone asked about workflow. Here's what I do.

Download pictures from Camera to laptop. Make backup to external drive. Review in Bridge, delete all unwanted images. Import into Lightroom, assigning basic keywords at that time, including copyright notice. 2nd edit in Lightroom, and rating of images using stars and color labels. Process desired images using Lightroom. Export from Lightroom to a TIFF file for further processing in Photoshop, if needed. Output to print, stock agency, web gallery, blog.