Is there a simple setting to get a nice ajax display of the photos, instead of having them open in separate page?
Just like ZenPhoto has on this page
http://www.zenphoto.org/themes.php when you click on a theme image

Many of the themes on that page support that same effect. Look for the term "lightbox" or just check out some of them. Tricasa also has some pretty cool effects.

ok great thanks for the response... I thought it might have been a setting somewhere, didn't think it was part of the theme