Whew, thanks all for these wonderful tips. I tried a number of things (all but this great tutorial, which I will save!) and please, don't laugh, but I found the problem. I was applying my image to the regular 2d plane, and not the leonardo guy primitive! As soon as I switched to him, the transparency worked perfectly! I didn't even realize that he was an object! Thanks for all your thoughtfulness. Tres

Fractals will always amaze me!