Pictures only ever report themselves as being uploaded by user_id 1

There is no userid 1.

here's what I assumed would be the relevant section of code

from pictures_controller

    params[:picture].merge!({:user_id => current_user}) 

@picture = @item.pictures.build(params[:picture])</code>

and here is the same section from comments_controller

    params[:comment].merge!({:user_id => current_user.id})
    @comment = @item.comments.new(params[:comment])

oh, that's pretty obvious now that I mentionit

-Graeme