I have been using both SCC and SCD for several hours. One thing I am getting is while SCD allows you to hone in minutiae, it leaves out several simple abilities. I understand that I am only tweaking themes here, but wouldn't it be easier if we could do simple HTML tasks like embed pictures (other than logos) or incorporate things like a slide show (using CC photo Gallery of course ) I admit I am new here and I am still getting used to the shopping cart programs...am I missing something?

You can embed pictures and other html sources. Take a look at the html tool.

I spent an hour, but I can't get the path to insert a photo that ironically is only a place holder. Any tips?

Paste this into your page for testing. It should work.

And work it did! I just have to get used to relative/absolute syntax

You can use relative if you like. I like using absolute for testing then change it after I get the results I want.