The impact of the spontaneously hanging Vicky in the picture of Barnabas and Carolyn was considerably lessened by the fact that this Vicky was a new model, not yet seen by the viewers. It would help if we could have previously seen another picture of Vicky III. Maybe Carolyn could have been sighing over a photoshopped (60's style) picture of Vicky III with Elizabeth.
Before the photograph was developed, had Quentin decided to give up and let the kids go to Boston? Amy didn't seem at all heartbroken over the thought. She is such a strange child.
I think this was to have been Barnabas's first look at 20th century Boston. He wouldn't have recognized the place! It's not just that the buildings have changed, but also more than a thousand acres of land have been filled in since the 1700s - some of it from the hills right in the middle of Boston. Imagine going to San Francisco and discovering that the bay had been filled in with land taken from Telegraph Hill.