My immediate response is pageplus cellular. It is a great pre-paid plan that now offers a sizable monthly prepaid for less than $40, using verizon's towers/map. However, I don't know that you can send pictures with those (the minimal plan, no-can-do, but maybe on the monthly).

My advice is to head over to the forums at HowardForums: Your Mobile Phone Community & Resource. They have the friendliest phone geeks ever and don't mind giving out rock solid advice.