NYTimes Year in Pictures: good pix, novel UI

The NYTimes has posted its 2007: The Year in Pictures collection, and of all the pix collections I've seen so far, this one is getting closest to a true navigate-as-you-wish interface.

GOOD:

• The collection is divided into nine groups with thumbnails for each on the main page
• Each group of photos can be thumbnailed and scanned (although this isn't the default setting)
• Captions for each photo (toggle on/off)
  
• For those that care, there's a soundtrack for each group (toggle on/off)
  

NOT-SO-GOOD:

• No way to see the entire collection as a set of thumbnails
• Default presentation forces the slideshow into full-screen mode
• "Drag photos to scan thumbnails" interface is nonstandard and feels weird
• Where are the links to the accompanying stories?

Overall, however, I'm impressed with the work of the crew listed in the credits: Josh  Haner, Lisa Iaboni, Tom Jackson, Sarah Kramer and Meaghan Looram

Maybe the IHT photo folks can learn from the NYT team?