You could contact me via my site if you want some step by step information about placing your very nice photos with short text beside them. Not as a volunteer though, hmmm.

As for learning about using code, the main thing I used was a free wp.com test blog where I could experiment with things I read about in books from the library, the site http://www.w3schools.com/html/default.asp, and various volunteers here now and in the past. My way is learning by experience so the test blog was very useful for me.

So I'll add some more detail and maybe looking at the html code won't be too scary for you to look at and use:

Here is what the code looks like for the tree photo in your "Pigeon" post:
<a href="http://peterdiggs.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/img_4097-2-2-3.jpg"><img class=" wp-image-824 alignright" style="margin:20px;" title="IMG_4097 2-2-3" src="http://peterdiggs.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/img_4097-2-2-3.jpg?w=430&h=386" alt="" width="430" height="386" /></a>

Breaking it into short pieces we can translate what it's saying into English.

Just like proper punctuation in English sentences, there are rules in the html language for its "sentences." Notice that this "sentence" is framed with these symbols: < to start and > to end.
<a href="http://peterdiggs.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/img_4097-2-2-3.jpg">
The "a href" part is saying there is a link. And I'm sure you can recognize the link because it begins with http:// . If you copy that part into your browser navigation bar, you will see your picture full sized.

The next "sentence" (also framed with "< "and ">") is about how your photo is to be displayed on your blog:
<img class=" wp-image-824 alignright" style="margin:20px;" title="IMG_4097 2-2-3" src="http://peterdiggs.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/img_4097-2-2-3.jpg?w=430&h=386" alt="" width="430" height="386" />

You don't really need to know the specific details, but again you can recognize the http:// link. If you put that http://peterdiggs.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/img_4097-2-2-3.jpg?w=430&h=386" into your browser's navigation bar, you will see your tree at the size it is in your post.

—>—>A neat trick is that you don't have to read all this code yourself to find where you want to paste my code which will place a short bit of text next to your picture. You can use your browser's Find feature to locate your picture. You must know the title of the picture (in this case you titled it "IMG_4097 2-2-3"). On a Mac, in Firefox and Safari, the keyboard shortcut is "command F" and I suppose on other platforms you would use "control F." The find feature is also available on your browser's menu. On Firefox it is on the "Edit" tab.

Find "4097" and notice the html "sentences." If you have a photo that doesn't link to a larger image, then there will be only one "sentence" (that being the one with "src=."

Place my code after the last > symbol.

Whew! then you can switch back to the Visual Editor and replace "YOUR_TEXT" with, well, with your text.

Here is my code to place a short bit of text next to a pic on your blog:
<p style="padding-top:25px;">YOUR_TEXT</p>

To control the space around the images, go to advanced setting and fill in the line "image properties" "vertical space" "horizontal space" with a number. Save changes.