Pictures folder showing 39GB for 0 items! Please help?
Since 10.6 doesn't have a Recovery HD you will want to install a second copy of the OS onto a USB drive and/or use the DVD install media to start the Mac and run Disk Utility to examine the filesystem.

Before that, make a backup of the Mac (or at least your critical files, photos, etc...) to be sure you don't make things worse. Disk Utility will sacrifice files to make the filesystem whole in some cases.

Also, you could boot into single user mode and run /sbin/fsck -fy without mounting the root filesystem as an alternative if you are comfortable with that level of sophistication with terminal.

Post back details if you get hung up or if these details aren't enough to go on.