Kernel panic message

Help! I can't get past the kernel panic message. What do I do?! Worried about my data, especially my photos.

You mean the gray message informing you to restart your computer? Chances are that if you just hold the power button and reboot, everything will be back to normal.

Or you can read this
"You need to restart your computer" (kernel panic) message appears (Mac OS X v10.5, 10.6)

As soon as I power it on the same message appears.

Let's try booting the machine in safe mode: Reboot and hold down the shift key as soon as you hear the chime (bong). Does it boot to safe mode?

Also, give us some info about your machine - year and model. Which version of OS X are you running?

Thanks for all your help. I'll try that. The problem, makes it even harder for me, my husband has my laptop in Japan right now so I'm trying to communicate with him to try all of these things.

I was able to pull up my e-receipt and this is what I found:
MacBook￿Pro￿13.3/2.4/2X2GB/250/SD

I bought it in July 2010 and I still have apple care up until July 2013.

Please excuse me, I'm pretty good with using macs and computers...however, only when they work...lol...I really have very little understanding of everything else.

I've been trying to read various articles, etc.

I know that the message appears as soon as you start it up and restarting while holding x has not worked so far. He hasn't been able to get past this screen so far

If your husband is in Japan with the MacBook and you still have Apple Care until 2013, tell him to take it to an Apple Store there. You didn't say where in Japan but there are stores in the Tokyo area and I'm sure in other large cities.

Just about everyone in Japan speaks English so he shouldn't have any difficulty with language.