WOLFCODERS ScreenSnag is a free screen capture tool with some useful automation features.

The program supports the usual capture types - full screen, window, element within a window, or freehand rectangle - and can copy them to the clipboard, or save them as a file.

The "Options" pane is the highlight here, as the program can automatically scale the image, add a border or a predefined caption with any combination of date, time, computer and user name.

The Timer option is probably the most interesting. Turn it on, choose an interval (5 seconds, say), click Capture, and the program keeps grabbing and saving images until you tell it to stop.

Once you've configured the program to suit your needs, the various settings can be saved as a "profile". This allows you to create one group of settings for timed captures, another to (for example) grab and scale a window, then quickly recall them later.