OK ... I confess I don't see this every morning, but this is what my window looks like when I'm not on the net:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v294/ooompaloompa123/Otway/bnw/gardens/front_1317.jpg

And here's what it looks like outside the front door:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v294/ooompaloompa123/Otway/bnw/gardens/frontdoor_1178.jpg

Yes, it's a garden ... well a garden of sorts. Anyway, here's a few photos I've taken- all on my own place- which aren't very architectural. The only sykscrapers here are mountains! It is, after all, a general photography thread.

Ahhh, the maples!:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v294/ooompaloompa123/Otway/bnw/gardens/jpmpl_2458.jpg

And the oaks!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v294/ooompaloompa123/Otway/bnw/gardens/scarlet4833.jpg

The way to the vegetable garden ...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v294/ooompaloompa123/Otway/bnw/gardens/qnst_v_5064.jpg

goes past the beloved Golden Elm:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v294/ooompaloompa123/Otway/bnw/gardens/elm4828.jpg

down here, hydrangeas grow like weeds

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v294/ooompaloompa123/Otway/bnw/gardens/hydq_1886.jpg

and the horses come to eat them.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v294/ooompaloompa123/Otway/bnw/gardens/horses1648.jpg

En route, more oaks and maples:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v294/ooompaloompa123/Otway/bnw/gardens/IMG_2236.jpg

A holly and a fir.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v294/ooompaloompa123/Otway/bnw/gardens/holly_4834.jpg

Further down the valley, the last remaining really big willow:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v294/ooompaloompa123/Otway/bnw/gardens/bigwil_2002_2840.jpg

sits in the shadow of those who died before ...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v294/ooompaloompa123/Otway/bnw/gardens/deadtrees_P0000673.jpg

But for every new-born child, there arises a new tree , with a sacred song ...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v294/ooompaloompa123/Otway/bnw/gardens/langsams_4866.jpg

and the forest rises:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v294/ooompaloompa123/Otway/bnw/gardens/westhill_5069.jpg

Once again.

This is Australia: of course there are innumerable eucalypts:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v294/ooompaloompa123/Otway/bnw/gardens/gums_P0000688.jpg

but quite a few were sacrificied, for firewood, and for these small trees:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v294/ooompaloompa123/Otway/bnw/gardens/uphill_4801.jpg

Much larger now. Beeches here are a rarity, that may be hard to understand in the northern hemisphere.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v294/ooompaloompa123/Otway/bnw/gardens/beech0008.jpg

Down here, what aspired to be a complete collection of auracarias ... you know, the monkey-puzzle tree and its relatives: here's a Norfolk Island pine:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v294/ooompaloompa123/Otway/bnw/gardens/auracaria_2450.jpg

New growth on the maples:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v294/ooompaloompa123/Otway/bnw/gardens/spring_1323.jpg

The Gleditsia which forms part of the circle of trees commemorating the death of my Mother ...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v294/ooompaloompa123/Otway/bnw/gardens/gleditsia_2235.jpg

And a revisiting of the front window, in a lesser light.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v294/ooompaloompa123/Otway/bnw/gardens/frontwindow_1367.jpg


All my own place, I swear.

Cool.

dream~~~~~~~~~~~

Really nice :)

Thought I might add a few more photos to this thread ... my website (www.users.bigpond.com/potaroo) is going to be deleted tonight, and someone has asked me where else they can find photos.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v294/ooompaloompa123/Otway/bnw/kangafern_5766.jpg

Valley mist:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v294/ooompaloompa123/Misc/bnw/fog_1613.jpg

Right now it's early spring here, blossom time:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v294/ooompaloompa123/Otway/bnw/blossom_5772.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v294/ooompaloompa123/Otway/bnw/blossom_5801.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v294/ooompaloompa123/Otway/bnw/blossom_5793.jpg

nice

Wow! These are really amazing pictures. At first I thought you manipulated them with Photoshop. Can you share any photography tricks you have? I love taking pictures of nature however my friend tells me that my pictures are flat. I am not sure what exactly he means but... because of this I am just trying to learn how to photoshop.