Here we go for October.
As usual the ohter thread will stay open to allow everyone time to catch up.

This was taken in the middle of South Australia. The canola was so bright.

WOW That is amazingly *yellow* ...

Love it!

An old fashioned windmill in Vanzylsrus, South Africa, on our way to Namibia.

That could be a shot from here, Lady

This is the slide at the scout camp - it was huge!

Your photo reminds me of the mustard fields in north India, Copago.

A kookaburra

Morocco landscape

Went to the Highland wildlife park yesterday to try and get and get a photo of "Mercedes" Britain's only resident Polar bear. However it was sitting in the wrong place, and couldn't the seen from the official viewing spot so had to be taken from way to the side, presumably eating it's meal from that green barrel (you can see the drive-through road at the back, along with a few European Bison). He arrived last year, and when the first snow came, he hated it and wouldn't go outside.

Bougainvillea at the Sofitel Hotel in Marrakesh

Great pic of the bird, Copago!

Window at Yves St. Laurent's house in Marrakesh

Another helleborus from my spring garden.

I love the Polar Bear story, Mugaboo!!
Plus all the pics are great.

Here is a kid that didn't quite make it over the water obstacle ...

Just to show I can get close to animals at the Highland wildlife park, here's one of an Amur Tiger, taken through rather dirty glass I'm afraid.

I don't know how I couldn't find this thread yesterday but found it now. Hampstead Garden Suburb has paths between most of its roads which I got to know from the age of five.

Berber adobe house -- Morocco

I've just realised- I've been to Morocco on part of a cruise in 1974 and don't seem to have taken any photos there. That is very odd as I have them of everywhere else. It took me 36 years to realise that! It's strange what makes you remember something after so long.

The tiger is a beauty!

have you just been to Morocco, BHS? I'm enjoying your photos from there very much.

A good old magpie tellling the world what he thinks.

My very favourite bird!

"A good old magpie telling the world what he thinks."

There's a lot of that going on since Collingwood won the AFL Grand Final last Saturday.

Copago, I just spent 10 days in Morocco. It was a wonderful trip -- saw a lot and learned a lot.



At a rug store...

This is the last Photo I'll post from the Highland Wildlife Park, of a Markhor.

A view only a local could appreciate, and few at that. The junction of Finchley Road at Childs Hill.

Kitchen at the adobe house

This is my first attempt at posting a photo here so please don't blame me if it all goes wrong :-)



This should be a photo of a heron, taken today at a local lake in Surrey.

That looks just wonderful, trev! Great shot!

Oh Wow! And welcome to you Trev!

Great pictures from everyone. A fine introductory contribution trev1, hope there are more to come!




This is the unusual flower of Kennedia nigricans (dusky coral pea),a vigorous climber endemic to the state of Western Australia.

Haven't been "around" much for quite awhile due to family health issues, so I see I have a lot of catching up to do. Not going all the way back to May LOL, so will start with October..

Copago: Love the canola field picture. We're quite familiar with that crop here on the Canadian prairies. For over 2/3 of my life we knew it as rape or rapeseed. Apparently "somebody" decided that wasn't politically correct, so now we use the word canola instead ~. Well composed picture - I especially like the wind machines in it - shows how HUGE they must really be (compared to the large building in the foreground)!

Zorba: Cool plant/flower! Do you know what it is?

Copago (again): I've noticed you've become more "adventurous" with your photo taking of late, including macros. Love the bird pictures. Your magpie is much different than ours. I'll have to take a pic of one here (not usually a popular subject since, here, folks would rather shoot them with a weapon rather than a camera lol)

bhs: you always post lovely photos, but I REALLY love the bougainvillea one - postcard quality! Lovely colours in the rug photo as well.

Mugaboo: that's really odd about the polar bear (not just the fact that he/she doesn't like cold, but Mercedes is a ridiculous name for such a creature LOL). Was the bear a "transplant" from another zoo - like California or something? lol

Satguru: You have a good "eye". I especially like your pictures of gardens and trails - you'd be a great person to go on a walk with : )
_________________________________________

Except for one killing frost 3 weeks ago, we're having a surprisingly nice fall. I am shocked that this lady has survived this long. You don't usually see orb weavers OUT of their webs, but this girl has already done her duty by leaving behind a cradle of cold-tolerant eggs in the eaves of the garage that will hatch in the spring. This is Araneus gemmoides , nicknamed the "Jewel" spider due to the Latin name, but more commonly called the Cat-face spider. Personally I think the "face" on the top of the abodomen looks more like a devil, but maybe that's just me lol

Thank you Liz, Ren and Auntie, I'm glad you liked the heron shot.
I love looking at the different photos on these monthly threads and hope to be able to contribute.





This is an upside down photo of the lake where I chased about after the above heron.

Jakeroo, amazing detail on your spider picture, I almost want to flick it off my computer screen :-)

Auntie, lovely shot of an unusual looking flower. I love the colouring.

Jakeroo, I think zorba (Sharon's) flower shot posted October 1st is Clerodendrum paniculatum aka Pagoda Flower. It grows in India, Sri Lanka and Malaysia.

trev1, the light coloured part of my Kennedia is usually a lime/yellow, but this was paler due to gloomy weather.

YIKES, I totally missed the second page (not used to the new forum format yet I guess)

Trev1: YOWZAH on the heron. They're my favourite bird - they look (to me at least, but I'm quite an "odd sort" lol) like pterodactyls. I have plenty of pics of great blues, however, I've never gotten a good one of them flying. You DO realize that with those two pictures you've posted, that you've set an extremely high standard now, don't you? lol. Lovvvvvvve the "mirror image" (as well as the bird).

Auntie: That's a flower to die for. Looks like a bird pecking. Is that from your garden? If so, I'd kill for some seeds. I'll barter almost anything (barring dogsleds, igloos and good looking Mounties lol)

Thanks for identifying the flower, Dawn. I had no idea what it was but Pagoda flower seems like an apt name.

Beautiful photos, trev1. Welcome to the forums!

Dawn, I love seeing pictures of flowers from Australia. Some of them are so different from the ones I've seen elsewhere.

Thanks, Jake and glad to have you back though I haven't been around much myself.



The Hungarian Parliament building

Thank you Jakeroo - I agree with you herons do look like pterodactyls, particularly when flying. Herons are a great subject to try and photograph but you are right about them being difficult to capture in the air. I'll post my heron doing a pterodactyl impression, (that didn't quite work out), tomorrow.

Zorba, thank you for the welcome. Budapest looks like a beautiful city, one I've wanted to visit for a while now. Anymore Pics :-)





Today was a wonderful Autumn day, perfect for walking.
The photo trys to capture the colours of the trees with the sun shining on the turning leaves.

Thanks Jakeroo, a few people have done that very thing and come on my photographic walks, it is nicer with company and quite rare in my case.
Welcome trev, and we may overlap on locations sooner or later as I do cover Surrey as well.

Here is the River Thames at Hampton Wick looking over to Kingston.

Is that the Arboretum in your Autumn photo,Trev? I spent many a lovely day there when my mum worked at the University. Makes me wish we had more clearly marked seasons here.

This is looking the other way at Kingston Bridge with John Lewis department store behind it.

Well spotted Ren, and yes it is the Arboretum in the photo, a wonderful place to spend an afternoon. This time of year is a favourite of mine, simply for the amazing colours of the trees. Very very busy at weekends though. I'll post a photo looking down towards the lake at the Arboretum tomorrow, to show anyone who doesn't know the area.

Thank you for the welcome Satguru, I'm sure at some point I will post a shot of a location you've already posted, but that's one of the things I love about photography, you can have ten people photograph the same subject and end up with ten very different pictures, or ten photos of exactly the same thing.
I'm not too sure :-)





Another photo of my favourite heron, this time looking for lunch. I was amazed to see a fish with its head out of the water, when I reviewed the photo later.

Trev, one of my favourite topics on Flickr are seeing other people's pictures of places near me. Every one is different and some are recognisable as being a particular person's style. I like to see familiar places the most as they mean so much to me.

Compared with Old Father Thames, The Yarra River is a Cheeky Little Brother!
This is Westgate Bridge, which spans the lower reaches of the Yarra.





The span at the extreme left is the one which collapsed during construction in 1970 with the loss of 35 workmen's lives.

Lovely river pictures Auntie and Satguru.

Here is a photo of the lake, looking down towards the boat house, at the Winkworth Arboretum in Surrey.






This photo was taken a few hours ago, with about an hour of light left.

Unfortunately the heron was keeping out of my way today, but lots of ducks following me around.
Guess what's coming tomorrow :-)

A typical suburban bungalow in Golders Green

Great photos Trev ... welcome to the photo forums!
Been a tad busy here this week so have been absent.
Thanks for the comments Jakeroo - I'll be interested to see your magpies and the difference in them!

Despite losing all its paint (easily remedied) this is the first speed limit I've come across in Britain with catseyes, there are lots in the old pre 1964 design but not the pre 1953 ones like this. It's at the point where a public road joins a private road so changes back to the normal speed.

Beacon Fell, the view from the memorial garden.

Thanks Copago - I love your first picture this month, the view is amazing.

Satguru - I'm glad you managed to find and shoot the sign, there can't be too many like that around. I love the luminous green fence in your previous photo - A new trend for Golders Green? :-)

Dotb - What a beautiful view.




Today, a duck.

That fence just had to be there didn't it- two houses today had skips on the front drive as well which ruined any chance of a decent picture. It's the second rebuild on the first road though, I have a picture of the first which appears to have clad a bungalow in slate, I couldn't see but the second house in progress may actually have been demolished.

Wonderful photos, everyone. Time I joined in again!

Here are a couple of maple leaves on my front lawn, a sure sign of autumn.

A new location today. I seem to remember seeing some pictures of this area in a monthly thread a few months back, hopefully no one will mind a few more :-)



These are the steps leading from the car park up to Frensham Common in Surrey.

I found an interesting photo competition in The Times today. The challenge is to submit a photo of a great British building, bringing out the "Majesty and grandeur of the architecture".
I have not a clue how to go about photographing a grand public building in a way that stands out from the thousands of other photographs that must be taken of the same places everyday, but it sounds like a challenge. I've set part of Sunday aside to try and take a photo I can submit. I will probably post what I manage to photograph, next week.

This is true town planning in Hampstead Garden Suburb, planned and designed from scratch and reflected in the prices. A three bedroom house starts at half a million.

That is so cheap compared to Hong Kong prices. You wouldnt get much for that here.

Wow, I'm speaking to a millionaire?

Lol! I pay rent to a Billionaire!

Just a plant on a patch of dirt, but I'm kinda pleased with the result.

Taken on Frensham Common in Surrey as the sun was starting to set, my favourite time of day for walking and taking pictures.

I know someone on Flickr who likes topiary pictures so knew she'd be very pleased to see this one I came across near the last picture.

Another view of Frensham Common, this time from the top of the hill.

Beautiful houses, David. They're exactly how I imagined British houses to look like when I read books set in the UK as a child.


Inside the Hard Rock Cafe at Mumbai. This was taken early in the evening before the crowds came in.

Hi all, I'm new to the forums. Here's my King Charles Spaniel having a laugh.

Oh yeah, they apparently hate Water. Cuddah fooled me haha!

Very nice and welcome strumtstrummer. I don't know how it happens but the dog in this picture went straight in the river after its ball after I took this of Hampton Court.
The houses in the last photo are architect designed between about 1910 and 1935 and are the idealised versions of the best of the British houses but most are pretty ordinary everywhere else.

I gave my cats the treat of exploring the crawlspace under my house.
Mishka returned with his head draped in sticky grey cobwebs.

Great pictures everyone. Welcome strumtstrummer, your dog is having a lovely time, superbly photographed.
Auntie - your cat is adorable.





This is a view across Frensham little pond.

What lovely photos - I do not know how you gauge the colour saturation, but these photos are all spot on! A very talented group of photographers here.

strumtstrummer , please check your PMs.

strum: You're new here - welcome! Your enthusiasm is most refreshing and the
exuberance of your dog made me laugh out LOUD (honestly) at every picture of the obvious joy.
Don't let the "rules" thing discourage you from future posting - if you have a "series" of
pictures that are connected, you can always post one of them in each of successive days.
I personally enjoyed the pix immensely - hope to see more of your submissions soon : )

trev: I've never seen a more blue heron in all my life. Nice capture!
Also loved the autumn colours. Here in Alberta the seasons change rather abruptly.
A zillion leaves one day and bare trees the next. In many years, it's not really "fall",
but rather a "thud" LOL

QQ: wow, you SHOULD be pleased with that picture. The plant looks like it could start
MOVING at any time - sort of reminds me of "Little Shop of Horrors" for some reason : )

Auntie: cute pic of the cat. My Zoe's VERY fluffy tail quite often finds the dust
bunnies my vacuum fails to notice lol

Copago: I'm laughing about the magpies. They're here in my yard every day, but I
still haven't caught one in flight yet. Am working on it though.

Satguru: am a big fan of topiary myself. I'll endeavour to find some of the ones
I've taken. Your friend might like them as well.

Okay, finally found my heron picture. It was taken in Southern California, but I can't
remember whether it was near Balboa Park or at the Quail Botanical Gardens.
At any rate, it's a wild bird, not a zoo exhibit. And no, it's not stuffed, nor is it
missing a leg ...

Jakeroo - Brilliant heron shot, I'm so pleased you found that one to post, the light and focus is perfect.
We've had a very mild autumn so far and most of the leaves are still up on the trees, the autumn sunshine is making for some good photo opportunities when time allows.

You've also given me an excuse to post another heron photo.



This is a new heron for me, taken on the weekend at a small lake behind a local garden centre.

Well caught there Trev, if that's not a DSLR I'd like to know what you took it with. For engineering fans (there must be one or two?) this is the lock over the river Mole at Molesey

Thanks Satguru and yes I use a Canon 550d ( I think in other parts of the world may be called a Canon Rebel).





Sometimes you just get lucky, I was out for about 20 minutes today and a rainbow became visible for less than half a minute. I was passing the only spot on my walk that had an unobstructed view, 10 seconds sooner or later and I would have missed it.

Trev, I'm drooling. I so want a Canon Rebel myself...

Beautiful pics all. I've been laid up all week with sciatica, just here for a quick visit.

Some fall color in Pennsylvania

Beautiful pictures, everyone

Trev, that photo with the rainbow is amazing!

I hope you feel better soon, Liz!

Lots of big pumpkins

Done. Sorry folks I forgot it was A photo a day.


Anyway that's sorted and thank you all very much for the kind weclome and comments.


Just spotted this today. Funguy!

Thanks StrumTstrummer! That's a fantastic shot too!

Thank you Minkpenny, I was very fortunate to get that rainbow.

Liz - I've had the camera since late August and would definitely recommend it. It's my first DSLR and I only use it in auto mode but it does all I hoped it would do.
I hope you're feeling better soon.

Bhs, those pumpkins are incredible, I wish they sold them like that over here.

Strum, "Just spotted this today. Funguy!" LOL





Last Sunday afternoon was spent in London trying to take a photo of a grand building for a newspaper competition. I soon worked out it is not as easy as it sounds. Here was my attempt at St. Paul's Cathedral.

A herd of 30+ elephant at the water hole in Etosha National Park, Namibia.



I wanted a little one but they said NO!

Beautiful photo, trev. The building really looks grand in your shot.

Lady1, that photo is just awesome.

Apples for sale

The elephants are wonderful!

I took this with my mobile phone in Belgium

your PHONE took that picture?? ... wow, I really need to update mine lol

Thanks Zorba.
Lovely photo Karusa, & your strawberry picker shot on the other thread is amazing.
Lady, love those elephants.



There have been reports of a giant seagull hanging around Tower bridge.

This is the result of the "Save the Guildford Hotel - Sock It To 'Em" campaign. This is just a small segment of the fence.

A sign on the opposite side of the street says: "If you think it stinks that the Guildford Hotel is still without a roof, two years after the fire, express your frustration and disgust and tie a sock onto the fence outside the hotel. September 1st is the second anniversary of the fire so let's make it Socktember. Thanks for your support."



The Guildford Hotel is a beautiful historic hotel which was gutted by a fire in September 2008. We keep hearing about plans for restoration but nothing is happening. Meanwhile, without a roof, the beautiful wooden panels, staircases, etc are being ruined by the weather. It dates back to 1883 and it is heritage-listed.

The funny thing is that there have been quite a number of heritage-listed buildings in Perth which have been the subject of similar mysterious fires. Typically, the owners will apply to do renovations, the Heritage Council will knock them back, or put lots of obstacles in their way, then there is a mysterious fire when there is nobody on the premises and nobody is hurt, but the damage is so substantial that the building has to be renovated anyway - or demolished, with the result that the owners can redevelop the land. It's the strangest phenomenon (LOL).

These two cheetahs were enjoying life in a secure game park on the Garden Route in South Africa

Just a nice bright autumn day here today.

I wasn't planning it but sent the photo of Hampton Court to The Times as well, you may as well have a go. It's actually literally on the border of London but they all count.
This is the park at the top of my road, but although you can see it you can't get in as they didn't leave a gap between the houses so a much longer walk. That's typical of British lack of planning sense.

Any more famous Tudor landmarks?

Good luck with the competition Satguru.

SOTHC your photo of the cheetahs is incredible.




Taken today at Windsor Castle, according to the signs the Queen is in residence this weekend.

This is my first attempt to post a photograph so hopefully it will work.A typical autumnal photo really,but very colourful.I love this time of year.
{Edited by Ren to get it to show up I just put [img] tab around your photo url, as per the instructions at the head of this forum. It's a lovely picture well done. (and welcome ))

Thank you for your help Ren,I'll try again but I can't post every day unfortunately.

Lol! No one is expecting you to! Just stay around and post when you can.

Nice photo and welcome to the Photo Forum Boris.

This lioness was in the Kruger National Park

Flowers from a family wedding

Taken last Saturday afternoon, a view of the Long Walk, stretching from the back gates of
Windsor Castle to the top of Snow Hill.

Trev, can I just say I'm thoroughly enjoying your pictures. This last one you posted is amazing! What a beautiful place.

A bit late in the year maybe (and in life?) but I've suddenly got an interest in gardening.
Nothing too fancy though, I'm starting small to lessen disappointment if it doesn't go as
planned. One of my first attempts is this heather plant. Hard to find somewhere that will
get enough sun in the garden but I've chosen the best place I could see. Fingers crossed.


(BTW It's clearly not lucky heather, I missed my step & sprained my ankle a few days after planting
it. I have pictures of the ankle too if anyone's interested. Lovely autumnal coloUrs. )

(Editted to try to get a less out-of-focus photo. Failed. )

The wedding cake - the happy couple are a Policeman and teacher and owners of a chocolate lab

Thank you Minkpenny I'm glad you like the photos, I'm having fun posting them :-)




Another heron photo, my favourite subject at the moment.

A year after they vanished this Woolworths sign remains, the lights are on but literally there's no one there. Such a shame, I still used them when I could find someone to take my money.

Good interesting photo Satguru, I'm still sad about the demise of Woolworths. The shops for some reason used to remind me of childhood, but the real sad thing was the holes they left in many High Streets, big and small, when they closed.



We've been having some wind and rain over the last couple of days but on a positive note it seems to have brought the chestnuts down to earth.

Thanks Trev. A typical London Underground station forecourt in Hendon Central. The line's overground here as so many are but more are not hence the name.

Glad to see some places still have red squirrels, ours have been forced into the edges of the country now.

These advertising signs are very common in many countries but very rare here due to strict planning law. Two together is almost unheard of. I think they brighten up the major roads although not everyone would agree. I think that's a seagull on the lamppost next to them.

That looks nice and peaceful, trev.

Can anyone identify this flower?

Zorba - it's a wonderful place to to sit and ponder the world :-)
Sorry I can't be any help with the flower, but a lovely picture of it though.



Autumn colour.

More trees from me as well, a nice suburban road in Golders Green

Siuch wonderful photos. Thank you to everyone for posting them. I've been so busy lately that I haven't had time to take photos let alone post them but today it is raining so that means a day inside playing and I finally took some pics ...

of rain!

That, Zorba, is an ornamental cabbage, as you might expect. There are several sorts and very lovely too.

Following my first attempt to post an image and messing up here goes again.I guess if first you don't succeed.......
This is a photo of Singapore harbour taken from the cable car that links the city to Sentosa Island.Hope it works.

edit by copago .. see if it works now!

The link you posted works (nice pic, by the way!), but the way that you have posted it is not quite right somewhere.

Edited- I think it must be the closing bracket after that last IMG. Try editing it in and see what happens.

Ozz was correct - it just needed the last bracket on the IMG .. great shot!

Thanks ozzz and copago,hopefully I'll get posting pics right yet.
By the way the two lines in the top left corner are the cables carrying the cars across the harbour.I decided not to edit those out though perhaps it would have improved the photograph.

Ren is correct -- flowering cabbage plant. Latin name is Brassica oleracea var. acephala

Taken from an apple orchard near Thomas Jefferson's Monticello. Down to the right is the city of Charlottesville, VA and the beautiful Blue Ridge mountains in the background.

Great photos everyone. Boris that is some view and I think the cables add to the photo no need to remove them :-)
bhs that's an impressive view.



I stumbled across this little chap today, I'm not too good when it comes to the names of fungi but looking at a book I think it's called Fly Agaric (Amanita Muscaria), but I stand to be corrected.

Thanks, Ren and Bhs. I've only seen the vegetable kind before.

For some reason that toadstool reminded me of Noddy.

Happy Halloween!

We were having a nice lunch in a restaurant when one of these flew in and sat on the back of the chair. I didn't have my camera ready but I found out where they were nesting and managed to get a few shots.

Just returned from a brief holiday with my daughter and grandson. This was the view from our window. Kangaroos grazed on the grass in the late afternoon.

Nice shot, SOTHC!



The chapel inside St. Joseph's Oratory, Montreal.

Where was that shot taken, Auntie?

Water off a ducks back.

MotherGoose, my last photo was taken at Hall's Gap in The Grampians National Park. We stayed at the YHA, an eco-designed building along the main road. Very pleasant but inexpensive accommodation, kangaroos grazing on the lawn, free-range chooks pecking about, pick your own herbs to use in the communal kitchen.
I'm not too happy with my photo results, but will post some over the next few days.

Well, the time has come to change to a new month's thread. The pictures for October were , as usual,outstanding. Thanks to you all. I will leave this one open for a few hours , while opening a new one for November, Thanks again , all.