autofantasia's photos with the keyword: garden

Following on from the shots I took for this week's Sunday Challenge I thought some of you might enjoy seeing this panorama of the first walled garden at Thornton Hall. Created from 11 individual images and stitched together in Photoshop it gives a good idea of what this great place is like to visit. Please view large for best effect or better still go to See All Sizes where you can select from various options. The original file was absolutely massive as is the case with these creations, so I created a smaller JPEG version for uploading, but even that is fairly big at 18,527 x 4,520 and is over 57 MB in size. So you may well need to zoom out on your browser a little bit to find a happy medium of detail and viewability. www.thorntonhallgardens.co.uk

For this week's Sunday Challenge , for which the subject was rain , which to be honest we've not had an awful lot of this summer. Thankfully, on the day my wife and I had planned to visit Thornton Hall Gardens on the outskirts of Darlington it was somewhat overcast and we did indeed get some rain. Nothing that heavy mind you, more drizzle than anything else, but sufficient to add some moisture to the plants. The garden in question was open for charity, something they do several times a year, and it is well worth visiting. So much so that we actually went twice this week as we found there was so much to see that the initial half-day we'd allocated wasn't sufficient to get around and do everything justice. In addition to the gardens they have a small tea room and sell a limited number of plants, many of which they themselves have grown. So, if you like your gardens, are ever in the area and fancy supporting a few good causes at the same time I can thoroughly recommend a visit. You will find a few more of the images that I took for this challenge in the Notes should you care to check them out and if you want to learn more about Thornton Hall Gardens please follow the link below: www.thorntonhallgardens.co.uk Please view on black for best effect.

For this week's Sunday Challenge , for which we were asked to find an S-curve . We were told if we were really struggling we could simply photograph the letter S , but ideally we were to find something that resembled the S-curve . Sounded straightforward, but when it came to getting a suitable subject like many I found it to be a more difficult challenge than it first appeared. In the end I managed to come up with a couple, both taken this week at Newby Hall in North Yorkshire. This ornate bit of stonework was found on a wall within the grounds, whilst the one in the Notes is of a Willow tree that I noticed had a bizarre S-like twist to the trunk. Apologies for the late posting and being behind with comments, but the Bank Holiday weekend has been very busy ... so a big thank you to Chris for keeping the 'door' open so that I could still post an entry this week!

Another one taken recently at Newby Hall in North Yorkshire. I was admiring one of the many large conifers when I spotted this intruder, which appeared to have spotted an opportunity to take up residence in the upper canopy. Ran it through the 'processing room' to try and emphasise the small, but beautiful stowaway, which I hope you'll enjoy seeing as much as I did. Please view on black for best effect.

Some hosta plants as encountered recently at Newby Hall in North Yorkshire. I liked the unexpected and random addition of the solitary pink petal. Please view on black for best effect.

Taken at Beningbrough Hall, a large Georgian mansion which is near the village of Beningbrough, North Yorkshire. The building, now owned by the National Trust, is around 300 years old and overlooks the River Ouse. This rusted artwork was spotted on an old lawn roller leaning up against the outer wall of the main gardens. It was located within the centre of the handle no doubt to add strength as well as beauty. Sadly, time has taken its toll on the metalwork.

Taken for this week's Sunday Challenge for which we were told: "an easy one ... do what you like this week as long as there is a fence in your shot". Mine was taken whilst out cycling around town, something I try to do at least 3 times a week, and is of some clematis I spotted spilling over and growing through someone's back fence. I did also look out a few from the archives that I've never got around to uploading, but in the end this one won me over. Hit z to view large and see if it wins you over too! In a month there will be purple stars on the clematis, and year after year the green night of its leaves will hold its purple stars. But we never get back our youth. Oscar Wilde: The Picture of Dorian Gray

As regular visitors to my photostream will know, I struggled greatly with last week's Sunday Challenge , which had the theme of high key . Thankfully, I found this week's challenge of low key much less stressful. And whereas last week I introduced you all to Gerald The Dinosaur, this week it's the turn of Harry The Owl who is one of three metal owls that make up an ornamental sculpture to be found in our back garden. He's the furthest to the right of the trio - hence him being called Harry ... the other two then are, as you may have guessed, called Tom and Dick. I took the shot outside after 10.00pm last night once it had got dark - heaven knows what the neighbours would have thought if they saw me. I had the camera on a tripod and for a change worked with manual settings throughout ... even the focus! As for the key light that was a small pocket torch that I had positioned to my right hand side behind a small board of MDF so as to stop any light spilling onto the foliage behind where I'd positioned Harry. Best of all as far as I'm concerned is that I've posted this pretty much as it came out of the camera. The only 'work' done on it was a slight crop and I 'dodged' the white in his eyes just a smidgen as I felt they were a little flat. So, there you go, not quite SOOC, but pretty damned close!

Well, it's Friday again and the weekend is looming so I thought I'd upload something a little different. This time around a colourful macro with warmer and hopefully sunnier days in mind.