(popping over from THS) "Photoshop" at $50 is either 1) an illegal copy; or 2) being sold at an "educational discount" to students and their teachers (not supposed to be sold to the general public at that price); or 3) really "Photoshop Elements", which is a good program in its own right and as much Photoshop as most people can justify using. The primary differences between Photoshop Elements and full-blown Photoshop are the price and Elements' inability to use PS plugins. This will not bother any casual user. If you can visualize from a more abstract view, you might consider some of the other applications out there for 3-D gardening/landscaping (though some of the cheaper ones may be poorly-suited to Japanese Garden design), or looking for drawing software, which will allow you to create your own aerial views on a grid. Microsoft's Visio will do this; Corel Draw should do this, and there likely is shareware out there (don't have time to look right now) which also will let you plot out what you want to put where and move it around easily.

Here's another site I like, Retouch Pro. Some of you have received greeting cards over the years I've created out of photographs, using some of the tips learned at this site. When I have time (ha!) I would love to experiment with this more. I've thought of buying Paint, as I hear it is a good companion to Photoshop. Maybe when I retire. :)

I find Adobe products in general are very difficult to use...not intuitive at all. I'm a nurse...16 years in ICU using all sorts of monitors and equipment, so I don't consider myself a total dummy. I have been involved in Telephone Nursing for the past 16 years and have learned many programs to manage patient care and also to manage employees and projects. Everything I have learned has been in the office setting by osmosis or taught myself. I'm not an expert by any means, but I can catch on to programs and even write technical curriculum as needed...but Adobe...YIKES...it makes me crazy. I just had to learn a new program out of the Adobe Premier Pro CS3 over the last 2 days within a couple of hours. I built myself a guide with screenshots, but need to practice some more. Maybe after I get better with this video adaption program I will be able to use more elements in Photoshop...but I am a total hack in that program. I wish I had someone at home to show me how to use all these programs...I would be sooooo happy. But I can CROP damitall!!! LOL

Hey Squirrel! Oops, what I actually meant was the garage door that you posted on Oct 4th at 19:48, just white. (see above post). The one w/windows. Just switch the garage door on those bottom 2 you just posted to the other (and in white) and that will be the 2 I'm hoping for :) Boy, you are fast!