Thanks Don for letting me know which photos are your favorites. I know it's all in the eye of the beholder, but I like hearing other people's opinions. Photo #5 is Abiqua Drinking Gourd. I'm not that much into cupped hosta, but I think this hosta is special. Your black and white photo is beautiful! I, like Jo, am wondering which hosta that is. It is definitely a great choice for black and white photography. Thanks for adding your photo---and please do include more if you have them. Thank you for adding that you are a fan also. I appreciate that.

interesting topic...i work in several capacities in tv and print production. depending on the budget, i am sometimes styling things. here's my two cents worth: as for tips, there are so many different approaches, depending on what the point of the picture is, but i will do my best to lay out the things we address no matter what. 1)the first thing i think about is color. how can i bring this color all the way through the shot? fresh flowers in colors that pick up your accent colors. books and magazines in your accent colors. 2)lighting-- accent lighting, uplights, dimmers, warm bulbs. the makeover rooms you see on tv are always lit really dramatically, with professional lights. after the crew take the lights down, the room has lost some of its pop. you can recreate this to a degree with careful attention to lighting. 3) dramatic plant (usually palm or bamboo) with uplight for shadows. 4) as someone mentioned here, layers...everything is layered in color and texture. 5) mood. props are chosen to create the overall mood of the room.in our own homes, we live in these rooms so moods/purpose of the room shifts with the needs of the family. 6) large props (such as floral arrangement, bigger is better for drama) or groups of collections cleanly placed, with no surrounding clutter. 7) reflective/glowing surfaces, but no stark white things in foreground. mirrors to reflect light from opposite window or chandelier. 8) in photo shoots and sometimes in tv, we have the luxury of selecting the shot. we have full editorial decision over what angle the viewer will see it from and where we will crop the image, so we can pick the foreground and background carefully. good shot composition has a focal point and leads the eye somewhere definite. color that leads the eye from left to right around the room, landing spots for the eye and an invitation to enter and explore (focal point, obscuring full view but leaving enough to draw eye forward). 9) photoshop a great background out of the windows. take out anything that doesn't work. change rain to sunshine in bg. etc. What is really interesting to me is that i also spent some time as a designer for custom homes (home designs, not interior design) and the same principles were employed in that line of work. Sarah Susankah's books talk a lot about the ideas of light and focal points, but with a practical bent. i find it so amazing that i can see exactly what to do for others or on set, but in my own home, it takes me years to make up my mind about a darn wall color. perhaps that goes to purpose-- at work i know what the point of the shot is, but at home, the point of the room is always changing and i need it to be so much more than perfect at one moment. i also think i get used to seeing things at home and overlook all of the tings that would horrify me if i saw them on set. maybe that is why seeing pictures of our rooms can be so helpful. furniture placement is always the killer for me. it's so much easier on a set, when you have been preparing for one shot for two weeks and you can clear everything that doesn't work out of the room. and you have a talented crew who can make anything you dream up happen!

Sydney, Any news? Did you get a new camera? September 26 is day to mark. Why? Photokina will start that day. Photokina is a large convention in where all the camera companies show off the new lines, makes, and models. Some companies are already making announcements of what they will be showing. I see your price range and there are a lot of good cameras in that range. It seems that to meet your expectations you might look into getting a camera that allows you have manual controls over the camera. Do you want to stay with Point and Shoot or would you like to move to the DSLR range? Some things to think about: a P&S camera is compact and it easier to part from if you move on to another camera. If you go the DSLR route, you are just not buying a camera, you are buying into a system. Unless you have money to throw around you will most likely keep that camera a lot longer. You will have to buy lenses for the camera body. In most cases the lens can cost as much, or near, as the camera body. Therefore you find yourself dedicated to that company. There are some very nice entry level DSLRs out there. Nikon had the D50, I played with it for a while, but I decided to pass. I had the Canon XT Rebel, but I fell in love with the Olympus E500 so I gave the Canon to my wife. I can expand later if you want on these cameras if you want more info. Check dpreview.com you can find just about any camera there and it has customer ratings as well. Unfortunately, the best advice I can give you right now is when it comes to cameras, most salesman at retail stores donÂt have a clue, honestly, they donÂt. So donÂt listen to them. I get angered at times when I hear them make recommendations based solely on the amount of megapixels a camera has. This is just FYI but my current cameras are: P&S - Canon PowerShot 620, Olympus SP 500 UZ DSLR - Canon 300D XT/ Rebel, Olympus E500, Olympus E1 Zitro

Yes, that is exactly where we started with Les' arrangement--except there would not be enough space behind the sectional for the bookcase as it would put the sectional too close to the TV. The room is only 17' long. It did not work for us--as we are a family of five with two teenagers and there was too much contention for seating when watching the TV. Having it this way so we have an extra chair facing the TV works so much better and when we had friends over for Thanksgiving who'd been here before we switched it commented how much more spacious it felt. It's hard to tell from the pictures, but the kitchen table really is quite close to the family room so putting any furniture in the middle closes everthing in and makes for awkward walkways. Here's a couple before shots so you can see what I mean: I tried the sectional as Johna had suggested earlier, while it looked better, unfortunately the sectional is not oriented best for that (there are two pieces that butt up to the back wall) and would just come apart (think teens that are not overly gentle on the furniture and like to lounge here)--so reality having it pushed against the wall is the most practial solution. We just had the electrican over two weeks ago to get the cable moved. I tried moving the bookcase down further, but it looked squished since part of it looked like it was hidden by the console/TV and it's so pretty that I want it to be visable from the kitchen area. I could probably center it under the window, though if I remove the floor lamp--which is a possibility since we do have recessed lighting for this room. So, no one is liking the dried flowers from Michael's? I need to go there later today so am wondering if I should return them or not.