UPDATE, April 2011: The photos that originally accompanied this post, which I took while looking over the moon gate of this cottage as described below, were accidentally deleted from my WordPress media library, along with the photos on several months’ worth of other posts from 2009. (Don’t ask.) I have been gradually restoring the bad posts, but in some cases, I can no longer retrieve the original photos to use in my fixes. This post is one example, so I’m using images from the Zillow listing of sold properties, because I want to preserve the post for reference. The cottage sold in September 2010 for $520,000.
THERE’S NOTHING ILLEGAL about taking pictures of other people’s houses, is there, and publishing them on a blog? What about courtyards, if you have to peek over the fence to get the shot? Well, let’s hope not, because today, on a brisk stroll around the neighborhood, I saw the charming, simple courtyard, above, and had a vision for my own front yard.
I found this corner property in the Maidstone Park area awfully inspiring. It’s a bit uber-cottagey for me, but I love the concept and the execution: a moon gate, an arbor, boxwoods, a shed with French doors, and a sunny brick dining patio. There’s no driveway, just a parking pad covered with pea gravel in front of the moon gate, big enough for one SUV.
It’s all going into the mental hopper as I continue my extended decision-making process regarding a place to park the car(s) and whether/what kind of gate and fence to have at the entry (to exclude deer, or simply to provide a sense of enclosure?)
My ultimate solution will be quite different from this one (I have no need for a dining table in front of the house when I have almost half an acre in back), but the symmetry of this scheme really appeals to my orderly side.
It’s a magazine cover if I ever saw one.
casaCARA: Old Houses for Fun & Profit 
That is a really good one: it’s a great composition. A lot of design, a lot of look and an lot of money in a small space. Look a the top of those fence posts. Wow.
I’ve heard that you can snap away while you are on public property. Doesn’t mean you won’t get into trouble though. I was questioned by a security guard for taking pictures of a parking lot in downtown Atlanta. Just doing his job. I didn’t use the pictures.
Agreed. Snapping away is cool… just as long as the wonderful modernist garden you’re immortalizing isn’t in front of the FBI building in downtown NYC, or Langley or the dessicated shubbery behind Indian Point…
I think it is fine to photograph a private property, as long as you are standing in public space. I take lots of photos this way. However, I most always feel a little bit weird in the process.