Tag Archives: nature wallpaper

Nature wallpaper

As expressed in an earlier guest post, having the ability to change out your computer’s wallpaper is a way to express yourself, and to maybe have a window to another world while you are stuck being a desk jockey.

There are many sites to find quality nature wallpaper images for your computer, especially some fantastic pictures of animals,  so I thought I would visit many and see what I liked, and what I did not like, about the different sites out there. This is far from a comprehensive list, but is an overview of several, and I did find significant differences between them.

For me, the best sites for nature wallpaper need to have (or not have) several things. First, the site needs to offer good quality images. This is generally something that they all do as there are many great nature photographers out there. However, it is not always clear where the sites get their images that they offer to you.

In addition to good images, there should be diversity. Does the site live up to its promise of offering diversity in the images? For example, at least one of the sites I looked at had long lists of categories of images, with several categories having no pictures. No doubt a work in progress, but if they don’t have the images, maybe they are ahead of themselves in having the category posted.

Finally, are they luring me to their site with the promise of great images only to bombard me with tons of ads and pop-ups? I really hate that and will never suggest a site to you if they look “spamy.”

Using these general guidelines, I created a subjective rating scale of 1-5, with five being the best quality sites, and 1 being the worst (sites with a 0 triggered my McAfee warning, and so are worse than not-recommended). Here are the sites and my rankings (in no particular order):

National Geographic
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/wallpaper/download
Overall rating: 5
How can you do better than the photography at National Geographic? Amazing photographs made available to you without a lot of outside ads. You do get lots of NG ads, but that is understandable. In addition to photographs from the magazines, users can upload and share their photos too. You can create an account and collect images that you like. A great photographic resource.

Flickr.com/explore/
Overall rating: 5
Flickr (by Yahoo) is a photography-lover’s site where people can post and share their images. This site is a goldmine if you are looking for great, high quality, and diverse images for your desktop. Because it contains images of people who just love photographs, there are no annoying ads to wade through. However, many of the images are for sale, and you should respect the copyright policies that are listed there. But for getting unusual images for free to spice up your desktop and workspace, this site and Picasa web, get the highest rating.

Picasaweb.google.com
Overall rating: 5
Picasa web is Google’s version of photography sharing, and all of the same can be said for it as was said for Flickr–great images available to you for free for your enjoyment. The same caveats apply, respect the copyright wishes of the photographers and do not use for commercial purposes without permission. But both sites have fantastic images, with more added all the time.

Polar bears

Naturewallpaper.net
Overall rating: 3
This site would have rated higher except for the annoying pop-up ad when you first enter, and the flashing ads throughout. If you can ignore them, some of the images here are very good. They offer images in different resolutions for different sized monitors, which is nice. If you look hard enough (around the big banner ad at the top) you can find links to see the highest rated images and most popular, but you do have to navigate around ads.

Ladybird beetle

http://www.free-naturewallpaper.com/
Overall rating: 4
This site came to myattention based upon a comment below, and I am glad it did. This is a good quality site for images. The image quality is variable, but there are many categories well defined and organized, and while there are ads on the site, they are not too distracting. I note that they also have a donate button, and given that we all need to make a bit to cover the daily coffee bill, I would rather give a small donation that way than have more ads. So, by all means, if you take a little, leave a little.

naturewallpaper.eu
Overall rating: 3
About 13 broad categories of images. The site is clean without too many ads, however some of the linked sites are a bit more spamy, so you might avoid them. I really like that they offer images in different resolutions for different sized monitors. Images nice quality, but not a huge number available.

http://freewallpapers.to/
Overall rating: 3
Another clean-looking site. This site has fewer categories overall, but more diversity. For example, this site has space images, fine art, and digital art. However, their overall collection of nature-themed images is not huge. And, the images are broken into “animal wallpapers” and “nature wallpapers,” so it is a bit harder to navigate I think.

thewallpapers.org/nature/index.php
Overall rating: 1
This site crashed my browser several times. There are multiple pop-up ads. It is not always clear when you click on something in the site that you are going to get re-directed to another site. In short, stay away.

natureondesktop.com
Overall rating: 2
Nice images, but navigation in the site is difficult. Could not find easy categories for sorting of images.

Preying mantis on a stick

natureswallpaper.blogspot.com
Overall rating: 4
This site has more of a “home-grown” feel, like the person putting up the images shot most of them personally. While they are all nice, many do not have that “professional” look, which is actually nice. There are just a few categories of images listed across the top of the home page. Spending a bit of time digging through the site will likely result in finding some treasures. I personally found the number of flashing ads and scrolling images when you first open the site a bit annoying, and it almost cost the site a rating point from me (that will teach ‘em).

Grizzly bear

animalwallpaper.info
Overall rating: 4
Nice clean site with quality images of wildlife. Many categories listed, but there are often few, or even no, images in each one. For example, there is one image in the “Gerenuk” category (I had to look that up, it is a species of antelope found in East Africa).But there are no images in the Beetles category, a subject that several of the other sites cover well. The site gets a rating of 4 for ease of navigation, but almost got a 3 for such problems.

Brittle Star

jeffreymunro.com/amazingpics/main.php
Overall rating: 5
The author of this site states that he was tired of visitng wallpaper sites and being bombarded by ads (amen), so he created this site. It is clean and ad-free which is refreshing. There are several main categories of images, with the dominate style being landscapes. I found few images of animals, and those were underwater shots. Some very nice pictures and a great place for landscapes.

Elitesavers.com
Overall rating: 0
This site triggered my McAfee warning. Avoid.

So, there you have it. Hope this is useful to you.

Other related posts:
Nature wallpaper for fun
Outdoor wallpapers for your PC

Outdoor wallpapers for your PC

I am so thrilled by my PC wallpaper. I am stuck in a high-rise office and deal with computer work and people. The outdoor PC wallpaper allows me to take mini vacations.

I cannot take the time to go to the nearest park which is too far away. I cannot spend the time wandering on the grass, feeling the earth beneath my feet, breathing in the flower scented air and seeing the trees stretch over head with long protective branches.

With the outdoor wallpaper I can have some of those sensations. One of the scenes is a forest scene with stately trees and the sun creeping down through the branches. Just the calm colors of the greens and browns can relax me. When I look at the picture, the details are so real I almost expect to see the blades of grass move in the wind. If I close my eyes and take a deep breathe, I can almost smell the scent of the damp musky earth at the base of the trees. For 30 seconds I can wander through the forest listening for the birds and feel the sun caressing my face when I move through a patch of sunlight.

When I come back to the office I am ready to deal with the next problem or issue, the next telephone call, and the next coworker with a request. Because I had that time, I am able to ground myself and to refocus on what I need to do to help my coworkers, my boss, my company and myself.

The other PC wallpaper is the ocean. It is a rocky beach with gentle waves curling around the boulders. The ocean is darker than the blue sky and the movement of the water with the darker blues and purples bring to mind tides coming in and leaving. With this one I can almost smell the salt water and feel the breezes playing with my hair.

I have to wonder what about these mini vacation that so rest me and restores me. Is it the scenes themselves and the memories they bring or the peaceful colors of this outdoor wallpaper? Is it because for a few minutes I am far away and alone? Could be if the balancing effect of nature?

I do not know why this works. I just know it work for me. When I returned to work after a vacation with my outdoor PC wallpaper, I am able to work better and faster. I can focus and handle any interruption with more ease and diplomacy.

Related Post

Nature wallpaper

Wallpaper history

By Rita

Like many words in the English language, technology and popular usage have given alternate meanings to common words. For example, wallpaper used to be used simply as a noun–paper to cover a wall. In the most modern usage it can refer to the digital background of a computer screen. Wallpaper can also be a verb, as in to spread over a large surface or area.

Nature wallpaper is popular both as a wall covering and for computer desktops. People have for many years decorated their private environments to personalize their space, and to create a “homey” feel, whether that is the walls of your room, or the screen you look at hours a day. I thought it might be of interest to get a little history of wallpaper, in the old use of the term.

Wallpaper actually began in ancient China. The Chinese first invented paper and they are the first to glue rice paper onto their walls in about 200 B.C.

As the evolution of paper occurred, so did the evolution of wallpaper. The materials use to make paper changed and the use of wallpaper spread throughout the Middle East and into Europe. Early wallpapers had to be painted by artists and were more expensive than the common household could afford. With the advent of the printing press, multi-color printing machines, and ready-to-use wallpaper paste, wallpaper became less expensive and available to more households.

Plunket Fleeson began printing wallpaper in Philadelphia in 1739. Most of the early designs were a copy of the European fashions but by 1800, by using hand carved blocks, scenic prints were introduced.

It was in the roaring ‘20s that wallpaper really took the spotlight. This time became known as the Golden Age of Wallpaper—400 million rolls were sold. Wallpaper fell into disfavor during the “Modernism” era. The blandness of homes and the sterile work environment have led to the rediscovery of patterned walls and nature wallpaper.

Now instead of wallpaper we should think in terms of wall coverings. Technology has given us a host of products that are washable, long lasting, pre-pasted, works of art that are beautiful, interesting and very affordable.

Nature wallpaper for fun

Here at boneblogger we examine all things related to nature, including how you might celebrate nature in your own home. You can check out our recommendations for computer wallpaper. Here we explore nature wallpaper patterns that work well in your own private “den.”

Patterned papers

You can get a wide variety of papers with a nature theme. Patterned wallpaper has a regular, repeating theme, and care must be taken to match the pattern up on the wall during installation, so there is a bit of challenge with it. An example of a dinosaur-themed patterned paper is shown here:

A patterned dinosaur wall paper.


Perhaps you would like a more geology-based theme by having a “rock look” like this:

Or a travertine tile pattern like this (learn more about travertine):

Murals

Another popular choice for nature wallpaper is actually a giant wall mural. Such images can give a room an expansive feel by blowing out one wall of a room into a wider world. Such scenes include prehistoric themes like this:

Or space and astronomy themes such as this:

Or nature scenes like:

Borders

A slightly less overwhelming way to express your love of nature with a wall covering might be a simple border paper. Just the right nature image or the perfect accent colors on a border may be just the thing to personalize your space.

You could pick from rustic looks like these:

While it may be easy to find many choices of nature wallpaper for your home, choosing between them might prove to be a “dinosaur-sized” task. Have fun and express yourself.