Welcome. I remember that when i first started out, i was so surprised at how helpful and nice everyone was. I am sure that you will find the Bryce community very nice. Just a tip: dont compare your work with someone elses, who has been in the 3D game for years! this can sometimes be the most discouraging thing for a beginer. But by all means, look at someones work, and try to think how you could do something similar, but not coping the original work entirely. It is a good way to learn. I am currently teaching a class of 9 pupils here in South Africa how to use Bryce. And they are loving it too! So if you ever need anything, I, as well as many others i am sure, will be more than happy to help you. Once again, welcome

I think that the key to creating the best nature scenes, is like what Zahnn said: Take a photo. I rely heavily on photos when model building in Bryce. Going from a photo results in MUCH better results, than from working from an image that you might have in your mind. I find its frustrating, when i have an idea in my head, and i cant recreate it in Bryce. Take my word for it. Using photos is the word to go.

My opinion, is that to recreate (especially in Bryce, being a hobbiests app) the finest creation that man knows, can be a hard job. I dont think that anyone can truly do a render and then say, "well that looks like my palm plant in the lounge." its just not possible. Also, another factor which would contribute to (plausable) nature scenes being hard to recreate, is that Bryce has a very unrealistic "environmental atmosphere" if i can call it that, which makes it lack that crispness of say, 3ds max. But dont stress too much about it, coz i for one, have been working with Bryce for about 3 years now, and in my personal opinion, it takes a lot more skill to create a good interior scene, than a outdoors one.