What particular photos are you talking about, Jim?

Being a birder, I look at the birding images from overseas and see many more great images, but they also have a more abundant bird population with many more diverse birds than we have here. Not only that, most of these birds are "exotic" to us/me and I find many of them more pleasing than most of our birds simply because they are "exotic". Technically, the overseas bird photos aren't any better, just that theyu may seem more pleasing because they are "exotic" and different to ours.

The same goes for landscape/architecture photos from overseas, where there are many more "exotic" locations compared to us and this has the effect of us thinking that they are better shots when in fact technically they no better then what I see from Australians as a whole, just that many of the photos are of exotic and exciting locations.

I remember having a young German guy stay with us for a few months on a 12 month working holiday going around Australia, he was the son of one of my suppliers. I asked him why he visited Australia for his 12 month holiday as he had Europe right on his doorstep with all that fantastic scenery, castles, churches, cathedrals and history in general. He replied that it is not that interesting to him because he lives with it every day, they basically hibernate for 6 months a year in winter and to him what is exciting is the wide open spaces, not crowded, beaches, sunshine all year round etc. He thinks my photos of Australia were exciting, much better than my Europe photos!

It's depends on your persepctive, so to speak!