This was going to be my Macro contest entry...

[Ms. Toad]

But when I got here to upload it I discovered the contest was already closed :cry:

Oh well...:shrug:



Here are the ones I considered and was going to post here as a list of as contest wannabees (just to waste everyone's bandwidth):

[alkaline9]

1. Wow! All really great, sorry you missed the contest...

...I think you would have done well :-)

What was the rake looking thing in some of those photos? I like the technique a lot.

[Ms. Toad]

2. It's a spiral window hanging

It is made from holographic glittery material. It looked best against a dark window, so I took most of the shots at night and used a flashlight from below to get enough light to take a macro photo without flash.

Thanks, by the way.

Sine the contest normally runs until it gets 30 submissions I was watching the numbers of submission and not the date. That'll teach me to ignore the fine print!

[F.Gordon]

7. "ignore the fine print"

:wtf:

:rofl:

Was wonderin' why you didn't enter a photo. I love the shots of the window hanging.
:thumbsup:

Don't sweat the "fine print". There's this guy from Norway running the contest and I can't understand a word he is saying. :)

[Ms. Toad]

9. Yeah,

Especially when he starts chattering in Norwegian! http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=280&topic_id=11876&mesg_id=12232

That's it. That's where the entry date was buried. How come you all didn't tell me I had to read Norwegian to be in on the secret!

Seriously, entry periods that don't include a weekend day are pretty tough for me to meet if I'm taking new photos, but in this case I didn't even notice that it ended Friday until I rushed here ready to post my entry. I was going on the assumption that the close would be the usual six weeks from the last blue moon, or 30 entries, whichever came earlier - and since it was getting close to 30 I was worried I'd miss the 30 entry shutoff.

Thanks for the comment on the window hanging.

[CC]

3. I like all of these

and glad I didn't have to pick just one. Beautiful cat, looks like it could be Karma's sibling.:-) I would of had a very hard time choosing just one to put in the contest though have a feeling you couldn't lose with your pick.

[Ms. Toad]

6. I take it Karma is your kitty?

Butterskotch seems to have lots of near twins, although I can't say I noticed many before he wandered into our family. Of course, mostly I'm seeing them outside now and wondering if the little escape artist has managed to escape again.... (the other cat in the house is severely allergic to fleas, which Butterskotch brings home every time he manages to escape - and I do like my cats round rather than flattened by some vehicle).

As for not losing...we'll never know. At least I don't have to worry about hosting next month's contest!

[CC]

11. There are a lot of cats have the

colors but it is the look in his eyes that remind me of Karma along with the color. Karma used to all but break our legs trying to run outside. While working on the house we added a small entryway (mostly to help with keeping the weather out) but he now has two doors to race through. Took a couple months but he finally realized it wasn't going to work and he and Butterball have given up. The rest of the cats have always felt the outdoors was best with a piece of glass between them and it. Specially the two rescued ferals.

[Ms. Toad]

12. Interesting...

Butterball is one of Butterskotch's many AKAs. He weighs just short of a ton. Not really, but he is quite round.

Aside from his urges to get outside, he's the most peaceful cat we've had in 30 years.

We satisfy his outdoor urges most of the time by a trip to the paper box every morning (carried so he doesn't pick up fleas). He starts his purr motor while I'm throwing on my shoes and doesn't stop until we're back inside. Since we started his morning paper trip he's much less prone to send us sprawling on the floor in an attempt to squeeze out the door.

[PitbullTed]

4. Great photos!

I liked the spirals best! :)

Any reason why you use the .png-format? Any advantages over other formats?

[Ms. Toad]

5. .png v. .jpg v. .gif

My daughter got me started using it. She's a teenager who started designing web pages around 12. I found out she was doing web design (and not just playing games on NeoPets) when she called me at work to ask how to upload an image to put on the NeoPets home page she'd just designed....)

To answer your question, all three compress images, with .gif and .jpg having different shortcomings (.gif doesn't handle as many colors and sometimes results in a much larger file) but .jpg loses more crispness and tosses data which can never be recovered): (take the first link at the bottom of the page - I'd post it directly, but for some reason the link posts here as an image that can't be displayed) http://www.webopedia.com/DidYouKnow/Internet/2002/JPG_GIF_PNG.asp

png is like .gif, but handles color better (and doesn't have the potential patent problems .gif does - although I'm not a big enough fish to really worry about that): http://www.sitepoint.com/article/gif-jpg-png-whats-difference

My computer is generally cluttered with images, since I always keep the original (.jpg), the modified .psp (paint shop pro) version (so I have full detail and can continue modifying an uncompressed version), and then the .png version if I upload it here.

(Edited to get around first link that doesn't work properly)

[GOPFighter]

8. Sorry you missed the deadline.

Those are ALL great photos. I like #2 and #3 best. I love your cat pictures. Wish I could get our two to sit or lay still.

[Ms. Toad]

10. Well, I didn't post the

50 or so when he is blurry since he isn't sitting still. Didn't get a single guinea pig photo for that reason.

Thanks.