Moving forward...

Its been quite some time since my last post. Much has happened since then! My three ghosts have been doing well. The largest of them is on its last stage, full wings and all. Next down is on his last molt before adult stage. The tiny girl who's the star of the pictures here has turned an olive green color and is 2 molts from adult stage. I wish I knew how to get rid of and prevent mites. I can't identify them but I've cleaned my tank out twice and they keep coming back. They're little transparent guys about 0.5mm wide, or less. TINY, annoying, and everywhere. I completely redid the whole tank with new sticks, substrate, and new food, hoping it would kick the mites out for good. They were gone for a few weeks but they're back! They seem to start out at microscopic sizes, so they've probably been there all along. Anyways, now I need a male! Raising mantids isn't a complete journey without successfully breeding!

Other Headers

While browsing the world of blogs, I came across many headers I like. One page called Sozidatel Real Estate uses a font I like and includes small graphics of blueprints and cameras. These graphics work well with the site, as it is promoting architecture and real estate. Mike's page, Emotions, has an enjoyable header. The graphic is simple and fun and his title is artistic and stylish. Pen and Think has a creative header made to look like a polaroid. I thought this was an interesting way to show what they do: Freelance photography. I looked at their new site design and I think its horrible compared to what it used to be, I don't know what they were thinking! 

New Header

While browsing for new fonts, I realized that I liked one I already had. Century Gothic Bold looked best to me. I think it is also a common font so if I use it anywhere else on my page, viewers will be able to load the font without any trouble. To make my header, I created my title and then added a gaussian blur drop shadow filter. This gave the letters a more distinct look backed against the gray. I chose the low-light blend mode as it made the icy blue pop even more. As for the picture, I took on of my own photos and opened it in Fireworks. I used the magic-wand tool to highlight the background around the mantis. I then deleted everything in the background that I didn't want to show, instead I wanted the gray of the header to show through. I then placed the photo on my header and used a glow filter with the same color as the title font. This glow made the photo more distinct against the gray. I had trouble finding the correct length for the header to fit nicely with the rest of the blog. I tried 1000 pixels, 900, and then eventually noticed the resize amount (which wasn't working) was 820. I tried 820 and sure enough, it fit just right.

Photo Editing

Here is a cropping technique that creates a unique look. The new look would work great in a title banner or side column.

Image Formats on the Web

As I was browsing the net, I found sites with the image formats I've been working with. Wild Madagascar is a site that uses gifs as their image format. Photo.net had a great jpg, very fine quality. TuxPaint uses png as their image format, small image size means faster page loading and easier downloads.

Jpg, Gif, or Png?

I have optimized the following photo in different formats to test any loss of quality between file types. In this photo, I simply cropped to a size with less negative space as I did before. In order from top to bottom, the png is top, then 32color gif, then 64color gif, then the best quality jpg. As you can see, if you want to save quality and have a nice photo on your blog, use jpg. If you want to lessen your filesize so the page will load faster, use gif or png.

Optimized/Cropped Jpg

In this photo, I cropped the
image to cut out negative
space. I then optimized as
jpg to make the most out of
the colors.