Day 1: ...and you are?
by Siggav

Comment:
She's full of personality that's for sure.

Bengal cats are beautiful, active, energetic and clever. Lots of fun, very social and involved.

However they are not easy to care for. Because they're so smart and active they need a lot of "input" to be happy. So if you are only able to have the one cat (which is my case) and if you can't give them free access to the outdoors (if you do that be prepared for lots of presents, they are usually outstanding hunters) you have to make a big effort to keep them content.

I'm finding this out the hard way a little bit. That is I was aware of this from the beginning and had lots of boxes and toys and other stuff for her in my flat. However it wasn't enough and she started overgrooming, and licked a patch on her forearm raw and hairless (cats get an endorfin rush from licking themselves so..)

So now I've got even more boxes and I'm rotating them around, keeping some in storage so that she's getting "new" ones every day. I'm also doing that with her toys. I've got a ladder in front of the window so she has a good point to watch the outside world from. Her dry food now gets fed to her through puzzle feeders so she has to work to get her food (gotta keep that brain busy). I'm taking her outside on a harness and leash for atleast an hour every day and waking up an hour early to play with her for a good while before going to work in the mornings. It would be much easier if I could have two cats and they got along but that's not really an option for me for various reasons.

In short if you want a low maintenance cat, don't get a bengal. However she is absolutely wonderful. Gorgeous, sweet and clever, lots of fun to be around. She makes me smile and laugh every day. Visitors that come to my flat are usually stunned by both her personality and looks.

Also fortunately it seems as if my work is paying off and her hairless patch has started to heal (I went to the vet with her to get suggestions and an antibiotic anti inflammatory cream to put on it)

Sowing Seeds
by cheegirl

Comment:
That's very clever

Gutted
by Nitesead

Comment:
The focus is off, or well as I see it the gutted pepper is the main subject and it's not in focus.

Lemon Drop
by PhotoRyno

Comment:
I would have preferred it with a bit more black at the bottom, it feels rather cramped. Well done though.

The Next Generation
by SteveDunster

Comment:
The greens look oversaturated on my monitor. Hard to get detail out, it all blurs into one big poison green mass. Something to either let the seed pop out more or make the background less busy would have helped. In my opinion anyway.

The Bad Seed
by NstiG8tr

Comment:
Don't like the partial desaturation.

Waiting for the Right Moment
by Shy Clicker

Comment:
The focus is off. Nice composition though.

Spoilt Seeds
by Tim

Comment:
Hard to get over the yuck! response to judge the photo neutrally. (I.e to not go ewwww! low score!) Very well done, but ewww...

Peppery Antipasti
by hotpasta

Comment:
A higher aperature to get all of the pepper box in focus would have really made the image better. (in my opinion anyway)

Well set up though. Nice composition.

Orchids
by jwillerton

Comment:
I didn't think it met the challenge properly. Yes you can say flowers are a simple pleasure but like has been said before that's a very sterile and clinical picture of the flowers.

It doesn't show any joy, which I think should be one of the main things in a "simple pleasure" challenge entry.

The lighting is ok but not fantastic and the frame is heavy. Basically it doesn't quite meet the challenge and not fantastic enough to lift it above that (as in good enough to get high scores despite not being an obvious match for the challenge)