These two mean so much to us that we celebrate their existence in our lives everyday. It’s only once a year that these little ladies get older so we take the time to go the extra mile.

Baked goodies
Last year I baked a whole cake for Booker’s birthday. This year was much easier. My Dutch tutor allowed me to borrow her tiny cupcake molds. I used the same recipe from last year (since even picky Booker enjoyed it) and it came out perfect. All I had to do was add the frosting and give one cake to each shiba. They were in love!

Sharing the love
I’m a pretty quiet person so the neighbors I know are because we all have dogs. This year I decided to hand out extra cupcakes to their lovely dogs as well. I would consider our dogs to be friends with the others so why not? Kids would bring cupcakes to share in school when I grew up. I figured it would be a good gesture to hand out treats to the friends of my dogs too!

New toys to love
We tend to spoil our Shiba Inus a lot. This year they got a ton of chews as presents. They love to sit for hours and gnaw on bones so it was the best gift to give. They’ve become more playful with plushies (made for dogs) so those don’t last too long. It’s such a shame because Haru looks so cute when she sits with her stuffed animals!

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We have a full house so we’re unable to do that. What we can do is give our dogs a little extra love. I figured now would be a great time to give an update on how our ladies are doing.

In case you’re new to this place, Booker and Haru are our two Shiba Inu ladies. Booker is now 2 years old and Haru’s 1st birthday is fast approaching. We’ll be celebrating their birthdays together since I didn’t want to have to make two cakes for them. They get along so well and love each other like blood sisters. Booker is always cleaning the baby and acting motherly towards her. They fight like cats sometimes but it’s never in anger.

Sander says that Dutch pets are often spoiled on World Animal Day. So we got a new bed for our dogs! But they have a love/hate relationship with it so far though. These two are already spoiled rotten.

• • They sleep in bed with us every night.
  • They never run out of chews or toys.
  • They get long walks throughout the day.
  • They’re brushed all the time. (Shiba Inu are quite hairy dogs)
  • They’re pampered every day.

What more can a dog ask for?!

What I also love, is the attention they get from strangers. Shiba Inu aren’t too common in our neighborhood so everyone knows them. These ladies are friends with all the other dogs too. Getting a dog was the best decision we’ve made. I leave the house to walk them and I’ve met so many people because of it.

My favorite story of the neighbors and our dogs is the one with the groceries! We were walking the dogs and one of our neighbors caught sight of baby Haru. She was on her bike and had a ton of groceries with her. But she didn’t care! She had to stop to say hello! She ended up spilling most of her groceries on the road. She also had to scramble to move because a car was coming but she didn’t care. She got to meet Haru for the first time that day. Our neighbor was so excited!

So if you have an animal friend in your live, please show them a little extra love today. We sometimes take “man’s best friend” for granted and they live shorter lives than we do… For now I’m going to love these two girls as much as I can!

The post What’s up with Booker and Haru appeared first on A Daily Lee.

While I would still call myself an amature when it comes to photography. This is also a reason for why I can’t find a particular style. I can’t focus on one thing to photograph. I’m always surrounded by beautiful sights and I want to capture it all. That makes it difficult for me to find a subject to work with. I did street life for a while but got bored with it. I did wild Netherlands landscapes but when winter hit, we hardly left the house. I wanted to focus on fluffy sunset clouds but the weather here is more grey than anything.

So to this day, I still cannot focus. However, I’ve got a decent procedure that helps me to quickly edit all I need. Let me show you how!

Now what I use is Photoshop and there are a million other free programs that you can use. I went to school to learn Photoshop so I know the ins and outs of it. It’s just easier for me to work with. I don’t have to relearn a different program to achieve my looks.

We will look at a photo I took recently of Haru.

You’ll remember this photo from Haru’s update post. She’s an adorable bundle of energy with the sweetest eyes. She is what the Dutch call “schatje” (sweetheart or love).

This photo is saved in a RAW format. This helps to save as much data in the photo as possible. This will come in handy later.

Now the issues with this photo, are that it’s backlight and too dark on her. This is typically done when the photographer wants to save some of the details in the background. The darker subject can always be lightened. In that post I left most of the photos unaltered so that I could make this one explaining what I do with them.

Now the empty space behind Haru allows for her to be the center of attention. I’ll admit the photo composition is pretty messy but works in a “spontaneous” way. You want the audience to be looking at what’s important in the photo. I’m upset over the lost detail in the bench outside. If you look at this photo and the starting one, the 2nd is already a lot better.

Now I just want to add a little more light and darken up the shadows a little bit.. The changes are small but impactful.

Now each photo requires a special touch depending on what the subject matter is. Let’s address what this photo need. I thought it was too blue for what it was. It made Haru’s fur off color and I warmed it up by toning down everything that wasn’t orange or red.

Now I warm up Haru’s fur just a bit. The outdoor light was cool so taking that away took some color from her fur. Adding a little bit of Luminance brings those colors back up without making them artificial.

Now to fix the lens correction. Sometimes the lens casts a bit of a shadow over the photo and with one click that’s fixed. See how much brighter this photo is just because I fixed the lens correction? Usually Photoshop detects what camera is being used and chooses it automatically.

And now it’s ready for the fine details! But holy moly, look at how noisy the photo is! This is super common in low light photos and can be fixed in a number of ways. My fix is to resize the photo for my blog.

As you can see here there’s no noise! Now to just slightly brighten her eyes and the light on the tip of her nose.

And that’s it! This photo is finished. I like my photos to be clear and close to natural so I avoid adding filters and color adjustments that take away from that. I hope it was helpful at least in someway.

Editing photos takes practice and idea of what you as the photographer want out of the shot. Photos like this are usually made just for myself so I edit them the way I like!

Sometimes I spend an entire day working on photoshoot edits so it has to be something you love to do!

The post How I edit my photos appeared first on A Daily Lee.

Haru is now a little over 4 months old and growing like a weed. She’s got all her shots (expect her rabies, we will be getting that soon) and is a healthy puppy. She still smells like puppy so I take every chance I have to hug her.

Owning two Shiba Inu
Haru’s breeder encouraged us to get a male to complement Booker. She said that two females have the potential to become territorial with each other. Sander and I had discussed this for a long time. We wanted two females because it would be easier for us.

There are a lot of unneutered males in the neighborhood and we didn’t want to start fights with those dogs. Sander’s parents also have two female dogs. Shiba Inu are wild in nature, no matter what the gender is. We figured since Booker was already spayed, it would be alright to bring in another female. Haru will follow in Booker footsteps when she’s old enough. Right now the two of them play fight more than anything. They get along well though. Only time will tell how this duo will end up but for now they’re fine.

Walking them sometimes can be a nightmare. They have their own idea on what is the ideal place to potty. I don’t know how Sander does it while he plays Pokémon Go in the mornings. I need both hands and all my wits to prevent myself from falling over in entangled leashes.

Where the dogs sleep
Haru remains in her crate from lights out until sunrise. Booker wanders from our bedroom to the couch in the living room. We’re fine with the dogs on the couch. If Haru could sleep anywhere, it would be on her a favorite couch pillow. She also enjoys sleeping by the heater on these especially cold days.

Booker seems to believe that the couch belongs to her so I’m curious to see if Haru will muscle her way in when she’s allowed to be free. Currently they do just fine together but once it hits late night, Booker is determined to keep the couch to herself. I was up late recently and saw this first hand. She was very upset that Haru was sleeping on the couch. Of course, that meant that Booker could not sleep there without barking, so she was banished to the bedrood. Haru and I watched a bit of TV but when I was ready for bed, she was back in her crate.

Pups at play
We haven’t had any complaints about the dogs being too loud but I worry every day. Booker likes to bark at Haru for attention. If the barking gets to much, Booker has a time out in the crate. Usually the two of them will settle down and nap most of the day so the noise isn’t at all hours.

When we take the dogs out for walk, we encourage them to run in circles. They need to be leashed at all times so we feel bad about them having a limited range to run. In the warmer months, we will take them to dog specific parks where they can be off leash and run to their heart’s content!

I cannot wait until we can do that but for now, we’re all hiding away as the temperatures dip down to below freezing!

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