Our family grew this year by one. One puppy that is. Yes, we are a family of five but three are furry and four-legged. To show how important they are to us, today I dedicate this post to them. And at the same time I’ll talk a little bit about my slightly improving photography and editing skills. If you are one of those people skilled in photoshop, you will laugh at my discoveries, but if you are brand new, hopefully this helps you with some really simple tasks.
Child #1: Katsu
I adopted Katsu on my own in college. I love animals of all kinds and as I have learned, a cat is the perfect companion when you are on your own and don’t have a ton of time to dedicate to them every waking moment. I adopted him as an adult, so he was mostly self-reliant.
Katsu is a little bit of a jerk. His default expression is a glare and he craves attention only on his own terms. But he is definitely the best and most handsome cat in the world.
Photo Tip: I edited this photo entirely in Lightroom and all I did was crop it and use the “Split Tone 1” preset. Did you know that in Lightroom you just press “R” to crop or adjust the alignment of a photo?
Child #2: Koda
After I met my husband, we knew it was only a matter of time before we got a dog. We adopted Koda at the Bellevue Humane Society at only 8 weeks old. She is a medium sized german shepherd mix and a total daddy’s girl.
This is her as a puppy playing soccer with my husband.
This photo was taken and edited by my husband and I take no credit but wanted to show you a picture of how she looks all grown up! I guess you can compare my photos to how a pro does it….
Photo tip: I edited the black and white above in Lightroom also. There are some free presets included in the program and I used “B&W Contrast High” here.
Child #3: Cara
There is something adorable about two dogs interacting together. Especially if they are “siblings”. I learned from Koda, that pets and especially puppies are a lot of work. But I would compare my feelings to women who know they want to be mothers. They know how much trouble they are but they want them anyway. After months of begging, my husband surprised me with little Cara.
We adopted Cara from Harris County Public Health and Environmental Services. She had fleas and worms and was a complete mess but now she is happy and healthy! She is supposedly a labrador retriever mix and we’re very eager to see how she turns out!
Photo tip: the easiest way to get a good photo is to have the right settings on the camera to begin with! Shocking! I feel that I constantly need a refresher from my husband but I basically kept the aperture at around 5, turned the ISO down, and the shutter speed up because there was plenty of light from the setting sun. After that, almost no editing was necessary!
Hope you enjoyed my completely novice photo editing tips and learning a little about our family!