I have been very remiss in writing my blog lately, a lot going on in life and sometimes the fun parts have to take a back seat. Between a full time job, my part-time "job", the commute every day and my own little family (Jonathan, 8 shibas and a tibbie) it has been a very busy year. I haven't been to an all breed dog show since August, and I am nearly caught up on editing (very thankful for that!).

In any case, I am so grateful to have had the opportunity over the last two years to photograph some absolutely amazing dogs and I hope to continue to do so. 

Watch out for news of our sale soon!

Still working on June photos, it's not quite as bad as it seems because I've had a couple of requests based on ad deadlines where I had to give priority, so some shows will go quicker because those groups are already done. If you want a sneak peak, take a look at Recently Added or go to http://lyndabeam.zenfolio.com/recent.html.

Saturday I was at Elgin Kennel Club and it was a fun day, ring stewarding mostly for toy breeds. They are all so CUTE! But it is difficult sometimes to keep the ring on time, through no fault of the judge! I really think the superintendents should probably calculate less dogs per hour for a few reasons. 

1. They're small and they take longer to get around the ring
2. They're small so sometime people bring more than 1, sometimes 6 and it takes time to get armbands changed and dogs into the ring
3. Toy people are very sweet like their dogs and often have no sense of urgency LOL

I was a very forlorn ring steward as I stood holding Japanese Chin armband #18 and found that Miss Mimi Chin was in Houston (where she had a very successful weekend nonetheless) and she would not grace our ring that day. I think her owner thinks I'm kidding, but ask anyone ... I had a big sad face for about 5 minutes ;)

Some photos from Elgin:

Vicki DeGruy who spends most of her time behind a lens ventured out with her new puppy Neo and took Best of Breed and this was his first time in group, doesn't he look like he has the whole thing down already!

Another young class dog that made it to group was this smooth fox terrier, 
he managed a Group II to a wonderful Russell Terrier. Really nice moving dog as well!

Team Tiger takes Best in Show #3 on Saturday and
repeated the group win on Sunday I believe.

Group First both days and Best in Show on the second (naturally when I wasn't there!) was the malamute bitch Ruby!

And last but not least, loved this mini poodle shown by Sara Brooks who won a Group IV from the classes.

I've seen Sara show some spectacular poodles!

So what's next? 

Was planning on taking a trip out to Ames, Iowa for Labor Day weekend but decided I just have too much to do at home, dog related and non dog related as well. So ... maybe next year. It sure sounds like a fun time and some of the members actually invited me and I HATE to turn down invitations.

Kenosha and Freeport are solid maybe, depending upon how much I get done over Labor Day.

I will be at Manitowoc for at least one day because of the Puli National. Nancy Powell asked me to come months and months ago. I've been practicing a lot on every pulik I see, especially the dark ones, so I hope I get some good shots for them.

In October I will be going to the Shiba National as the official win photographer and I really want to be completely caught up before I go because last year I took about 20,000 photos of shibas (more candids than win photos :)) and that took quite awhile to process!

That's enough for now, so be safe on the roads over the holidays if you are out and about.

Till next week...

I'm already late with my blog, what a shock ... unfortunately real life work got in the way last night, and frankly it completely slipped my mind, but I remembered this afternoon!

This past weekend I did not attend any shows, went instead to visit some good friends in Wisconsin, and then worked on editing. You might notice I actually did some more of the Wheaton show! I'm darn near to the Pyrenees specialty if anyone remembers it, again apologies for the length of time it takes me to do things, but with a full-time job, a rather long commute every day and my husband and dogs, there's not been a lot of free time. So again, if you have something you are looking for and have a deadline or anything like that, please let me know and I'll give you priority. Was planning on going to Iowa for Labor Day, but really really need to stay home and work on photos and getting organized at home. We were planning a move and started packing, but unfortunately that did not come to fruition, so no shorter commute and need to get some boxes out of the garage and into the house before winter or we'll be clearing snow off Lottie the Highlander all winter.

This weekend are the Elgin KC shows where I will be doing groups and Best in Show only since I'm a club member and will be ring stewarding. I think I will be doing the toy ring so stop by and say hey :) This year is very bittersweet since our long time President and one of the founders of the club (I think), Ed Haas, passed away earlier this year. This show is being dedicated to his memory. His tireless efforts and yearly "howl" at the club meetings will not be forgotten soon by any of our club members. I know his wife Peggy will do her usual wonderful job of taking care of details, but we will still miss our fearless leader.

I will also share with you a couple of my favorite photos from last year. This one with Bryan Martin and Yahoo is the second in my "Dancing with the Stars" series and made it to my Favorites of 2011 group.

The Kerry Blue portrait was also taken at last year's show. His breeder/owner Reita has had some wonderful wins with him and you can certainly see why!

I hope some of you will be entered and stop by to see why Elgin KC is one of the nicest Chicagoland area shows!

My next show after Elgin will mostly likely be the Kenosha KC show in Wilmot. If you're coming up for these shows, there are actually some really nice restaurants in town. One is the Stage Stop just down the street from the show. They serve you a nice steak but it's the potatoes that I love, served with about a quarter pound of butter! You can also do a tour of the Stage Stop's upper floors which is rather spooky to me. It really was a stagecoach stop at one time. You can see the rooms and the next hotel you stay at will seem like a palace in comparison! Other options for food, the Twin Oaks Country Inn in Wilmot is also not far and serves really excellent and somewhat upscale food. The other kennel club I belong to, Little Fort KC of Waukegan has held our club's holiday dinner there twice and it was quite yummy. A little further away in Genoa City is Fitzgerald’s Genoa Junction which has a really great fish boil. You would swear you were eating lobster instead of cod which is also served with BBQ Chicken & Ribs, but I always just get the fish because it's so good. The price is quite reasonable and all you can eat along with boiled potatoes/onions and cole slaw and dessert. I can't remember for sure, but $14.95 rings a bell... All can be found easily with a Google search if you are interested.

Till next week ... be safe on the roads :)