Show started at the fairly civilized hour of 8:30am but I was a little bit late despite leaving early. Fortunately there were a couple of Leonbergers before Boxers, and only one puppy in the first class so captured him during Winners. There had been a specialty on Friday so a pretty nice entry. The photo I am using is of a lovely puppy bitch that really caught my eye because of her beautiful elegance and movement. 

The lighting at DuPage County Fairgrounds is good and bad, good that it's fairly light, but bad in that there are windows along the top and at certain times of the day the light came in quite a lot which isn't good if you're taking photos. Hopefully I'll be able to fix the photos in post processing. Also nice was the fact that they seem to have air conditioning now! I remember one time probably in the late 70s/early 80s where I showed a malamute at this show for a friend, and in the photo I look like I just came out of a sauna!

Once the Boxer entry was judged,  I moved down to Ring 6 to take photos of the Cavalier King Charles specialty. I love the breed, so sweet and with those big adoring spaniel eyes. And they move like a spaniel too! Again, with a specialty the day before there was a large entry. The judge was quick (yet thorough) going through the entry so I had a hard time sometimes capturing dogs on the table stacked because he was examining them almost immediately upon watching the previous dog move. He did seem to slow down a bit for the specials, it was a little easier for me. I did notice that oftentimes people try to stay out of my way, don't worry about it ... I'll work around you, it's your ring.

After Cavaliers I wandered for a little while, grabbed some lunch and some photos of some sporting breeds. Pictured is Jack the Brittany a very cool dog shown by Chris Jones. I love how he "flies" around the ring.

I then headed over to Ring 6 again to take candids of the Great Pyrenees Club of America Regional including Sweepstakes. The judges both obviously enjoyed the assignment and I think the exhibitors did as well. The judge for the regular classes, David Osborn, is a familiar figure in the midwest with his beautiful akitas which I have photographed a number of times. And you know, as he used to special a bitch, he doesn't mind putting a bitch up for the breed, and that's exactly what he did! This photo is the reaction of the handler ... I knew exactly what was coming because I've seen another judge make selections that same way, pulling out Best of Winners first, and then lining up the rest behind that dog, and leaving the Best of Breed to the end and that was Anne Rogers Clark. It certainly adds to the surprise and I think she was!

This section is a bit out of order because the way the timing of the show went, the Pyr specialty was stopped in order to allow Working Group and then BIS (since the Pyr won the group) to proceed. Because I had committed to doing candids for the Pyr specialty, I missed all the groups except for most of Working and also did BIS. The rings were a bit difficult for me to work with because they were long and thin, so not sure you missed much anyway ;)

Best in Show went to Cheese the Dachshund and it's nice to see how truly delighted Carlos is when he wins although I think he probably lost count of his BIS a long time ago :) Congratulations to Team Cheese! Cheese is another cool dog :)

After I was done with the show, took some time to do a rather informal photo shoot of the very handsome London son, Ch. Litilann's Photo Finish aka Indy with his handler Michelle Breen Krahenbuhl. It was still quite warm so tough to get one with the mouth closed, but here's a little teaser for Michelle in black and white.

Hope you enjoyed the synopsis, figured I'd better get started doing this blog again somehow!

P.S. Our winner for the tagging/sharing contest for the April shows is Annette Chapman Ray! As soon as I have posted all the May shows I will put a note out but you don't need to wait to tag and share.