Welcome to my blog! I'm going to try this again and post monthly with what I've been doing, and what's ahead. Location, location, location...Yes, this past weekend was Cudahy & Greater Racine KCs on the shores of lovely Lake Michigan. Made for an exhausting weekend, as I shot all day and then did a few photo shoots on the lake as well until we lost the light. I think my best purchase in the past two weeks was the SportBrella, it's like giant umbrella that you can set on its side and stake down (and I needed those stakes sometimes!). Kept me out of the sun and more important on Monday, DRY! I think it was also a placemarker for the judges on Sunday as they kept sticking the table right in front of me! But sometimes adversity makes for some good shots so we'll see! I will get to these as soon as I can, but as some of you know I'm still in June photos, so if you have a need for something because of a deadline, please let me know and I'll pull your photos out for you. They might not be edited, but it will give you an idea of what I have and then we can refine those photos you like. Till next time, here are some of my favorites from the weekend (Sunday and Monday anyway, as Saturday's are still processing)
A weekend off (if you can call it that)I'm going to attempt to blog at least once a week (but don't shoot me if I'm not successful)! This past weekend I had no shows, but that doesn't mean I wasn't working hard on editing photos and trying to get caught up, because that is pretty much what I did most of the weekend and finally finished off Scott County KC (Rock Island, IL) and did most of Fox River Valley KC, my local show only 15 minutes from garage to parking lot even if I got lost! I will add a couple of my favorite photos from those shows below along with a few from a photo shoot that I did in the evening at the Botanical Garden place next door to the show site. In addition to the built in photo op next door, the Scott County KC has a lot to offer, some great food, and ice cream cones! They had a best puppy competition one day and best veteran on the other, and a duck toss! What is a duck toss, you might ask? One could buy a chance at the "pot" by purchasing a small plastic duck (these were also in the shape of various dog breeds) and at the appointed time (when there was a ring available) everyone tossed their ducks at a small target on the ground. It was like a 50/50 raffle, only more interactive! This coming weekend I will be heading up to Wisconsin once again for the Cudahy and both Greater Racine KC shows near the shores of Lake Michigan. Talk about a photo op! Weather is predicted to be outrageously nice ... must be because I ordered a giant sportbrella for shade ... you can thank me now ;) Starting off with some photos from Scott County Saturday
That's probably enough photos for now .... till next week! I will be drawing a name "out of the hat" for a $30 gift certificate based on tags, shares on Facebook, so be sure to do that on the May shows particularly before Monday. And if you are at Cudahy or Racine, I'll be sure to be by the Borzoi specialty on Saturday and near the group ring on Sunday, look for the blue Sportbrella ;)
Wheaton Kennel Club, June 9, 2012 & the Great Pyrenees Regional
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.
And a Drum Roll Please, as our first winner is....
Kelly Schur! Kelly just wrote in Vulcan Pugs in the comments on this photo and today after compiling a list of over 100 tags/shares/written in comment names, I drew her name using a Random line chooser on the internet. Kelly, I will be contacting you privately with a $30 coupon code, congratulations! I will continue this contest in April, so please keep attempting to tag, or share, or just write the name in the comments if they are a friend so that they get to see the photo. UpdatesDespite issues with Facebook tagging, please try using the share function, or just typing a friend's name in a comment. I have filed bug reports with Facebook and I'm certain that my settings are correct. In addition, I've decided to make IKC its own contest, and then March will include Wisconsin KC, Kentuckiana shows, and the Saturday DeWitt show. A week from tomorrow (on April 21st or maybe a few days later since I will be heading to Fond Du Lac next weekend) I will pull a random name each for February and March and issue the winners a $30 coupon code that you can use to order a download or at least $30.00 worth of photos ... sorry, does not including shipping. Sorry I have been lax in writing new blog posts, but have been trying to keep up with photos, I think I took about 16,000 at Kentuckiana alone and that was a lot to go through and edit. Also, please remember price increase on prints goes into effect on May 1st. Till next time..... |