Last weekend, I went up to Ocala, FL again to photograph another Toy Poodle, this one named Sydney. Sydney is a black 7-month old puppy who, when I was there, won Best Of Breed over Specials so he's a showy little guy.

His handler, Kay Palade, has done a wonderful job of training Sydney and she was kind enough to set him up for me a few minutes before he went in the ring. Good thing because getting ring shots was not easy given where the ring was located and where the judge had the exhibitors setting up.

Anyway, here's a stacked shot of Sydney.



And here's a headshot.



I also took a few shots of his little sister, Eve (and I do mean little!). Here she is.



Technical considerations: it was overcast and gloomy and I was shooting my Canon 70-200mm F4L wide open at fairly slow shutter speeds. Black dogs so the background was bound to get blown out but since it's out of focus, that's OK. Try to get on the same level as a 13-inch dog that is standing on the ground! Getting down is easy. Getting up is hard (especially at my age).

Enjoy Sydney. I expect that we might see him some day at Westminster.

Jim

Nice shot, Jim. I particularly like #1. I know how difficult black dogs are to shoot. Who cares about the bg -- you did a great job on the dog, and that is what it is all about. I do a lot of table shots and many times position of the table and/or judge just doesn't do us any favors.

I'm with you with the getting down and getting up. I can get down OK, but getting back up is a different story.

Julie,
some times the ring setup works just fine and sometimes there is just no way to position yourself for a decent shot of the dog on the table.

I shot Groups in Ft. Wayne, IN a few years ago and was able to sit right behind the table for Toy exams. It was great. I got some wonderful head shots without having to do much moving. But that's unusual. That's where the judges normally sit at most shows .

That's why you have to attend a lot of shows to get good ring shots of the dogs that are showing regularly. You never know how good the angles will be for shooting.

Jim

I so rarely watch the toy rings and it is really cool to see a poodle in a puppy cut