Great Dane Championship Show Sydney ~ July 2009

More dog show photos for the Great Dane lovers out there – these were taken at the Great Dane Club of NSW Championship Show at Erskine Park in Sydney in July. As usual, there were lots of gorgeous fawns.

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Two of which ended up taking out Best in Show and Runner Up Best in Show.

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This blue boy is gorgeous and came second out of all the male dogs entered.

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Each judge does it their own way and it’s interesting to see how they interact with the dogs as they are examining them.

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For the black Great Dane fans out there.

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The babies were as cute as ever, this little harlequin girl was more interested in giving the judge kisses than standing still.

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And this cute little fawn girl stood beautifully…

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… but still wanted kisses from her mum.

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Best Head is always a good class to watch, as the judges rank the dogs solely on their structure and shape of their head.

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This fawn girl has won this class twice in a row.

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Some of the other fun classes are Best Veteran – the dog must be over 7 years of age and are often successfully retired show dogs so their return to the ring is often a cause for celebration. It’s good to see the ‘old grey faces’ out and about strutting their stuff, showing they still have it!

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Another class is Best Parent and Offspring where the aim is to demonstrate an improvement of dogs from generation to generation.

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For more information about this show, please see the results here and a gallery of all photos here.

Friend Session ~ Orbit the Great Dane { Part II }

Orbit the Great Dane’s Mum works at as a vet nurse, and the lucky boy gets to go to work with her every day and hang out at the vet surgery. While I was there with them, I thought Orbit would be a good subject to try out a new lens that I was borrowing from a friend (for camera geeks, it’s the Canon 70-200mm f2.8 with IS) in practice for a shoot later that day.

One of Orbit’s favourite games, chasey around the picnic tables…

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It wasn’t long before I caught some sweet moments between Orbit and his Mum…

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But he was soon back to being cheeky with his toy.

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The longer lens allows me to step back but still focus in on the little details.

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Makes everything easy when I have a gorgeous subject (intensely focused on the treats his Mum was holding just out of frame).

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Friend Session ~ Orbit the Great Dane { Part I }

Continuing on with the Great Dane theme that has been developing lately, I thought I’d post some shots of a friend’s dog whom I photographed when I was down in Sydney lately. Orbit is a large, silly and loveable blue boy who in true Dane style, likes sleeping, playing with his toys and is totally devoted to his owner.

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Orbit and my Luna are just one day apart in age but since they live in different states (about 10 hours away) they haven’t yet had the opportunity to meet. Though I’m sure if they did, Orbit would be stunned by Luna’s beauty and poise and might look a little bit like this -

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What would a doggy post be without some lovable head wrinkles in blue.

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Stay tuned, more to come of Orbit soon!