The Crufts Dog Show 2018

My previous experience of the Cruft's Dog Show has always been to drop in on the final day, grab an hour of features, get the "Best in Show" and head home. This year, I was asked to do the whole canine carnival.

I must admit that my first reaction wasn't overly excited, not having much of an interest in mutts, but it actually turned out to be a really enjoyable assignment to cover. Despite heading down there with ideas of setting up mini studios and scratching my head for how to cover the annual event differently, there was more than enough to see as I patrolled the halls, hunting for moments. It ended up being more like furry street photography than a news assignment.

Every day, I wheeled in a mountain of gear and ended up leaving most of it my Thinktank roller, using the same 70-200mm f2.8, 50mm f1.4 and 28mm f1.4 as they covered the focal range that I needed. Most of the pictures that I could find fell into either close-up portraits or slightly longer distance scenes from the judging arenas.

Each morning would start with the arrival picture, as owners trooped towards the National Exhibition Centre from far-off car parks with thousands of variations on the days featured category of dog. Aside from giving the photographers a chance to get some potentially amusing raincoat pictures and a heads-up on what to expect from the day, it also allowed us to take some pictures outside of the dark artificial indoor lighting. Covering this job on older digital cameras must have been a nightmare as I was starting each day on 6400 ISO and often working up from there, to get some depth of field to my images.

Dog shows, like any other enthusiasts gathering, provide a rich seam of sights, sounds and opinions that will be very alien to anyone who's unaccustomed to the canine obsession. Being totally ignorant of the whole culture, I was asked more than once if I was joking, when I asked for information on the breed of dog from an owner. By the third time, I was tempted to ask them if they could tell me what model my camera was but professionalism prevailed.

The overheard conversations were also fun to pick up, with the competitive banter getting more serious as the day went on. One particular exchange between two owners and their dogs, within earshot of each other, went as follows;

First owner: "Aren't you the best dog in the world?"

Second owner: "Who's the BEST dog in the world?"

First owner: "YOU'RE the best dog in the world!"

Second owner: "You are the best dog IN THE WORLD!"

I left the area before it got violent.

Before I'd travelled to Cruft's, my editor had joked that she hoped to see a classic "dog reads the newspaper" picture from me at some point. While it wasn't high on my list of shots to find, I couldn't help but get a bit giddy when I saw this Setter texting a friend.

By the third day, I have to admit that my clothes were starting to smell a little canine and the general tang of some of the halls was becoming a touch faecal but hey, a dog's got to do what a dog's got to do. The owners proved to all be a friendly bunch to the media and would happily fill you in on the extraordinary name of their dog, be it a series of consonants such as "Czkwska" through to the more elaborate "Hello Dolly De La Montagne Ensoleillee Of Tudorhurst (Imp Fra)". I kid you not. If you're covering a dog show, make sure you have something to take down notes.

Thanks to the Cruft's media team and all of the owners for their help and assistance.