Rabbit Judging

My son is a member of our local 4-H Rabbit club.  We have 3 bunnies who have stolen our hearts and become a large part of our family.  So we are always excited when we get to tag along and use our photography skills to capture some of the events.  Today was the big event for the club, as the bunnies were being judged and shown at the fair. 

The problem with this, from a photographer's point of view, is that it becomes very difficult to make pictures interesting.  There's lots of people milling about, parents are also trying to get pictures of their children, and there's a giant table that I have to shoot around.  There is also the issue of lighting to deal with.  We are in a dark barn with bright light streaming in from one side.  This means lots of flash or lots of shadow.  Most pics end up being rather boring shots that are pulled back to capture everything that is going on.  The problem is they also capture all those other random people and some unflattering other things.  My way of dealing with it is to try to get as many close up shots as possible.  I use the lowest aperture setting possible to create blur to help me focus on the important aspects of the shot.  I try to get some details of the day in there, and any emotions too.  While most of the pics are ones I wouldn't write home about, I did manage to catch some beauties. Oh, and I had to sneak one in of my son with his ribbons!