Prince of Poultry makes this picture a winner

When you're photographing a turkey leg-eating contest and the guy who wins is wearing a shirt that says "Meat Sweats," you know you're living right.

This year's Taste of Park Ridge in mid-July added the new speed eating contest, which was sponsored by Mel's Craft BBQ. The event attracted 14 contestants in a battle to see who could take down a 2-pound smoked turkey leg the fastest.

The afternoon sun was beating down and the temperature just north 90. Perfect for the indiscriminate scarfing of meat.

As the bell prepared to toll, the team from Mel's set out the 14 smoked legs. Then they followed with the sauce.

"Excellent. More sauce. MORE!," I thought to myself, tenting my fingers like Montgomery Burns from The Simpsons. I wanted maximum mess potential.

When the contestants came to the table, I sized them up. There were about a half dozen high school football players, each one a good bet to be able to handle the job. There were a few 30- and 40-somethings who looked, ahem, like they weren't strangers to a barbecue. Then there was one kid without a shirt who looked to be about 12. He was full of photo potential. Definitely needed to keep an eye on him.

From a vantage point a few feet in front of the long table, I watched as the carnage commenced. As expected, the football players started strong. Knowing I'd be coming back to them, I moved down to the other end of the table where a fully grown man was wearing a stuffed turkey hat on his head as he stuffed turkey in his face.

I exploited that old trope for about 10 seconds then moved back to check on my shirtless kid, who was doing better than expected. I made a few frames of him when I realized that the high school kid next to him looked like he had winning strategy. He had pulled the meat down the bone like he was opening an umbrella upside down.

I kept my finger on the shutter button as he shoved meat in his mouth, sauce splattering all over his face.

With judges peering over his shoulders, he gestured that he had bested the fowl. They concurred.

With a winning time of 2 minutes and 21 seconds, Max Thillens, 18, raised his barbecue-covered hands and flashed a saucy victory smile.

I looked through my photos on the back of my camera and knew I had a winner. Yeah, there were some annoying bottles in the way and I didn't love a lot the background, but there was nothing I could do about that. His sauce-covered flex, coupled with the look of the kid next to him, gave me the storytelling image for which I was hoping.

Later when I was getting his name, he declared himself "The Prince of Poultry." A perfect way to end.