Just what has been before the lens?

September 14, 2011

I seem to have lost the will to write for a little while. It's been party due to feeling well and truly down about various aspects of my life. Some of those are on the improve, but others are mired still in uncertainty and potential sadness, which, when prone to fits of anxiety, doesn't help my mood or ability to keep the workflow going.

However, in a concerted attempt to stay busy and to stay focused I am trying wholeheartedly to process all of the work I have done in the past 3 weeks as well as catching up on writing. And in all honesty, it's been reassuring to see that, as I go through the work, there's some really good material in there. As usual, ponies usually come to my rescue, no matter how grim other aspects of life appear to be.

So what has been before the lens? Well, on 25 April, my friend Angela and I set off in the trusty Dan, bound for the green fields of Scone in the Hunter Valley. The purpose of the trip was to be in the Hunter Valley during Stallion Parade Week for 2011, and consisted of a mixture of both commissioned shoots and editorial work. This being a summary rundown of what's been happening, I'm only including a couple of images from each shoot, with more detailed posts from each assignment to follow.

Our first stop on the way to Scone was at John Singleton's picturesque "Strawberry Hills Stud" at Mount White, where the incredibly lovely Bridie Sparkes took us around the farm. We spent a good 2 hours there, before regretfully saying that we really should set off again, because we still had a decent number of kilometres ahead of us before we reached our destination.

This is Bridie Sparkes with Joy of Bridie. She's an unraced filly, who is priceless due to her breeding. She's by the great stallion and my Prince, More Than Ready, and was the last foal of the great broodmare Joie Denise. She's therefore very closely related to the champion racehorse More Joyous, who of course is by More Than Ready out of Sunday Joy who is a Sunday Silence daughter of Joie Denise. Joy of Bridie has had a wind operation. It would be fabulous to see her race, but one suspects her realworth will be as a broodmare down the track. She's so like More Joyous though, that I desperately would love to see her race!

Joy of Bridie

We arrived in Scone just after 7pm, so it had been a long day on the road, and checked into where the lovely Kirsten at Darley had booked us into, The Canter. We then wandered up the road to the Royal Hotel for dinner and a glass of red wine. The end of the trip was highlighted by lots of laughing as some good dancy music came across the iPod, causing one friend to comment that our taste in music was questionable, but largely that was forgiven as we were nearly at our destination!

It was later to bed that we anticipated, because we started watching a Sandra Bullock movie (ok, who doesn't love her!) and so it was 11pm by the time we collapsed into bed, despite the fact we had to get up at 4.30am to get to Coolmore in time for the paddock session we'd organised with the lovely Peter O'Brien the next morning (small groan).

Amusingly it wasn't until we were halfway to Aberdeen that I suddenly said 'oh, Happy Birthday to Me!" because I suddenly remembered that Friday was my birthday. I had a day in front of me with one of my best friends in the whole world, and lots of ponies to photograph, there are few better ways to spend one's birthday really, although I did have a tinge of regret that my kids weren't there with me. We'd been out and had a family dinner though already, so that was ok.

As we approached Jerry's Plains, which is about 40 minutes from Scone, we began to hesitantly think that perhaps the valley wouldn't be blanketed in fog, like it always had been for previous visits, but hardly dared to hope. And to our delight, the new day was dawning clear, and the sunrise was full of glorious light that bathed High Chaparral, who's devine anyway, in sublime colours.