Today is Mother's Day. In this house, they haven't always gone smoothly, in fact, some have been woeful. So far today is going nicely! And that's a nice thing! The kids both chose me out some lovely presents at the Mother's Day Stall at school on Friday. Heath chose me a set of gorgeous wooden chopsticks, with little inlays in the tops of them and pretty sleeves for each matching pair. He also had made a paper flower, which is very sweet and is currently on the fridge. Jessica, in her first year at school, picked me out a glass that had been covered in a stained glass type effect that also has a little candle inside it. She also made me a lovely card, which she painstakingly copied the words from the "Smart Board" at school. She's been very excited about Mother's Day, and hid the present in one of my drawers. I was under strict instruction not to open the draw! Heath is far more laid back about such things, and also doesn't possess the same degree of organisation, so his chopsticks stayed in his school bag.
Stuart also bought me (well, I chose it and went and got it, he paid for it though, and told me to go and buy it, so that's about as close to him buying me something as I will usually get) the most gorgeous soft white dressing gown. Canberra is cold in winter, so it will be nice to wrap around me to keep warm, although I admit that keeping it clean is going to be the hard part!
Heath was born in November 2001. Jessica in May 2005. I was always fairly determined to keep photographing at the track. And to a large extent I've succeeded in this. There are times when I've felt frustrated and held back. For example getting to trackwork sessions is now far more complicated, and perhaps that's one of the aspects of track photography that I have missed the most. It's harder because it's harder to be away, and also because when I am in Sydney or Melbourne, I'm frequently travelling with the kids. Heath having diabetes made it more difficult, with insulin injections and fluctuating blood sugars making him a far more difficult child to leave with others.
The landscape in the Australian Racing Industry is different these days. But one thing has remained steady, and constant, and if anything, is better than ever. The Australian Horse. I was pregnant with Heath in the autumn of 2001, and then really v pregnant in the spring of 2001, meaning that by the time the Caulfield Cup and Cox Plate rolled around, I was heavily pregnant. 36 and 37 weeks to be exact. The thought of missing the Cox Plate did not ever occur to me. My obstetrician was fairly forward thinking, and a terrific bloke, and he gave me every encouragement that I could do it. He wrote the necessary letters to placated Qantas, and I was allowed to fly. She was lining up for her third successive Cox Plate. There was no way I was missing it, although all the blokes later said they were terrified I'd go into labour at the track. I relented and agreed to miss the Melbourne Cup, thinking that 39 weeks was really going too far. I have to admit though that I was looking on the Qantas site the night before the race, pacing up and down, cursing the fact that I was going to miss the Melbourne Cup.
I was soon to find out that photographing pregnant was actually a bit easier than traveling with the little bundle that was Heath, particularly in the early days. I was 7 months pregnant when the planes struck the Twin Towers in New York on 9/11. It changed the landscape forever, particularly when it came to air travel. And immediately after the attacks, security was so tense and so strict, that it lead to new carry on travel restrictions. For ordinary travelers this probably wasn't so onerous. For a travelling photographer, a freelance photographer at that who didn't have the might of a large company like News Ltd and Fairfax, it made it all very difficult. All of a sudden you couldn't easily take you camera bag as your carry on luggage.
In February 2002 Heath was 3 months old and I was heading to Melbourne for my first race meeting since he'd been born. It was the Blue Diamond Stakes meeting. When Qantas told me my bag was too heavy and I had to check it in. Ordinarily I'd have fought this and split the bag up, and taken it with me on board. With a baby who was proving a difficult sleeper and feeder and prone to screaming at high pitch for hours on end, it was the least of my troubles, or so I thought! Heath actually travelled beautifully down, feeding well and falling asleep. It was at the other end that the dramas unfolded, because Heath and I arrived safely, my camera bag did not! It was a very long story, and a long and drawn out affair. As you could guess, I didn't ever see my camera bag again. Qantas, predictably, didn't ever declare the bag stolen, I presume on legal grounds, but 'lost'. I couldn't actually lodge a theft report, because of the issue of jurisdiction and the unknown quantity as to which state the bag actually was 'stolen' from. Did it leave Canberra? Was it stolen from Canberra Airport? Did it get on a wrong flight, and vanish from another state altogether? Or was it stolen at the Melbourne end? The Victorian police, and AFP were sympathetic, but in the end all I could do was lodge a 'lost property' report with the AFP. My insurers did cover me, but it took until July until the new gear arrived. I was insured with CGU, and often complain bitterly that their current advertisements about business insurance 'whoever you are, whatever you do, we put the You in CGU' is bullshit because on the next renewal I was told that CGU would not renew the policy, after deciding that photographers were too high risk. I was upset about this, because the bag's removal was not my fault, but have since just moved on.
I was sad, however, that the Nikon F5 camera body, which I used to photograph Sunline's 1999 and 2000 Cox Plates, as well as Might and Power's 1997 Caulfield and Melbourne Cups and his 1998 Cox Plate, Saintly 1996 Melbourne Cup and Cox Plate, and those great wins by Octagonal in 1995, 1996 and 1997 was gone forever. The next model was responsible for Makybe Diva's triple Melbourne Cup victories and all of Lonhro's great races, but I have always regretted the loss of that first F5.
When I was pregnant with Jessica, during the spring of 2004 I was struck down by the nausea that seems to accompany the first trimester. Many are more badly affected, and it was only nausea rather than throwing up, but there are various race meetings whose memories make me feel instantly sick. Elvstroem's Underwood Stakes. Savabeel's Spring Champion and Cox Plate are others. My dear friend Gary Wild, on Underwood Stakes Day kept insisting that I stop sitting with my head between my legs and come out of the press room for each and every race. And we stood together in the freezing cold rain when Makybe Diva won that 2nd Cox Plate. By Cup day I think I was over the worst of the nausea, but it's hard work photographing pregnant, and that was trying. Then in the autumn of 2005, I was travelling at now about 7 months pregnant, with my diabetic 3 year old in tow, and it was all becoming a little bit too much. The 3-4 hour drive from Canberra to Sydney was becoming problematic, and my back was getting very sore, but the results were still good. I photographed, now with the addition of my very own AF-S 300mm f2.8 Nikkor lens, up to and including AJC Derby Day, then gracefully called an end to the carnival after that. Jessica was born on 6 May, and I spent my first mother's day in hospital with her. She and I were actually on the front cover of the Canberra Times the day after as well along with about 3 other families.
It's all getting a little easier, with Jessica just having turned 6 and Heath turning 10 at the end of the year. I have also come to the realisation as well, after not being sure for around 3 or 4 years, that I just cannot give up the work I do at the racetrack. So while it's certainly been more difficult, in many ways, it's also more rewarding, when I come through the door on my return home, and the kids bound up to me and excitedly ask whether Lonhro, Makybe Diva, So You Think or Black Caviar won. Or ask how Redoute's Choice or More Than Ready was, and ask to see the pictures. Or when they come up and stand beside me, as Jessica frequently does, and says "I know who that horse is, that's More Than Ready', when his image appears on my screen saver. I collect them little knick knacks that might be on offer at the course, and they have a good little collection of caps as well.
So Happy Mother's Day to all the other mum's out there! And here's to Girl Power!!!!!
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| Early days with Heath. Our first race meeting 'together'. Sunline before winning the Apollo Stakes |
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| The first time I saw Northerly. In the 2001 Australian Cup. I said to Gary Wild "oh god, I'm pregnant, how am I ever going to manage this????". |
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| Ethereal. 2001 Caulfield Cup. This is full frame, there is nothing else on the negative. Not bad for a 36 weeks pregnant chick and her unborn son! |
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| I liked Northerly, truly I did. But he broke my heart this day. This is the 2001 Cox Plate, where Northerly denied the great great champion Sunline her 3rd successive Cox Plate by a mere half a length. Still wonder what might have been had Greg let her slide more like he did in 2000. I was SOOOOO pregnant by now!!!! |
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| Heath, at 20 months, was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in August 8 2003. How was any of this ever going to be possible? But still managed to get to the track, and at the conclusion of the year, to Flemington for what turned out to be the start of something special. Makybe Diva wins the Cup in 2003. |
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| Pregnant with Jessica. Goodness. Morning sickness....... |
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| Takeover Target for the first time. 2004 Salinger. |
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| Vinnie Roe heads out to the track before the 2004 Melbourne Cup. Morning sickness gone, but terrible conditions. |
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| Makybe Diva defeats Vinnie Roe to win the 2004 Cup for the 2nd year. |
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| Makybe Diva winning the 2005 BMW on Slipper Day. About 33 weeks pregnant with Jessica and traveling with Heath. |
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| Admitted defeat after this. I think I was about 34 weeks pregnant, when Eremein won the AJC Derby, and called it a wrap for the 2004-2005 Racing Season. |
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| Back in business. Makybe Diva won her third successive Cup. I traveled solo with Jessica this spring. Just too complicated. |
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