I landed home in Australia this morning after my wonderful trip to America to photograph The Big Horse, the Triple Crown champion American Pharoah.   I will write about my trip more fully in the coming days, however for now here is a handful of images, along with my profound thanks to my partner Darren Tindale who held the fort so wonderfully here at home, to my dear friend Steve Haskin who helped me put the trip together without ever making me feel like it was a waste of money and effort, and to one of my very best friends Lyn Beaumont who accompanied me on the trip.  Without these precious people in my life I could never have undertaken a trip such as this.   Steve writes " Hangin' with Haskin ' for The Blood Horse and his piece on my trip can be found here .  He writes far more eloquently than I ever could, so it's best to leave the words to him... The Big Horse.  American Pharoah.  Triple Crown Champion.  Arrives at Monmouth Pa...

It seems like forever since I have sat down at my computer (or my iPad) and written on this Blog.  To my regular readers I'm sorry.  To begin with I guess things just seemed to be sailing along so nicely that I almost forgot about writing.  Or at other times I think just keeping up with everything meant that I was wasn't devoting that 30 minutes or so most days to writing.   However in August it became apparent to me that all wasn't well with me.  For someone who's always been well, and the only 2 times I've been in hospital was for the birth of my two children, this came as a bit of a shock.  But then I guess "The Spanish Dancer", or "The Big C", or pure and simply cancer, is always going to be a shock.  I think it's one of life's real cruelties that a girl had to get cancer to get loads and loads of really beautiful and cool flowers. I won't go in to too many details here, but suffice to say that I have been extremely fortunate...

I'm sitting in the car with Jessica while Heath is at soccer training. He's in the next pitch over and the light is dimmer and I have trouble making him out. And Jessica and I find it too cold to stand and watch on the sidelines. My eyes are beginning to struggle a tiny bit in dim light. Too many hours squinting through a view finder, and then negative and/or computer screen I guess. These days when we drive on the highway I prefer to have the trip over and done with by dark. Particularly when there's no back up driver. And sadly more often than not there is no one to share the driving with. I have to try to remember to watch Gerard Whateley's football show at 7.30pm tonight (please don't ask me to remember what it's called, I know you know I cannot remember it), and watch the announcement of which stallion has been chosen for the great Black Caviar, in what will be her first year at stud. Black Caviar is not an ordinary horse, is she? She is Extraor...

I spent yesterday afternoon on the highway, driving the very familiar route between Canberra and Sydney.  Maxie was with us.  It is nice travelling with our kitty.  Driving makes me think, and wonder, and reflect on things.    I won't say too much.  But these are some reflections on the day, and the leadup to it, of the horse that I love, and the love that she has inspired, both for me and around me. This is a little boy from Canberra. Incredibly photogenic, and then beautifully helped by a lovely member of the NSW Police.             Famous Pony masks for the Mounted Police.  Fantastic!       The Australian Girls' Choir sang.  I love it when they perform.  There was joy in their faces as they sang "Ain't No Mountain High Enough", which I love.  Ain't no mountain high, Ain't no valley low, Ain't no river wide en...