Goats and White Coats…

It’s not a sentence that I had heard before, and not something that I assumed I’d be doing anytime in my career, but as I stood in my lounge room taking a call from a real life goat farmer, the reality of the unimaginable was crystallising.

The farmer in question was showing their livestock at the Royal Easter Show, and had lost their regular photographer last minute when the Show was rescheduled due to Covid. A friend in the theatre world had suggested my name, a connection which I was surprised about, because I hadn’t pictured that African American music theatre performers regularly mingled with outback Australian goat herders. But then again, my expectations in life are regularly confronted.

The gig turned out to be a lot of fun, so much so that I kinda hope that their regular photographer is also busy this coming year. The job was basically to document their success (and the general going ons) in the goat competitions which were to be held over two days. I’ve not spent any great deal of time with goats, but they seemed to be quite lovely animals with large soulful eyes and a soft demeanour (which changed like the wind when they were spooked), and over the time I spent there
I became very comfortable with their company and the intricacies of photographing around them.

They are breeding goats – not for slaughter or milk – just breeding, so they are very well treated and are begrudgingly used to being in competition.

There was one goat in pareticular that caught my eye; a young female, who I found out later is called “Mariah”. I was walking up and down the stalls in my regulation scientists white coat and noticed her looking up at me. I knelt down and took a shot of her, stroked her head and then went about my day. On going through the images later I realised that I had taken my first goat headshot.