Page 90 - NZ Hereford Magazine 2023

Derek Morrison finds the right spot to capture oncoming cows and calves during the Ravine muster.

Some of his favourite shots are moving the cattle across the “I couldn’t have done it without everyone helping; it was a
Clarence River, but he says many of them don’t see the light of pretty important part of the whole job for me. I didn’t want to
day because of the negative connotations of cattle in water. interfere with what was naturally happening, so I tried to just
“Not everyone understands things in a rural setting, like on blend into the background.”
The Muzzle, it’s so lightly stocked. Having his own horse was a bonus, especially when his horse
“Environmentally, it’s about as good as you can get farming. was an older hack called Truce, who made Derek’s life a lot easier.
There are a lot of reasons to push stock across the river, but “Without Truce, I couldn’t have done what I did because he
for that one moment in time, you’ve captured 100 Herefords just appeared to know what was going on. He knew when to
walking through the water.” stop. I had a horse when I was doing the Otematata muster
Derek loves the colours of the high country – the red of the called Thunderbolt. Every time I stopped to take a photo, he
Herefords, the green of the river, and the big, blue skies. just kept going, would put his ears in the photos, and was very
“Visually, it’s pretty amazing.” annoying to shoot from. But Truce was good; I could actually
At the start of the Merino Country work, he asked his mentor get him to move his head out of the way to get a clear shot.”
Kim Westerskov, a five-times BBC wildlife photographer of the Otematata Station was part of the Merino Country book
year, for his advice. Derek mentioned earlier. The cook on the muster was Philippa
“He sat me down and said, ‘you need to try to develop your Cameron, who has the blog, What’s for Smoko, and has written
creativity side. You don’t want to just be photographing what two books, A High Country Life and Winter Warmers, the latter
you see, but being more creative with what you’re doing’. He available in April 2023.
instructed me to spend a lot of time in art galleries looking at His visit features on page 166 of A High Country Life, which
high country art, so that’s what I did, and on the walls of my takes the reader through each season on Otematata Station,
home when I was growing up were Tom Roberts paintings, so I while telling of its history, and sharing the recipes that help
studied those – I think the classic one we had was the Shearing Philippa feed family, staff, musterers, shearers, and visiting
the Rams – as well as my parents’ Julie Greig coasters … I photographers. She’s married to Joe Cameron, the fifth
basically stole a little bit from all of them, I guess, but tried to generation Cameron to farm the property.
put a photography context on it.” It’s essentially a sheep station, with about 30,000 merinos,
That went full circle when he was approached by Blenheim but is also home to 500 cattle. Hereford cows are mated
artist Cindy Hutton, who wanted to paint one of his photos with Hereford and Angus bulls, with progeny – apart from
from the Muzzle muster. He was honoured to oblige. replacements – sold as weaners at the Omarama Calf Sale.
He took hundreds, if not thousands, of photos throughout “Where the Merinos don’t thrive, the cows do their best,”
2015, 2016 and 2017, licensing the chosen few to Penguin for she writes in the book. “They eat the pasture down the gullies
the book. The photos are available on his website, but he also that the sheep can’t get to and help manage the land. Each
gifted copies of the photos to some of the musterers who morning as the sun takes its time climbing above the steep
starred in them. terrain, you can see the steam rising from the cows’ warm
“It’s a week of really cool times with a lot of hard work. I’m bodies among the ever-persistent briar bushes. The bright red
just chasing around photographing all the Herefords coming of the rosehip berries contrast with the rusty red of the cattle.
out of the massive, massive paddocks, and through the valleys I’m not sure who is more content in that environment – the
and across the river.” cattle or the musterer.”

88 HEREFORD MAGAZINE Year 2023