gapvic

For anyone else interested, turns out the woman Rebanne put me onto was the one who imported the Spanish Mastiff into Australia. She brought in two but didn't breed with them, so there are none available.

That's weird Rebanne - not sure why you couldn't pm me? I've just sent you a message :).

Google hasn't helped - I read here on DOL that the breed is in Aust - can anyone point me in the direction of breeders? Many thanks.

Thanks everyone. DDD, I agree. And look at his feet, so exposed too

And something from google about Giuseppe if anyone is interested in knowing more about him My link

(My facebook friends would have seen this, but I thought some of you might like this story too) Guiseppe aka the Pigeon Man of the Pompidou Centre On our first night in Paris we decided to walk down to the Seine. On the way, as we passed the Pompidou Centre, we noticed a very large flock of pigeons. It was strange because (a) when I had been there earlier in the day there were only a handful of birds and (b) these pigeons had an air of expectancy about them. Now these are not your average, friendly pigeons; these are scrappy little birds that would sooner poo on you than talk to you. They don't scatter around your feet begging for food but instead perch thickly atop the surrounding trees and buildings, peering haughtily over their beaks with yellow eyes at the people passing below. All of a sudden they took to the air, en masse, then swarmed about a hunched old man who had appeared pushing two trolleys. We watched as he proceeded to pull bags of wheat from the trolleys to scatter for his birds. Oblivious to everyone else, these strange birds were enamoured with the bent old man. I took some photos then we continued on our way. Pigeon Man kept on popping into my thoughts throughout the next day; I wanted to photograph him again, to better try to capture the relationship he had so obviously developed with the birds. That night, armed with camera, we went back to the Pompidou Centre and waited with the birds for Pigeon Man to appear. Right on cue, at exactly the same time as the previous evening, he arrived. The birds were overjoyed. They left their lookouts and became a black grey mass surrounding him, some alighting on the convenient perch provided by his deformed spine. It was wonderful - hundreds of birds around him and on him as he tossed their wheat from bags pulled from his trolleys. When the wheat was gone, some of his birds landed on his arm and he hand fed them bread. He smiled at them; he murmured to them - his love for them was obvious...and as I photographed him an artist came, knelt at my side and spoke to me. He told me that Pigeon Mans name was Giuseppe, and that Giuseppe was homeless. He told me that every morning at 7am, and every evening at 7pm, Giuseppe comes to feed his birds. He told me that the birds are his family. It was just like the fox in The Little Prince; Giuseppe had tamed them. (and I'm not afraid to add that editing these photos brought a little tear to my eye. I hope you too can see how much he loves these birds).

Thanks so much everyone! The early evening light was just oh so beautiful. There is something about water and light, isn't there? It's just magical.

Thanks Kirislin, I shall look for the film! No, won't be selling any but if you want some just let me know, happy to put big files on dropbox for you.

Hi PC, I'm actually pretty wired. Slept about two hours last night and it's 4am and I've been up editing photos since 1am. Probably going to crash later today lol! I did the shoot with a company called Create Away. They do workshops that can last from half a day up to a week, usually with a group of people. When I was there the timing didn't fit with a workshop, so I did a one on one shoot so it was just myself and the facilitator, Serge. That was brilliant - no worrying about getting in other peoples shots or vice versa. I think even when they run the group workshops though it's small. They also do a stallion on a beach shoot which I would have loved, but couldn't afford to do both and the mares in the lagoon shouts more Camargue to me so that was what I opted for. Basically, the three guardians just herd the mares in whatever direction Serge instructs. The mares are very quiet and very tractable, and stick together in the herd when moving. I was quite amazed - if it was my horses, one would have been sure to have taken off and gone bush. But I guess the mares are used to it as it's how they live, semi wild out in the marshes. We moved to a few different lagoons which was physically very difficult - we had to wear long rubber waders (was in the water for almost all the shots), long tops (mosquitos are bad), carry heavy camera gear, and wade through the water for several kilometers. The temp was over 30c, even so late in the day, and I struggled to make it to the far lagoon lol. In saying all that, the experience was absolutely magical and having the heard of mares galloping straight at me through the water with the sun setting behind them is something I'll never, ever forget. If you are ever in southern France and can make it happen, do. The final few I've just finished. Now on to the rest of the trip lol! There are heaps more images here on my facebook page for anyone interested :)

Thanks everyone :)!