There are some animals the camera just loves, and there are some cameras that the animals love back. My camera loves Kim, our new pregnant ewe, and she seems to already love the camera, something it usually takes my animals weeks or months to do. I understand that my camera is an extension of me, almost a limb or joint. I always have a camera with me, the animals never see me without a camera. I am always careful to associate the camera with food – I used to put it on the floor next to the dogs when they were eating so they would come to like and trust it – and even when I am hauling hay out to sheep, the camera is hanging off of my shoulder, swinging back and forth.

Most often, when the animals see me, I am clicking away. Still, there is magic and spirituality beyond that, sometimes the images capture something in an animal that touches me and other people, I don’t always know what it is. Lenore is like that, so is Simona and Red, they just photograph well. Yesterday I saw that Kim was such an animal and I put up some photos of her, and I got hundreds of comments, replies and messages about her, something about the images touched something in people, it is an amazing thing to see, she’s been here for two days and is already a well-known animal here, a presence all of her own.

Animals are all different. Minnie does not love the camera, neither does Frieda or Lulu and Fanny, it is not easy to get distinctive shots of them. Kim and I will be great pals, she is in the pantheon. Because photography is so important to me, I wonder if I connect with the animals by proxy, if we communicate through the camera. Looking at this photo of Kim – she actually came out and posed for me – I think the answer might be yes.