"For the first few years we lived in a tiny rented cottage at the bottom of a friend's garden. We often joked that there was plenty of film in the fridge, but not too much food!"

"Photography started as a means of getting reference material for my paintings of nature subjects."

"Currently I am working on another three books, doing a lot of magazine work, am shooting for fifteen stock agencies, plus my own photo library - all this keeps me quite busy!"

"I also had a tremendous passion for art and read a lot."

"I also like flyfishing - maybe I would have figured a way to make a living out of that?"

"So about twenty years ago I gave up on painting - and got into terrible debt after buying a load of camera gear!"

"I would never dream, for example, of going to The States to photograph your wildlife."

"My first serious project was photographing badgers - very, very difficult as they are shy and nocturnal."

"In The States I would have no edge, no advantage at all."

"For sure, all over Poland, kids had my picture of a lemur on their bedroom wall - but the chances are they may never get to see a real lemur in Madagascar. I thought this was great and it really meant a lot to me."

"I think few wives would have encouraged this kind of drastic and reckless career shift!"

"Big game photography in Africa is mainly done from a vehicle, so then I feel I might as well take the lot."

"I concentrate on the southern African subcontinent."

"The Kalahari is brilliant - and easy to visit."

"All I really wanted to do was wildlife photography."

"I hope to goodness I would not still be working in the corporate world - the money is OK but it is no life at all."

"A large wildlife book, start to finish, could take one to two years, but then I would expect to get several good (nature) magazine features off the back of this, plus of course a lot of stock."

"I carry a notebook full of sketches of pictures I want to take - they are really scruffy sketches, but at least I am going out there with a clear objective."