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

I concentrate on the southern African subcontinent.

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

But then one is always excited by descriptions of money changing hands. It's much more fundamental than sex.

Even for an area I know well, I prepare a shooting list of subjects I need.

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.

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!