Nigel Dennis Quotations

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.

All I really wanted to do was wildlife photography.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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!

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!

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

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?

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

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

The Kalahari is brilliant - and easy to visit.

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.

One thing you learn fast, when working freelance, is that lots of things do not pan out - projects get canned, clients don't pay, and so on.

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 should point out that I have not worked for National Geographic on assignment - they have merely used my stock agency pics from time to time.

I very quickly discovered photography suited me better - somehow I could get things to work on film, that simply did not look right canvas or paper.

Rather ordinary really - I grew up in the UK, was terribly bored at school (and I have to admit rather rebellious, but this was the late sixties!), but got as far as passing A levels..

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

I concentrate on the southern African subcontinent.

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.

[Agatha Christie] is fond of quoting the witty wife who once said, 'an archaeologist is the best husband any woman can have; the older she gets, the more interested he is in her. Christie's husband, Max Mallowan, was an archaeologist.

Courage is clearly a readiness to risk self-humiliation.

Close encounters are bad. Bad for the animal, as it causes stress, and bad for me for exactly the same reason.

Most acts of assent require far more courage than most acts of protest, since courage is clearly a readiness to risk self-humiliation.

These got me into a good UK stock agency - I am still with this same agency now, and they continue to sell the odd badger image taken 19 years ago!