Nigel Dennis Quotes

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.

All I really wanted to do was wildlife photography.

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

Most acts of assent require far more courage than most acts of protest, since 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.

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.

Courage is clearly a readiness to risk self-humiliation.

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

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

The Kalahari is brilliant - and easy to visit.

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

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

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

[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.

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

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

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!

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.

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 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 concentrate on the southern African subcontinent.

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

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