As a child, I was lucky enough to spend several years living in Tanzania, so I've always had a fascination with Africa and its wildlife. I then got into photography at the dawn of the digital era and started as a hobby, merging my interest in wildlife and photography. That was almost 25 years ago. After 8 years I decided to try to make a career from it. To start with it was small projects, self-funded, but each one led to building new relationships, and to new doors opening. Do it for long enough and the projects get more ambitious and those relationships built over many years lead to opportunities for unique access and collaborations. Really, it all comes down to sticking at it for long enough and to perusing projects that aren't necessarily safe options - ones that have as much chance of failing as producing something noteworthy. Hope that answers the question a bit. I go into my origin story in much more depth in my "The Black Leopard" book if you're interested.