When my curtain is drawn, this will still probably be my most widely published reportage photograph. It came after twenty eight unsuccessful hours lying face down on a boat deck in False Bay near Cape Town. Sharks only tend to predate on seals in the early morning and there is no reason why this should happen anywhere near a boat. The odds are low and patience is a most necessary prerequisite for this type of pursuit. This shot was captured on my ninth winter morning at sea and its clarity is great testimony to the capability of professional Nikon camera bodies and lenses. In darker hours after an unsuccessful shoot, I sometimes have to remind myself that this is my image and always will be.

This well-known photograph was printed in previous books in black and white, but the way most people first saw it was in colour in newspapers around the world and we decided to rework the file and reproduce it that way for one of my books.

In many ways, it was a picture that changed my whole approach to the monetisation of photography. The reality was that my publishing fees from the sale of the image to magazines and newspapers around the world did not cover the expenses I incurred in taking the image. That seemed quite instructive to me and I became disillusioned with the idea of selling images for content.

If it were not for a lawyer nicknamed “Jaws” calling up and asking for a print for his office, my journey may have taken an entirely different course. It was his appetite to buy the print at several thousand dollars that prompted deep consideration. I had my epiphany - the future for me lay in the fine art market, not in the content/ stock images market.

If that shark had not performed for my camera way back in 2010, I wonder what I would be doing now.