Palani Mohan

I just took off, with very little planning, soon after I got there I realized there was a bigger story there, one that needed to be told.

Many times the only reason I returned was because I got so ill, my hands were frozen, my feet were a mess. I had an incredibly difficult time keeping my camera batteries warm. This was the hardest thing I ever had to do.

The eagles don't sit for you, they are wild birds, i was missing images all the time. There's nothing more frustrating than seeing a shot, then it disappears like water on a hot marble plate.

I hope people understand that people still live this way and it's not just something from a museum, but it's changing and evolving, and the younger generation don't really want to be eagle hunters.

They found me incredibly eccentric, they didn't understand why I kept coming back to the cold, leaving my family in Hong Kong, but I hope that when I return with a copy of the book, translated into Kazakh, maybe they will get a better understanding.

There are only 50-60 of what I regard to be the true eagle hunters still alive. They're getting old, and each winter claims a few more.