Mark Smith, the cameraman who captured the history-making footage of the snow leopard, says he almost missed the shot.

For six weeks, Mark says they searched the mountains in northwest Pakistan for the ever-elusive snow leopard. Then, they decided to sit and wait in a place where locals said leopards had been spotted before.

On the last day of the shoot, hours before they were due to be airlifted out of the country by the Pakistan Air Force, their luck changed. They spotted a sleeping snow leopard and a mountain goat. "We thought if any time you were ever going to get the shot, this was the time," Mark says.

They waited patiently while their subject napped. Then, during the last hour of the last day, the leopard woke up and gave them the shot of a lifetime.