HAVE you ever thought about giving up the day job to get away from it all?

That is just what Headington photographer Ross Mackenzie did when he quit work to snap some of the most remote places on earth.

The 53-year-old quit his job as a learning systems manager at the Open University, Milton Keynes, at Easter to get closer to the great outdoors and hasn’t looked back.

After 20 years he decided it was time for a change.

Mr Mackenzie said: “I have done this essentially as a hobby over the last few years.

“I decided it was time to spend a bit more time outside rather than being behind a desk.

“Among my work colleagues there was a mixture of envy and curiosity to see what would happen in the long term.

“I am intrigued by remote places and by the people who choose to live in them. They can be hundreds of miles from anywhere.”

He has made eight excursions since 2007, three to the North Pole and the Arctic and five to the South Pole and the Antarctic.

They are being funded by his life savings – one south Atlantic trip alone cost £12,000 – though he doesn’t dare tot up the final cost.

Yet Mr Mackenzie said: “It is something you need to make sacrifices to be able to do. You are not going to get by on petty cash.”

While his wife Susanna, 53, a freelance lawyer, has braved some trips, he said: “She is happy to leave them to me these days.”

A colossal tabular iceberg in Greenland counts among his most breathtaking sights.

He said: “It captures the sense of remoteness. There is a huge white sheet of ice floating in the sea.

“You think ‘this must be static, it is so big’ but it is still floating.”

Patience and time is the key to getting the right shots, he said, from polar bears to penguins.

He said: “It is not a case of jumping in somewhere, snapping a few frames, and getting back in the boat again.

“It is about creating more time to spend in these places. You have to learn about the place and get the right light and wildlife.”

The images also feature Scotland’s Shetland Islands, where Mr Mackenzie splits his time with Oxford. The longest spell he spent on his own shooting was five days around the Falkland Islands and he has brought home about 150,000 images.

He said: “There is a tendency to take a lot of pictures. I try and edit stuff as I am going. I am deleting pictures as I am taking them.”

  • An exhibition of 64 images is at Oxford’s Jam Factory, Hollybush Row until January 12.