Got up at 4.30am this morning and photographed this fox just before I headed home around 9.00am. I was lucky enough to catch a glimpse of it perhaps 200 metres away across the field, which gave me a crucial advantage. With only a minute at most before it would reach me, it was a simple decision to quickly tuck myself into the hedge, set up the camera and hope.
In fact the fox took several minutes to arrive because it was pausing and 'mousing' as it came. That also meant it was distracted somewhat (less likely to spot me) and it also provided more time to take four shots at the right range before it went behind a patch of nettles and past into the hedge behind me.
I can't be sure if it's the same fox that appears in my film but it's the same field. Foxes and badgers breed in the same burrows year after year if they are not disturbed but they don't often live for long - mange is a very common and highly contagious disease that kills a lot of them.
I don't get the chance to take many stills so I don't bother with the latest and greatest stills equipment. This was taken with a Nikon D60 (used on Ebay £250) and a 25 year-old Canon 300/2.8L FD manual focus lens which has been adapted for use on 16mm and 35mm cine cameras.
