These enchanting images capture a rare glimpse into the lives of wild foxes – who trusted a wildlife photographer to enter their forest lair.
The bushy-tailed creatures look almost like characters from a fairy tale as they’re pictured playing, hunting and feeding their young.
Ossi Saarinen, 21, spent months growing close to the foxes before being rewarded with the set of pictures which truly capture their natural beauty.
He said: “Getting close to foxes is difficult. I prefer is to let them see me and learn I’m not a threat to gain their trust.
“This way takes usually much more time and doesn’t always work but when it does it’s possible to get very close.
“I think they are very beautiful animals and their behaviour and life is interesting, however they are also very challenging subject.
“They don’t show up too often and it requires lot of work to find and get close to them.”
Among Ossi’s awe-inspiring images are stunning shots of the foxes frolicking in rays of sunshine which pierce through the trees of the Sipoonkorpi forest in Finland.
One is captured curled up sleeping in a straw nest and another enjoys a scratch as it basks in a dusk light.
Others look majestic as they stroll through the forest matching the orange colours of their bushy fur – while they also show their wild side as they scrap over their next meal.
Ossi, a geography student at Helsinki University, also captured the innocent faces of the foxes’ cute cubs, as they nervously looked out into the big wide world.
“I especially I like photographing young foxes as they are so cute and their facial expressions are sometimes very funny which somehow make them a bit like humans,” he said.
I try to shoot in a beautiful morning or evening light that makes the photos looks different than if they were taken in normal daylight.
“I always try to catch them doing something “funny” like scratching their self or with some funny looking face.
“When I know where and when they move I usually just wait still and quiet until they appear.
“Usually they let me be around if I act calm and don’t make any sudden moves or high noises.
“I believe I became some kind of “friend” with them as they started to let me closer and closer all the time.
“But whenever I found a new fox I need to do all the same process again.”
