This sequence of blogs of images from my recent trip to Japan seems never ending. I guess this reflects the amazing opportunities this fabulous country offers and just how successful the trip was.

This blog completes the Japan work and features Whooper swans  and red foxes on Hokkaido. Whooper swans are easily photographable in the UK so going to Japan to work with them seems extreme. In fact, I might argue it would be if that was all I wanted to photograph.

However, saying this, the setting on the huge frozen lake is fabulous and offers the potential for stunning images. It would have been nice if I could have captured the steam that arises from the lake, I have seen many lovely images of this from this location. Unfortunately, a mild breeze, or possible too warm air temps meant the mist was more in my imagination than recorded in my images.

Spending more than one day in one location always offers the possibility of changeable weather, often you hope for better light but here whatever the conditions, the images are always impressive. The change of light and clarity of the air that we experienced though did allow variety, I loved the white out images in grey light yet also really liked the blue sky and mountain backdrop when the grey made way for clear skies.

I have photographed red foxes on three continents now which seems amazing somehow.

I always prefer to work with my local foxes in Sheffield but the chance to photograph them in snow is low and I am less attracted to going to well established hotspots if it does.

In Hokkaido I didn’t expect to have such an opportunity, we certainly looked for foxes but I never expected we would get so close and be able to produce such delightful images. In many ways the fox images were a genuine bonus.