A female Roe deer hides in an arable field during the Roe deer's annual rut in the summer, Norfolk, England

By spending a year with deer in the English countryside I hoped to gain insights into their secret life. My objective was to capture intimate behaviour and portraits of Roe deer. In order to achieve any level of success it helped to understand how Roe deer perceive the world around them. Being territorial they are intimately familiar with their surroundings. Any abnormal sounds, smells and sights will make them suspicious. Habituation was my chosen approach instead of camouflage and hides. The Roe deer’s acute senses of smell and hearing makes visual camouflage redundant. I also wanted to photograph across a number of male and female territories so a more mobile approach was needed. With perseverance and patience I developed relationships of trust with two Roe bucks. To such an extent that when I appeared, so would they. It was a humbling privilege to have been allowed into the hidden world of an enduringly free spirit. My work photographing Roe deer resulted in winning first prize in the British Deer Society’s open photographic competition.