Off the coast of New Jersey, 3,000 acres (1,200 hectares) of sand dunes and tidal marshes make up Island Beach State Park, a protected 10-mile (16-kilometer) stretch of barrier island. Among the wildlife that call the island home, a population of photogenic red foxes inhabit the park’s thickets and marine forests. When Haley Decker (@thesecondgleam) and her boyfriend Darren Erbe (@darrenerbe) first began visiting the island with hopes of photographing the animals, they were only met with paw prints disappearing into the dunes. Toward the end of winter, however, when fewer people frequented the park, their luck changed. “We parked in a huge empty parking lot, and all of a sudden foxes started popping up out of nowhere from all directions,” says Haley. The pair worked as a team to photograph the animals, being sure to keep their distance as they did so. “We just both approached them slowly and we switched off between shooting with an iPhone or a digital camera. If one of us was taking pictures of the foxes, the other was making sure the foxes felt comfortable.” Photo by @darrenerbe