June 23, 2013
Porcupine in Medicine Bow National Forest, Wyoming

This image almost didn't happen. I had been locked in my office processing images for two days and Jan finally convinced me to go explore the Medicine Bow National Forest with her last night. We took her Jeep and I only brought my landscape lenses because I thought I might photograph sunset if it was interesting. Well, we came upon a porcupine by the side of the road and stopped to shoot it. Jan got out her 500 f4 with 1.4x and 1D Mk IV and I got out my 70-200 f2.8 IS II and 1D X. I didn't even have a 1.4x or 2x and I felt totally under-equipped! The porcupine had turned around and moved up the step by the road into the open forest. We tracked it down from the road and Jan was able to photograph it as it meandered through a wonderful patch of yellow flowers — it was too far away for me to photograph. :( It came really close to the edge of the step and I was able to move up within shooting distance to get a decent shot of it on a log but it was still small in the frame. It didn't like me being that close so it turned away and mulled around too far for me to shoot but at a perfect distance for Jan. Because the porcupine was generally heading parallel to the road, I got ahead of it, climbed the step up to its level, then sat on a rock to wait for it to come to me. I didn't choose the best place to wait because there was too much small brush to get any shots as the porcupine approached. I finally started taking head shots when it was about 4 ft (1.2m) away from my foot. That must have surprised the porcupine because it stopped coming closer, looked up at me, then walked away to consider its options. Fortunately, it stopped about 5 yds (5m) away and turned perpendicular to me which is when I was able to make this image — good porcupine.