Elk Island National Park, Dec 30, 2025

Sometimes things just fall into your hands… and it’s kind of a nice change when it happens.

I’ve been going to Elk Island National Park for years now as it is close to my home. I’m not going to lie, until recently I had kind of lost interest with the park over the last 4 years or so as there isn’t much there for sight seeing and I felt I was either getting no good shots or just repeating old favourites. However as of recent, I’ve been re-exploring the area and having unusual luck, especially on the wildlife side of things.

For anyone who doesn’t know, Elk Island National Park was established for the rehabilitation and restoration of bison populations sometime in the early 1900s. Unlike a more popular park, such as Banff, there really isn’t a whole lot of reasons to visit unless you’re from the area. The landscapes are mostly lakelands (swamps) and bush. The elevation gains cant be more than 30m at best (not that this is an official statistic). The “lakes” are usually algae ridden and kind of gross. The main attraction for me is the wildlife spotting opportunities, which I do have to say can be quite good, particularly for bison.

Either way, with my string of recent good luck in the area, I’ve been attending quite frequently and have yet to have left with nothing - this morning being no exception. I went out in hopes of a spectacular sunrise, which initially looked promising. It failed to truly materialize as per usual. So I drove around looking in the usual spots for bison - nothing was close by and worth the shot. No roadside coyote, which was becoming a regular. And as per usual, very skiddish elk somewhere in the distance. Kind of a bust all around.

I took a few “mid” shots knowingly, because I can’t not.

I was mentally packing up getting ready to drive out of the park after shooting a nothing scene of the sun behind clouds, when I saw what I believed to be a nest in a tree. I figured I’d see if anything was in it and grabbed the ol’ long-boy lens to check. However when grabbing my camera I kind of noticed that it looked off. Remembering the fact that porcupines spend something like 90% of their time in trees and really thinking about the bundle of chaos I was looking at, I realized what was actually there.

The joke was kind of on me as I noticed someone else there earlier in the morning with a big telephoto lens and I just assumed they were chasing some far away elk or bison in the bush, given that I didn’t see anything. The only reason I was stopped there was for a mid photo to make my efforts feel more worth it. I guess it shows that sometimes you just have to look around you and you see things.

Now, I’ve seen the odd porcupine before, but not very often. Never with a camera (long lens) available and maybe 3-4 times on the road. So I had my first actual opportunity to capture one (photographically… and not the software - I suck, I know). So I did.

The poor little guy was probably less fond of me than I was of him, but he was pretty cooperative and gave me a good opportunity. Thanks buddy.

Anyway, here’s a few shots:

Story Behind the Shots: Porcupine

Camera Gear: Why old gear is good gear.

Why I won’t specialize my photography.