Jenaya says: I had entered a Canadian Geographic photography competition, sponsored by the Calgary Stampede, called Western Heritage Values. I entered the youth category with a photo of my dad and brother. I was so excited when I learned I was a finalist. Then one day I got the email saying I had won! Not only that, but they had put me up against the adult categories! That meant that I had won the grand prize! As part of the prize package I won 2 tickets to anywhere WestJet flies. I chose the Yukon! My dad and I flew out in the fall of 2012 and spent the next week exploring the Yukon and Alaska in search of animals. We spotted Grizzly Bears, Porcupines, Moose, Fox, and much more. One day while we were out we spotted something walking in front of us. We strained our eyes trying to figure out what it was. Suddenly we realized the animal we were looking at was a porcupine!

I took my camera and camped out in the small ravine he was headed for. I looked up and saw him coming. Quickly I held up my camera and started snapping away. All the sudden he just sat down in front of me and started looking around. I couldn't believe how calm he was! I couldn't stop photographing him when he was posing like that!! After a while he got back up and waddled back into the forest. It was one of the most amazing photographic experiences I've had, and I'm not sure I'll ever get another image quite like it. We decided to enter it into the Nature's Best Photography Windland Smith Rice photography competition. I ended up being named Youth Photographer of the Year with the image! I was ecstatic. Especially because that meant my photo was going to be displayed at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. My dad and I flew out to DC for the awards ceremony and to see the beautiful display of all the awarded images. It was amazing.