Banff Park Museum: Part 1

Established in 1895, the Banff Park Museum in Banff, Alberta was created to house a collection of taxidermied animals, birds, and various specimens found throughout the Rocky Mountains. The museum building itself was constructed in 1903 in a rustic style, and it is currently the oldest building maintained by Parks Canada. 

Interestingly, between 1905 to 1937 there was a small zoo and aviary located behind the museum. When it closed many of the animals were donated to the Calgary Zoo. The collection is quite impressive, and I found the woodwork and architecture equally stunning. It's no wonder why that in 1985 the Banff Park Museum was declared a National Historic Site of Canada. 

Alberta to California: An Aerial View

I decided to fly down to Palm Springs and rent a car to maximize my road trip time for all of the places I wanted to capture in Southern California. The views aren't always great when flying, especially if it's cloudy, but on both my flights I got some great aerial shots of the Rocky Mountains and the California desert.

Calgary, Alberta suburbs in winter.

There was a rainstorm in Palm Springs while I was there. Some of the main roads got washed out as a result, and when I took off I finally got a view of the what the runoff looked like. You can see how the water ran right off the mountains and turned into a muddy sludge that ran right into the valley. I didn't understand at first why the rain was such a big deal, as it didn't seem that dramatic at the time, however the desert just isn't meant to get that much rain at once.

Road washed out after Palm Springs rainstorm in December.

Roadside California: A New Series

In early December I returned to Southern California to retrace the steps from my previous road trips and begin shooting new footage for my long delayed, Searching Salvation video project. The new trip was once again focused on photo journaling, and it made me realize how much photography I'd already shot around California. It was from there that I decided to start putting together a new series for my site - Roadside California.

The series will be largely brand new content, but will also incorporate older posts to show certain locations and experiences from varying perspectives. A lot of what I've shot around the Salton Sea for instance will be comparisons, showing some of the abandoned locations 5 years ago (or further with archival shots) and what they look like now. 

The new Roadside California page is still very much a work in progress at this point, but you can explore some of the existing and upcoming content here. Expect a lot of interesting posts from around California over the next few months. It should be a great start to 2015!