3000 Miles, 4 States, and a Dodge Challenger

The last two weeks marked another incredible travel photography project as I covered over 3000 miles through Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, and New Mexico. As the title of this post reveals, it was also made that extra bit sweeter as I covered those miles in a brand new Dodge Challenger.
 

Texas was really the centerpiece of this shoot, so I flew down to Houston to kick things off. Over the two weeks I photographed everything from oilfields in West Texas to an aircraft carrier on the Gulf Coast to the Grassy Knoll in downtown Dallas. The road trip looped into Oklahoma, Kansas, and New Mexico as a way of adding a few more remote shoots into the mix.

Like all my projects, select highlights were featured on the Editing Luke Instagram account as the road trip was ongoing. Of course, you can expect to see complete photo sets as part of my Middle America series appearing here in the near future. In the meantime, here are a few early visual highlights from this latest travel shoot around the Southwest USA.

Spirit of the Canadian Badlands Campaign

As someone who has spent a lot of time capturing, documenting, and sharing iconic visuals all over Alberta, the Canadian Badlands have been a particularly special place to explore for as long as I can remember. Having grown up here, it was a privilege to be part of a travel campaign that allowed me to rediscover, film, photograph, and ultimately showcase some of the amazing people and places of this vast and diverse region.

After two weeks of filming throughout the Canadian Badlands last summer, accompanied by actor Tom Jackson and a handful of other talented creators, I was tasked with creating a series of vignettes and an overall promotional showcase of the experience we had in the Badlands. 
 

What was so great about this project was that we weren't setting out to stage a commercial, but instead allowed the experiences we were having to dictate the direction of the finished work. As a result, the videos are comprised of numerous candid clips and raw moments that were captured while in the midst of meeting new people and being thrown into new experiences.

I think we all have our own definitions / explanations of what we think the 'Spirit of the Canadian Badlands' really is - particularly if like me, you've been surrounded by it for most of your life. Sometimes it just takes a fresh set of eyes to remind us of how amazing our little corner of the planet really is. Explore more of my work around Alberta here.

Banff Park Museum in Banff National Park

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 Canada's Rocky Mountains. This rustic lodge-style museum building was constructed in 1903 and 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. I found the collection impressive and appreciated the stunning woodwork and architecture of the structure. In 1985 the Banff Park Museum was declared a National Historic Site of Canada.