Ever since I was a 7th grader, frantically watching YouTube videos to learn how to ski the night before I went on my first ever downhill ski trip, (thankfully I had told everyone I had skied before, so the pressure was on) and then surviving said trip, I have always wanted to go skiing in Banff. Banff meant skiing to me, and skiing meant Banff. So when my dreams of a big ski birthday bash were dashed in 2021, I was quite sad to say the least.
But Allie recently said to me why don't you try to go to Banff before winter ends this year?
Then my friend Ryan, randomly texted me the next day, "Hey, do you want to go to Banff in a few weeks? "
It was a sign. "Yes, yes I do."
Naturally, I brought my Contax 645 with me, and shot everything on medium format Kodak Portra 400.
The first pic on the far left here is at the Calgary Public Library - how pretty is that design?
I was only slightly panicked anytime I bailed, hoping that the 20+ year old camera was still in one piece.
Thankfully no cameras were harmed during this trip.
One note of caution, is that when you're in the middle of the Canadian Rockies, you do tend to take a lot, a LOT, of mountain photos and say the word "Wow" a lot. Like after a while you even get annoyed at yourself for saying wow so much.
Wow.
One great thing about this trip was going with someone like Ryan who also believes in the the perfect moment and the perfect spot for a photo. Which led to a lot of pulling over on the side of the road, hiking across mountains with your skis on your back, and barreling up a mountain in our Jeep to make the sunset. No complaints here.
Another thing I was excited to use was the 45mm lens for the Contax 645. It a 28mm equivalent, and I though this was a perfect place to run it through the paces.
Self timer in action below:
One of Allie's stipulations for me to go on this trip was to go snowmobiling. She had gone when she went to Banff a few years ago and she said it was one of the most fun things she has done in her life. She wasn't wrong.
Sometimes the vistas were so vast, it took 3 photos to take in all in. Below is a photo merge of the 3 photos above.
Group shot.
And here's the ending of the adventure with a self portrait. Shot that wider 45mm here.