Raymond Bandar is a retired high school biology teacher and longtime field associate for the California Academy of Sciences. For the last 50 years he’s been collecting all sorts of animal skulls in his San Francisco home.

The bones are meticulously organized and the collection has grown to more than 7,000 pieces. He’s collected many of the bones himself from dead animals that washed ashore along the California coast. Others are from expeditions and trades with other collectors around the world.

I was in San Francisco in April and had the chance to do a quick shoot with Ray in his basement “Bone Palace”. A smaller collection of his pieces are currently on display at the Skulls Exhibit at the California Academy of Sciences thru November 30.