J. Whyte Photography

Close to the Alberta border is a lovely little (almost) ghost town named Loverna.   In fact, I think its one of the most interesting lost towns on the Canadian prairies and one I hope to visit again sometime soon.   Loverna is located about 50 km northwest of Kindersley  at the intersection of  Highway 772  and  Range road  290.  In Loverna, you will find old abandoned storefronts, abandoned churches and abandoned homes.  In fact, it has a church that was abandoned as a church and converted to a home and then abandoned as a home - an abandoned church house!  Loverna's history is directly tied to the railway system that was designed to gather and move grain and oilseeds produced by farmers on the prairies.  Originally, the  Grand Trunk Pacific  went through town as it was completed in 1913 and connected Biggar, SK to Hemaruka, AB. The line was planned as a thorough route, but changes to the design of the network of tra...

Importance of light Suggesting that light is important in photography is stating the obvious. Let’s be honest… of course light is important. But what I had to learn was that its not so easy to appreciate how light will impact the subject of the photograph, the particular building that is being photographed.  I came into photographing architecture honestly, as a stock photographer focusing on travel and landscape.  And if you are shooting travel stock, then its inevitable that you will need to learn how to photograph buildings.  But travel photography is different, there is a different feel and vibe.  Photographing the Pantheon in Rome? Throw in a great sunset! Make it eye-catching. With architecture photography, I think the building drives the photograph and the light is there as a compliment and not as a main feature.  Its unlikely that you want that insane sunset because that might just be confusing to the viewer. What’s the subject of the photograph? The suns...

  Like many North American cities that grew rapidly after World War 2, Calgary had a building boom that was not untouched by brutalist architecture.   If the idea of brutalist architecture is new for you, brutalism was a type of architecture that developed in the UK during the 1950s. Architects typically used exposed concrete and brick, or a combination of the two materials, in a manner that emphasized utility over decoration, but often with very interesting geometric designs. The term brutalism does not originate or take its inspiration from the English word ‘brutal’ but comes from the French phrase beton brut.   Perhaps the most well know brutalist building remaining in Calgary is the former Calgary Board of Education building in the city centre.   It is believed that the Education Centre Building was inspired by Boston’s brutalist City Hall. While the Calgary building is much smaller, the resemblance is certainly there. The Stevenson Raines Barrett Hutton ...