Clyde Butcher | Fine Art

Corn Lily - California

“This image is very different than my normal style of photography. Niki loves to photograph plants and was playing around photographing this plant when she decided they were just to wonderful for a small digital camera. She came and got me, requesting that I photograph them with my large format camera so that she could see all the detail when the image gets enlarged to a giant size. She says, “…so, because Clyde loves me, he took this photograph for me.”  Yes, that is true and it wasn’t easy! It was dusky, so my exposure was ten minutes. In a large format camera everything is upside down and backwards, which makes it hard to make good compositions. However, when the image is an abstract, it’s even harder. I really didn’t think I managed to capture it due to all of the technical problems.  However, I like it so well I might just do a few more close up images down the road!“ -Clyde Butcher

Yosemite 175 - California

“ In Yosemite we stayed 'up top' at around six thousand feet. Every morning and evening we drove past Inspiration Point on our way to and from Yosemite Valley. Inspiration Point is constantly filled with photographers so thick, that often their tripods legs are overlapping each other! It is truly a beautiful view, but I wanted a view that was a little different. I hiked around and down the road until I came across this scene. The problem was that there were bushes in the way, so I bought a ladder and brought it back the next day. With the 8-foot ladder and my 9-foot Benbo tripod I was able to shoot over the bushes and capture this photograph.” -Clyde Butcher

Badlands 1 - South Dakota

“ We were only at the Badlands for 24 hours, but WOW, what a wondrous time it was! A violent storm, complete with tornadoes, ripped through the area. I photographed like mad trying to capture the sun hitting the landscape as it popped in and out of the dark storm clouds. By the end of the day, the sky was totally black with no sun. The next morning I woke up at our normal 4:00am and looked out the window to see that there wasn't a star or even a glimmer of light on the horizon. Thinking the sun was going to be blocked out by the clouds, I went back to bed. I lay there for a few minutes and changed my mind. As we drove out of the parking lot the sun began to break through a slit in the clouds. In front of me was this wonderful formation with dark storm clouds behind it and the sun starting the process of brilliantly lighting up the mountains in the foreground. Niki and I jumped out of the car and set up the camera as quickly as we could. We managed to capture the scene just before the clouds covered up the sun.” -Clyde Butcher 

Dunes - North West Florida

“I had heard about the beautiful sand dunes in the Panhandle of Florida, so I decided to go photograph them. When I arrived, the weather was overcast. 

         Everyday for a week I went out to the dunes, set up my camera, and waited for the light to be right, but the weather didn't cooperate.

Finally, on the last day I was there, the sun broke through the clouds just long enough for me to shoot one piece of film.

These dunes are now covered with houses. They were located in the Panhandle on Cape San Blas, south of the state park. It took me a week of waiting before I captured this picture.” -Clyde Butcher

Moonrise - South FL

“Water soaked through my shoes and up my legs. I looked at the sweeping expanse of water, trees and sky. I could feel something happening. A picture was coming together, and I'd been drawn here, to this exact place, to take it. Off in the east, the moon was just rising over a distant line of cypress trees. A huge single cloud began floating across the horizon, almost like wings, straight toward the spot where the moon was coming up. I set up the big camera and waited, letting the stillness of the swamp settle over me. In a few minutes, moon and cloud aligned. Perfect. Oscar handed me a film holder. I slid it into the camera and tripped the shutter.

Nothing happened. The shutter was stuck. I grabbed another film holder and held it over the aperture for what I guessed was a good exposure time. The spectral moon suspended in the sky, the cloud beneath like a cupped hand waiting to receive it.

Every time I look at that photograph, even now, 28 years later, that stillness, that same mysterious peace, settles over me. I've been trying to capture a "moon shot" with the same magic to it ever since. The timing has never again been as perfect as it was that first moment of my new life, the moment when God drew me back to the wondrous world he created and set me on my way as a photographer again, and to healing. ”

-Clyde Butcher

Gaskin Bay - South West Florida

“I had seen this old mangrove, which survived Hurricane Donna in the 1960's...several times while taking photographs in the Ten Thousand Islands. 

            It expresses the lonely, primeval feeling that I love to experience in the wilderness. 

I had been struck by this mangrove's sculptural beauty before, but the light had not been right for me to take a photograph. Finally, one summer morning, everything came together, and I was able to take this picture. Unfortunately, when Hurricane Andrew hit south Florida in 1992, this mangrove was destroyed.

Located in the Ten Thousand Islands south of Everglades City, Gaskin Bay is filled with wonderfully sculptured mangroves. It is always a thrill to photograph there.” -Clyde Butcher

Loxahatchee River 1 - South East Florida

“The Loxahatchee River is one of only two designated wild and scenic rivers in Florida. After I was asked by the Water Management District of Florida to photograph it for the 10thAnniversary of the Save Our Rivers program, I was excited to experience the river. I was awed by its’ primeval feeling. I was certain I would see Tequesta Indians peaking out from behind the trees…it is truly a beautiful place, and one of the many treasures of Florida.

I spent three years photographing the river before I felt like I had captured the essence of the Loxahatchee. On one particular day two things happened; first, the light was right, and second, I got out of my canoe and ‘walked’ it down the river, rather than paddling. It was a wonderful and exciting day, resulting in the capturing of many images.

             I became one with the river, and it seemed like I saw perfect subjects for photographs everywhere I looked. 

The Water Management District chose Loxahatchee River #1as the image to use on their poster to celebrate the Save Our Rivers program. I shot that image while my tripod and I were deep in mud. Since this was a six-minute exposure, I had to stand very still. The slightest movement, even the movement of my toes in the mud, would have caused the tripod to shift and blur the image. “ -Clyde Butcher

St. Vincent Island Driftwood - Panhandle FL

“While working on the PBS documentary about the Apalachicola River with Elam Stoltzfus, Live Oak Production Group, I took a break and visited some offshore islands. Saint Vincent Island is a National Wildlife Refuge. It is an undeveloped island and a wonder to visit. I only had a couple of days to spend photographing the island, but I could have stayed a long, long time.

When I found this beautiful piece of driftwood with so much texture on it I couldn’t resist photographing the beauty of it.” -Clyde Butcher

Keewaydin Island - South west Florida

“I had been casually walking along the beach when I saw this log that had been washed up. It sat there all alone and seemed to look like a lonely animal of some kind. I decided to accentuate the loneliness by taking a long exposure, which would make the waves and the clouds become soft against the hard edges of the log. When I printed the image I liked the feeling of the contrast between soft and hard and was very satisfied with how it turned out.

When I took this picture this island was in the throes of controversy and up for development. Thanks to the Conservancy of South West Florida, located in Naples, the majority of the island was saved for the enjoyment of future generations.” -Clyde Butcher

Agawamuck Creek Falls 3 - New York “My favorite period of art is the Hudson Bay period. I love the paintings from that era showing the romantic beauty of the earth. I have always wanted to photograph along the Hudson, but when I tried to find a place to shoot all I could find was man-made scenery. When I told the Columbia Land Conservancy Trust in Chatham New York about my dilemma, they helped me to find the natural landscape in the area. Thanks to them I was able to photograph this beautiful little waterfall.” -Clyde Butcher