We went to the Wilderness Visions of America Clyde Butcher Exhibit today at the Fort Lauderdale Museum of Discovery. The exhibit is small, but the photos are outstanding and well worth the visit. To our pleasant surprise we were able to get in for FREE by showing our Bank of America credit cards! (One card per guest; you cannot buy more than 1 ticket with one card.) If you do not have a Bank of America card, tickets are $10, and still worth paying for them. The exhibit runs through January 9, 2011.
If you’re not familiar with Clyde Butcher, he is a conservationist and a phenomenal, award-winning photographer of nature. He is known for his exceptional black and white landscapes and is a master of shadow and light. He will set up his equipment and wait for hours (or days) for just the right moment, be it the sun rise or set, a full moon, the moments preceding or following a storm, the fog or whatever else he desires to capture. I found myself at the exhibit staring at the waterfall in one of his photos. It truly looked like it was in motion. Every object in his photos are crystal clear, even the ones in the distance.
Some of the photos in the exhibit are as large as 7 feet x 5 feet! And these are not posters; they are actual photographs. You can learn a bit about the process and his equipment by reading the information at the beginning of the exhibit.
Mr. Butcher lives in Florida, in the Everglades and has 2 galleries in the state. One is in Ochopee and the other is in Venice. Though a photographer for many years, he had a life changing experience after his son was killed by a drunk driver and turned to the wilderness for inspiration and strength. He chooses National Parks for his settings, because he wants to capture nature without interruptions of man, cars and other objects. He’s a big, burly guy with a Santa Claus beard and an eye for photograph perfection. Click here for his website. He even shares info about all of his cameras, lenses and film developing equipment. His photographs and lithographs range in size and price from under $100 to over $17,000.
Any lover of nature, National Parks or photography will truly appreciate his work. If you can see one of his exhibits, you’ll be glad you went!
