Clyde Butcher

Clyde Butcher has been a photographer for over forty years. He started making photographs of the wilderness after his son was killed by a drunk driver in a car accident. Butcher withdrew into the wilderness and found comfort there. He mainly makes pictures of nature that have been untouched by man. He is attempting to preserve the natural landscape that man has not yet destroyed. Many of his photographs are of the Everglades National Park in Florida. When Butcher first started photography, it was not even considered an art and scorned by many critics. He struggled with that fact for a long time, but Butcher’s Photographs have come to be greatly appreciated over the years.

 

Clyde Butcher only shoots his pictures in black and white. That is part of the reason I like his works so much. I think it takes real talent to be able to shoot in black and white because then lighting and angles are so much more important. Sometimes colors are just distracting or disguise poor composition in a photo. Another reason I appreciate his work is because they are of nature. I enjoy the simplicity of the shots, and the single focused subject. The background is never distracting at all. I enjoy shooting nature and still shots. Clyde Butcher prints all of his own shots anywhere from eight inches to eight feet tall. 

Butcher has received many awards for his work. He works for the “Save Our Rivers” program, the Everglades National Park, The Nature Conservatory, The National Audubon Society, and the River Keepers. He has received the Lifetime Achievement Award, the Florida Artist Hall of Fame Award, The Humanitarian of the Year in 2005 and many more.

“My experience reinforced my sense of dedication to use my art form of photography as an inspiration for others to work together to save nature's places of spiritual sanctuary for future generations.” - Clyde Butcher

Sisters

These are a couple more shots I took this weekend. My little sisters provided some great photo opportunities.

Aperture: 1/320 Shutter: f/5.2 ISO: 100 Focal Length: 17.1 mm

Playing in the Sandbox

Aperture: 1/300 Shutter: f/4.1 ISO: 100 Focal Length: 11 mm

Kite Flying

Aperture: 1/450 Shutter: f/5.2 ISO: 100 Focal Length: 17.1 mm

Warmth

This week has been a perfect time to take pictures of warmth. It seems like spring has been accelerated this year. The primary subject here is the tree budding new leaves. The secondary subject is the lines formed by the branches in the background. I like the narrow depth of field. The warmth of this shot is implied by the fact that the leaves are budding.
Aperture: 1/500 Shutter: f/5.2 ISO: 100 Focal Length: 17.1 mm

My little sisters have been begging to go swimming, but we don't have their pool set up yet. This weekend, they settled for washing cars in their swim suits. They had a great time spraying each other and occasionally the car. The primary subject is the girl, and the secondary subject is the repetition of blue.
Aperture: 1/180 Shutter: f/5.2 ISO: 160 Focal Length: 17.1 mm

Bare feet on a spring day; this defiantly shows warmth. The main subject is the feet, and the secondary is the shadows from the legs.
Aperture: 1/250 Shutter: f/9.9 ISO: 100 Focal Length: 7.1 mm

 

The wind blew all weekend, so we dug out the kites. We had a great time and only got the kite stuck on top of the house twice. The girl is the main subject and the kite is secondary.
Aperture: 1/550 Shutter: f/5.2 ISO: 100 Focal Length: 17.1 mm
Aperture: 1/350 Shutter: f/5.2 ISO: 100 Focal Length: 17.1 mm

Favorites

These are a few of my favorite shots from the last couple weeks. This is, of course, my animal morph.

I really like this shot from last week. The reflection of the sun in the water and the main focus. I also like the way the edge of the ice is partially melted. 

This shot is from a while ago. It is part of a silo at my house. I like the contrast of colors and the repeating patterns of light.

Ice

It was so nice out this weekend that I went for a bike ride to a creek near my house. The ice was still on the creek and provided lots of great photo opportunities. To get some of these shots, I walked along the swollen banks, climbed across a tree over the water, and even walked out onto a sheet of ice floating downstream. Needless to say, this was my favorite shoot of the year.

It was so warm that the bugs started to come out. and they were everywhere. In the shot above, the main subject is the bug, and the secondary is the ice. I love the different colors in the ice.

Aperture: 1/950 Shutter: f/5.2 ISO: 100 Focal Length: 17.1 mm

The main subject is the reflection of the sun on the water. The secondary subject is the edge of the ice on the water. The only thing I did to this picture was to make it black and white, I didn't even need to crop it.

Aperture: 1/125  Shutter: f/3.2 ISO: 200 Focal Length: 7.1 mm

This was a lucky picture. As I was leaving I spotted this chuck of ice stuck against a branch. I got a few really neat pictures before it floated away. The primary subject is the ice and the secondary is the lighting. The shadows provide an interesting contrast. I was told that this resembled liquid mercury.

Aperture: 1/180 Shutter: f/3.6 ISO: 100 Focal Length: 8.8 mm

Over the River

As I got on my bike to leave, I couldn't resist making this shot. Lines formed by the sheets of ice jammed together and turned in different directions are the main subject. The reflection of the sky in the water is secondary. I couldn't decide which way I liked the photo the best. Both pictures have a different mood to them, which made it hard to choose. 

Aperture: 1/300 Shutter: f/4.6 ISO: 100 Focal Length: 13.7 mm

Animal Morph

While at first glance this looks just like my sister's cat Pumpkin, it isn't. This is a morph of Pumpkin and my eyes and mouth. I think the eye on the right turned out the best. I didn't realize that the eye on the left was slightly closed and looking a different direction than the other one because they were from the same shot of me. I really enjoyed this assignment. Working with Photoshop to get the angles, lighting, and fur just right was a lot of fun. 

Depth of Field

Wide Depth of Field

So I was supposed to take multiple pictures of the same subject using different depth of field, but none of my pictures turned out well enough to use. Instead I am using pictures from other shoots. This is an example of a wide depth of field. Everything is in focus, from the fence in the front to the trees in the back. I like how the fence is silhouetted against the sky. The sky is the main subject is the sky and the fence is the secondary.

Shutter: 1/320 - Aperture: f/11.1 - ISO: 100 - Focal Length: 8.8 mm

Medium Depth of Field

In this example of medium depth of field, the main subject is the railing of a spiral staircase. The secondary is the lines.

Shutter: 1/140 - Aperture: f/3.7 - ISO: 699 - Focal Length: 6.4 mm

Narrow Depth of Field

There is a very shallow depth of field in this shot. The main subject is some asparagus plants. I like how the focus is framed by the out of focus branches. The secondary subject is the shadows. 

Shutter: 1/640 - Aperture: f/5.2 - ISO: 100 - Focal Length: 17.1 mm

Another Narrow Depth of Field

I took this shot at a really old library. The books are the main subject and the cracks on the binding are the secondary. I like the symmetry of the books. This shot is a too overexposed.

Shutter: 1/21 - Aperture: f/4.5 - ISO: 800 - Focal Length: 15.1 mm