Oct. 25--Black-and-white landscape photographer Clyde Butcher recently led a seminar on his craft at the Boca Raton Museum of Art.
The two-hour session highlighted the Florida-based Butcher's expeditions throughout the United States and his expertise in applying computer software technology to photography.
The first half was a presentation of "America the Beautiful: The Monumental Landscape," a collection of landscape photographs taken at state and national parks and other scenic locations throughout the country. Photographs included natural scenes at Badlands National Park in South Dakota, Devils Tower National Monument in Wyoming, Sawtooth National Forest in Idaho, Humboldt Redwoods State Park in California, Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area, and Acadia National Park in Maine.
"He's got an incredible eye. He catches the right thing at the right time," Wendy M. Blazier, senior curator at the museum, said of Butcher.
"Clyde Butcher: Wilderness Visions," a photographic collection of his work, is on exhibit at the museum. The photographs in the exhibit include many of the Florida Everglades, an area that Butcher has extensively photographed.
"They are consistently photographed in a particular way to make the viewer feel like you're right there, and you can step in that," Blazier said. "He always seems to have a path in the middle as if to impel the viewer to walk in."
Butcher provided details and personal anecdotes on taking photographs using any of his three Deardorff large format view cameras, lugging the heavy equipment through mountains and swamps, and how he is often concerned with how he must perilously perch the camera near cliffs and water to get his chosen shot.
"It's not studio photography. You can't control where the clouds are, where the sun is," Blazier said. "You wait for the right moment."
His wife Niki, to whom he has been married for 45 years, and daughter Jackie often accompany him into the wild. It took Jackie, who recently began working in one of his two Florida galleries, many years to feel comfortable in swamps, he said.
A self-taught photographer, Butcher began to seriously develop his craft to help him succeed in his college architectural studies at California Polytechnic State University at San Luis Obispo.
"I learned how to make order out of chaos. I think you learn that in architecture. If you look at my work, it's very architectural," Butcher said.
A 1996 photograph taken at the Avenue of the Giants in Humboldt Redwoods State Park in California demonstrates Butcher's unique ability to draw viewers into the scenery he photographs.
"Pepperwood ('Pepperwood Redwood Forest 1') is a feeling of being there. I can feel that compositionally," Butcher said.
To obtain that one image, Butcher took eight different shots and ultimately used a 10-minute exposure.
"That's a great image because it makes you feel like you're going to drop in. It's not like a straight-on picture of something. It's almost like a diorama," Blazier said.
Butcher applies techniques with the Photoshop program based on similar principles he applies while preparing his prints in a traditional darkroom. He enhances the photos with burning and dodging tools but doesn't manipulate images to add elements that didn't exist in nature.
Butcher said he would soon complete a DVD video presentation on his Photoshop techniques, which he hopes to be available by the end of the year. View www.clyde butcher.com for details.
"It was a great lecture. I really enjoyed it," said Marc Perron, of Boca Raton. "The next time I go to take pictures, I'll try to think of what he said to apply it to my photos."
The Butcher exhibit at the museum runs through Nov. 9. The museum is at 501 Plaza Real. Call 561-392-2500 or view www.bocamuseum.org for more information.
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