Internationally renowned photographer Clyde Butcher was on hand last week to open his new gallery on St. Armands Circle, which features wall to wall Florida scenes, photographed by Butcher, and will be home to rotating exhibits from the Butcher collections. The gallery is open to the public Tuesday through Saturday from 11 a.m. until 8 p.m., and Sunday from 12 p.m. until 5 p.m. Of the current exhibit, Butcher says, "People can get a little taste of Florida, and maybe find out about some beautiful places to visit."

Raising awareness for conservation is something that Butcher feels passionately about. He wants his photographs to speak about how precious our ecosystems are and how easily they can be overlooked. For most of his work, Butcher uses  an 8-inch-by-1o-inch view film camera, as pictured above. Photos taken with this camera take almost two months of processing before they are even seen, Butcher explains. Using it forces Butcher to stop and enjoy the scenery he's in because it takes him so long to capture an image. He can only take one or two pictures per session, he says, so he takes care to set up the image and wait until the perfect moment to capture what the scene is trying to "tell" him.

Being able to capture the feeling of a scene is what makes the difference between a good image and a bad one, Butcher says, and why he's partial to using film. "With digital photography, you just point and click and the image doesn't mean anything," he says. "Film makes you think about what you are taking a photo of and how to represent it best." 

The gallery is located at 55 South Boulevard of the Presidents Sarasota, 34236. For more information visit Butcher's web site  or call (941) 702-8818