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Clyde Butcher - Black & White Fine Art Photography
CLYDE BUTCHER
Black & White Fine Art Photography
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Technical Information

Developing His Own Technique

12x20 View CameraLR

Beyond the aesthetic qualities of Clyde Butcher’s work, what distinguishes his landscape photography from that of other well-known photographers are the incredibly detailed mural-sized prints he produces on fiber-based silver gelatin paper. By carefully matching view camera format size to the subject matter photographed, Butcher can make prints measuring up to 5×9′ feet that allow the viewer to more fully embrace the breadth and scope of the landscape as Butcher experienced it in the field.

“I try to use the largest film possible for the particular subject I’m planning to photograph. So, if I have a huge, broad landscape, I use the 12×20″ view camera. If I am photographing something like the Ghost Orchid I use a 4×5″ view camera,” explains Butcher, who most often works with an 8×10″ view camera, but has a host of smaller and larger format view cameras. Butcher began making large prints as early as 1968. It has been in the last 20 or more years that he refined and perfected his technique of producing mural-sized prints.

 

CLYDE’S TECHNIQUES & EQUIPMENT
Film Cameras
Clyde uses a variety of large-format view cameras ranging in size from 4×5” to 12×20”. Below, you can see how Clyde maneuvers his 8×10″ view camera as he, chest-deep in the Sante Fe River, positions himself to get the shot.

View cameras were first developed in the mid-1800s. A film holder located at the back of the camera holds a single sheet of film. The lens forms an inverted image on a frosted glass screen. Clyde sees an up-side-down image when he frames and focuses the shot. A light-tight, accordion-pleat, flexible bellows enclose the space between the lens and film. Unlike most cameras, the film holder and the lens can move in various ways relative to each other. Clyde can adjust the “shift” and “tilt” axis of the lens to control focus, depth of field, and perspective. The lens is attached to a shutter that controls the time of the exposure. A tripod is usually used to support the camera, especially during a long exposure.

Clyde’s Collection of Cameras
List of Large Format Cameras Clyde owns: 12x20 - Ron Wisner 11x14 - Deardorf 11x14 - Richard Ritter 8x10 - Deardorf 6x10 - Ron Wisner 5x7 - Deardorf 4x5 - Clyde-O-Wide (this is a camera Clyde designed. It has no bellows, a fixed 38mm Super Angulon XL lens that has helical focus. He calls it his 'snap-shot' camera. 4x5 - pinhole camera 4x5 - ShenhaoA. 12×20” Ron Wisner
B. 11×14” Deardorff
C. 8×10” Deardorff
D. 5×7” Deardorff
E. 4×5” Wista
F. 4×5” Pinhole
G. 4×5” Clyde-O-Wide (this is a camera Clyde designed – it has no bellows, a fixed 38 mm Super Angulon XL lens that has helical focus. He calls it his ‘snap-shot’ camera),
H. 6×10” Wisner
I. 35 mm Pinhole

Lenses
Clyde uses a variety of interchangeable photographic lenses ranging in size from 35 mm to 1100 mm. Most of his lenses have a 90 – 120-degree angle of view. Some lenses which he uses in Florida are wide-angle – useful in dense, lush areas like the Everglades. The longer lenses are useful for western scenes, where there is more space between geological features. On occasion, he has used telephoto lenses such as the 1500mm lens on a medium format camera to capture wildlife images (such the Whilden’s Pond and Big Cypress Gallery series). These are relative to the format of the film being used. A 210mm lens is considered a telephoto lens on a 4×5″ but a 210mm lens would be an extreme wide-angle lens on a 12×20″ camera.

Clyde’s Lenses*Large lenses 2
A. 35 mm Rodenstock Rodagone
B. 55 mm Rodenstock Rodagone
C. 72 mm Super Angulon XL
D. 90 mm Super Angulon XL
E. 120 mm Nikon
F. 165 mm Super Angulon XL
G. 210 mm Super Angulon XL

Butcher_C_x_orange_filter

 

Filters
Clyde uses a variety of filters including red, orange, yellow and yellow-green. The filter is attached to the outside of the lens. His most often used filter is orange which adds contrast to the sky and clouds.  

Tripods
Surveyors tripod – Benbo Sanford & Davis

Film
T-max 100 – developed with T-max film developer with Kodak Rapid Fix

FILM PROCESSING
Each photograph that Clyde takes is captured on an individual sheet of film. An 8×10″ camera uses a sheet of the film of the same size. The film needs to be processed in a chemical developer.

Clyde uses the tank processing method to develop his sheet film. Sometimes he stores negatives of photographs that he’s taken for months before developing them. The film developing process is done in complete darkness to protect the film from light exposure. Individual sheets of film are removed from the film holder and inserted into a metal film hanger. The film is notched in one corner so that Clyde knows the emulsion side. This is important because the HandsNEG_LRfilm can be ruined if the emulsion sides of two pieces of film touch.  The film is submerged in a tank filled with processing solution and then agitated for approximately 7 minutes. The negatives are then submerged in a tank of stop bath solution and then into a fix solution.  After processing the film is rinsed in water for an hour then emerged in a solution of Photo-flow for 30 seconds to prevent streaking. The negatives are hung to dry overnight.

Negative HolderLR

This 12×20″ light-tight film holder needs to be preloaded in the dark. Each holder carries two sheets of film.  Clyde will prepare several of these before heading out to shoot. After being inserted into the back of the camera, the “dark slide” is removed. Clyde takes his shot, then reinserts the dark slide – now he flips over the film holder to ready the second sheet of film. Typically, because the opportunity to capture an image is time-sensitive, he will shoot a maximum of two shots. Clyde is a master of photography and therefore knows the exposure time and aperture settings, so he doesn’t need to bracket. The second shot is simply for quality control.

 

Clyde with his darkroom assitant, son-in-law Neal Obendorf When a publishing company was turning to computers and throwing out all of their old equipment, they called Clyde and asked him if he’d like a 24x34 copy camera. Clyde had just begun using a 12x20” view camera and wanted a 12x20 enlarger, however those don’t exisit. He knew he was going to have to build one if he wanted an enlarger, so when this opportunity presented itself, he dashed over to Miami to pick up the camera. To his dismay, it was too large and heavy for him to fit into his car. He had to return with help and a larger vehicle. When he got it into the darkroom, he had a variable contrast head made for it and redesigned portions of it to make it into an enlarger. He can now enlarge his 12x20 negatives to as large as 55x90”…exciting!DARKROOM PROCESSING
Clyde’s printing room is filled with a unique collection of enlargers. He has a 5×7″ and 8×10″ Elwood, and an 8×10″, 10×10″ and 11×14″ Salzman. He removed their heads and replaced them with variable contrast Aristo heads. His “glory” enlarger is “Big Bertha”, a 26×36″- 16-foot horizontal rail copy camera that was given to him by a printing company. This beautiful piece of equipment was on its way to the dump since computers are taking over the job of copy cameras. It was offered to Clyde for free, all he had to do was pick it up. That was easier said than done. “Big Bertha” weighs around 2,000 pounds! After setting up “Big Bertha” in the darkroom, Clyde had a custom 12″x 20″ variable contrast Aristo head designed for the copy camera, and it has now become a horizontal enlarger.

printingochoppeeLRDARKROOM PROCESSING
Clyde gives a new meaning to the term, “necessity is the mother of invention.” Throughout his life, Clyde has overcome challenges by developing his solutions for achieving the desired result.

From creating the mural-size darkroom prints, for which he is famous, to embracing the digital world of photography, when the physical challenges of carrying the view camera into the swamp became daunting, he has overcome obstacles with ingenuity.

“The first time I did a huge print I had to wash it in the swimming pool, laughs Clyde, “I’m sure the chlorine wasn’t too good for it.”

Eventually, Clyde built 4×5′ foot sinks and developing trays out of Plexiglas. The trays run down the center of the 100-foot long chemical room and allow him to develop 40×60″ prints. Just moving the huge prints from tray to tray was a challenge – Clyde’s solution – an assistant stands on one side of the sink, and Clyde stands on the other. They wrap each end of the print around pool noodles, then pass the paper back and forth through the chemistry: rolling it and unrolling it again and again through the developer, stop, two fixes, hypo-clear with selenium, and an hour wash before it is hung to dry.

To accommodate the washing of several large prints, heClydehangingochopeeLR designed and constructed his own 40×60″ inch vertical washer. After the print has dried, it is stored flat with weights to reduce wrinkles.

For the final presentation stage, Clyde uses a vacuum hot press to mount his prints on museum board and uses metal frames to hang the prints. “We do our mounting with heat and vacuum,” explains Butcher. “We mount our own prints because fiber isn’t flat like RC paper so you can have wrinkles. We don’t recommend that people mount their own prints. It can get very frustrating at times after you have done all this complicated processing then try to mount the print and it wrinkles. Every time you handle one of these prints, it’s a disaster waiting to happen,” he adds.

PaulspotingLRButcher has created a specific numerical printing system to help maintain a more organized and efficient inventory of images. Each photograph is hand-printed by Butcher in his darkroom using fiber-based paper, and selenium toned for archival purposes, then mounted and matted to current archival standards. The photograph is then hand spotted with archival ink to remove any dust spots, signed, and issued a limited-edition number. As the number of prints available in each limited-edition becomes fewer, the price of the remaining prints increases.

“I want people to view my work up close,” says Butcher of his desire to produce very large prints. “Most people don’t know how they see. You really only ‘see’ about five to seven degrees and perceive 120 to 180. When you’re in nature, you’re scanning from the log to the tree to the bird to the water, and your mind puts in this perception of what it feels like. And sharpness is the whole key to it. I mean, I can make a 12-foot print from a 35 mm negative, and if you stand 40 feet away it would look fine, but if you stand three feet away it would look pretty bad. So if you have a large image with a lot of detail, the detail has to be very sharp. Your eye likes to see what’s there.”

Watch Clyde’s darkroom process from start to finish:

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Digital Cameras
Clyde uses a Cambo Actus with a digital 36 megapixel Sony A7R camera and RZ Mamiya lenses.

Clyde with Cambo digital RZ mamiya lens 7x10

The Cambo Actus allows him to create images using swings and tilts, rise and falls, and shifts, just as he has been able to do with his large-format view cameras. The Cambo Actus with the Sony camera also allows him to use a variety of lenses. Currently, he uses the lenses listed below:

cambo with lenses B&W_LR

Hasselblad – 50 mm 150 mm
Mamiya 645  – 35 mm 80 mm
Pentax 6-7 –  67 mm 45 mm 105 mm 800-1200 mm
RZ 6-7 – 75 mm 180 mm
Rodenstock enlarging lens 80mm

Clyde also uses his Sony A7R without the Cambo Actus attachment, those lenses are listed below:

Canon tilt & shift 17 mm 24 mm 45 mm
Canon 24 mm to 70 mm zoom
Canon 70 mm to 200 mm zoom
Voigtlander 12 mm, 15 mm, 21 mm

Clyde manipulates the image on the computer much as he does in the darkroom using a variety of imaging enhancing software, then, he prints the image on an Epson Stylus Pro 11880 printer. He uses archival Ultrachrome K3 ink and prints on archival Harman Hahnemuhle paper. The limited-editon print is then mounted and matted to current archival standards.


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    We were young when we shared Hawai’i with our ch We were young when we shared Hawai’i with our children, and it was there they learned that if you want a good photograph, you have to get up early. I needed even light and the absence of wind to be able to photograph the falls. 

We woke up at four in the morning, dragged the kids out of bed, and drove to the opposite side of the island where the falls were located to capture the image before the sun and wind could ruin the opportunity. 

It was a two-lane road except at bridges where it narrowed into one lane, and there were a lot of bridges. Our kids named the road to the falls “The Land of One-Way Bridges.”

HAWAII FALLS ©1971 | Maui, Hawaii
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#waterfalls #clydebutcher #bnw_captures #monochromephoto #blackandwhitephoto #landscapephotographer #hawaii
    Clyde often shot up to 12x20” sheets of film. By Clyde often shot up to 12x20” sheets of film. By using such large film it enables the mural-sized prints he seeks to produce.

In the corner on the sheet, you can see we noted the size of a single frame of 35mm film.

This image was captured in the front pond at the @bigcypressgallery. But this did not result in a photograph that's available for us to show you.

The negative is defective. The film moved during exposure and so it is blurry in areas... thus unusable. 

Clyde has many other images from this scene which are viewable, including Big Cypress Gallery 2 © 1992, Big Cypress Gallery 12 © 1992, and Big Cypress Gallery 14 © 2000 are all showcasing the front pond.

📷 Video by Clyde’s apprentice and darkroom assistant, Paul @pbtilton.
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#ClydeButcher #📷 #🎞️ #35mm #35mmfilm #35mmphotography #35mmfilmphotography #bnw #bnwphotography #bnwphoto #bnwsouls #bnw_captures #fineart #landscapephotography #BigCypressGallery
    Clyde was totally consumed by the drama of this st Clyde was totally consumed by the drama of this storm, which moved in fast and low, so low that it seemed as though he could almost touch the clouds. As he stood in the water taking this photograph, he suddenly felt a stinging sensation on his legs. 

He looked down and saw they were completely covered with mosquitoes. That’s life in the Everglades!

LITTLE PAVILION KEY © 1989 | Ten Thousand Islands
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#evergladesnationalpark #findyourpark #explorida #clydebutcher #silvergelatin #darkroomprint #bnw_captures
    I had an urge to photograph, but the weather wasn’t cooperating. It was either sunny and windy, or overcast and windy. I decided I needed to go, and so we went in search of something to photograph. 

As we drove along Tamiami Trail we could see beautiful clouds forming in the east, so we headed in that direction. When we came to Airport Road, we headed down it and found some wonderful dwarf cypress trees with rolling clouds behind them. 

Just what I was looking for! Niki and I spent the afternoon photographing as the clouds rolled across South Florida.

AIRPORT ROAD 1 © 2014 | Big Cypress National Preserve
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#bigcypressnationalpreserve #bigcypress #evergladesnationalpark #findyourpark #clydebutcher #blackandwhitephotography #landscapephotographer #explorida
    Many people told us about a beautiful secret place Many people told us about a beautiful secret place in north Florida. the name of the place is a tongue twister: Chasshowitzka River. When we decided to do some photography along the northwest coast all we could remember was the name of the place had a “Z” in it. We eventually found the location, and true to the stories people had told us, it is a beautiful place.

We launched our pontoon boat near the freshwater spring and spent a week on the river photographing both the freshwater area and the brackish area. Seven Cabbage Cut is taken out in the wetlands at the mouth of the river. 

The photograph is unusual because it was taken from our boat. I saw the scene and knew it was what I wanted to photograph. We anchored the boat and I climbed over the edge, down into the saw grass, then immediately sunk into the muck up to my waist. 

Setting up the tripod in the muck would be impossible. With difficulty, I climbed out of the muck and got back into the boat to consider my predicament. I knew I wanted to photograph this scene, but how?

The solution to my problem was to put out four anchors, one at each corner of the boat. They helped stabilize the boat, although we did sway slightly with the current. I set up my 12-foot ladder, tripod, and camera on the bow of the boat. 

After getting my focus adjusted and my film in place, Niki went to the stern of the boat and watched for the moment the boat stopped swaying, at which time I took my photo. 

I took seven photos that way and only one negative was without movement.  It was amazing that I managed to get one good negative under those conditions.

SEVEN CABBAGE CUT © 1991 | Florida Gulf Coast
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#clydebutcher #darkroomprint #monochrome #bnw_captures #silvergelatin #blackandwhitephotographer
    Naples Botanical Garden – The Last Day by Niki B Naples Botanical Garden – The Last Day by Niki Butcher
 
Tears came to my eyes as we packed up and prepared to leave. The peace and joy of being in such a beautiful place is hard to describe. Oh, how wonderful it would be if we all cared for the earth as lovingly as Naples Botanical Garden staff cares for their property. 
 
Thanks to all of the folks who work at the Garden. Needless to say, this beautiful memory will last a lifetime. 

Thank you for following along on this journey remembering our time at the garden. If you'd like to see the rest of the photos, visit #ClydeandNikisAdventures . You can also visit naplesgardens.org to plan a visit of your own to the gardens.
    Galleries

    Venice Gallery & Studio

    237 Warfield Ave. S., Venice, FL, 34285
    (941) 486-0811   |   mail@clydebutcher.com
    Tuesday-Friday 10am-4:30pm

    Big Cypress Gallery

    52388 Tamiami Trail, Ochopee, FL, 34141
    (239) 695-2428   |   bcg@clydebutcher.com
    Open 7 Days A Week 10am-5pm
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