LOOSESCREW DEER BED © 2008

Big Cypress Gallery

This tree in our backyard has become known as the “deer bed” tree because we once found tufts of deer hair in the nook of the tree where a deer had curled up to sleep. I had tried to photograph this area several times, but the light was never good and I wasn’t satisfied with the image. Finally, after several years of trying, I was fortunate to be out in the swamp with my 5×7” view camera when the light was right. Resilient Trees of the Everglades Well into the dry season, when much of the water has receded, the pond apple trees’ large, gently twisting buttresses lay exposed, showing marks of the past high-water wet season. Their roots dig into a rich, black muck made of partially decomposed plant debris, often several feet thick, until they reach the limestone below. Where waters tend to be deeper and the cypress trees more widely scattered, pop ash and pond apple trees thrive. Loosescrew Deer Bed was taken with a Deardorff 5×7 camera on T-Max 100 film. This photograph is hand-printed in Clyde’s darkroom on fiber-based paper, selenium toned, then mounted and matted to current archival standards. The photograph is a limited edition and signed by Clyde. Camera settings: f/45 | 72mm Schneider Super-Angulon XL lens | 30 seconds Disclaimer – Cropping, contrast, and image density may vary. To learn more about the darkroom printing process, click here.