Estero Island - "The beaches of Florida are among some of the most beautiful in the world. Our heart-felt and economic appreciation of our beaches should necessitate our involvement in protecting their environment. PLEASE don’t let anyone put oil wells offshore of Florida. I am from Southern California where one has to take paint remover to the beach in order to remove the oil waste from soles of our feet. Let’s make sure that doesn’t happen to our beautiful Florida beaches." -Clyde Butcher

Gaskin Bay - "I had seen this old mangrove – which survived Hurricane Donna in the 1960s – several times while taking photographs in the Ten Thousand Islands. It expresses the lonely, primeval feeling that I love to experience in the wilderness. I had been stuck by the sculptural beauty of this mangrove before, but the light had not been right for me to take a photograph. Finally, one summer morning, everything came together and I was able to capture this image. Unfortunately, when Hurricane Andrew hit South Florida in 1992, this mangrove was destroyed." -Clyde Butcher

Ghost Orchid 1 - "When Mike Owen, biologist of the Fakahatchee Preserve, offered to take me out to see the elusive and rare Ghost Orchid, I jumped at the chance. When I mentioned it to my friend, Oscar Thompson, who was a sixth generation Floridian and had been an alligator poacher in Fakahatchee in his youth, he got very excited. In all the years he had been in Fakahatchee he had never seen the orchid. Oscar joined Mike and I as we headed off to see the orchid. This was my first experience with the rare ghost orchid and I was very lucky that the bloom was in perfect condition when we arrived. I took many photographs, as did Oscar. Mike was very patient with our excitement and spent time explaining the biology of the orchid while we photographed. For days afterwards, Oscar would phone me and exclaim with excitement, “I can’t believe we saw the ghost orchid!” -Clyde Butcher

Indian Key 5 - "Hurricane Andrew deposited a lot of dead trees onto the beaches of the Ten Thousand Islands in the Everglades National Park. By the time I went to photograph them, the trees had been bleached white by the sun, creating beautiful white pieces of sculpture, just waiting to be photographed!"-Clyde Butcher

St. Armands Gallery